RIHS, PC???s Phillips Library Release Second Chapter of Free Online Textbook
???Rhode Island and the Industrial Revolution??? Now Available on EnCompass Website??
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (July 17, 2018) ??? The Rhode Island Historical Society and Providence College???s Phillips Memorial Library have released the second chapter of EnCompass, the free digital textbook of Rhode Island history.??
Chapter two, titled ???Rhode Island and the Industrial Revolution,??? features an essay by Gail Fowler Mohanty, senior lecturer at the Rhode Island School of Design, as well as primary sources from the RIHS collections. Geared mainly toward middle school and high school readers, but easily adaptable by teachers of lower grades, the chapter also includes essays on child labor, labor unions and strikes, and Rhode Island???s changing economy and social life.??
The first chapter, ???Roger Williams and the Founding of Rhode Island,??? was released in 2016 and revised in 2017. Forthcoming chapter subjects will include immigration in Rhode Island, Rhode Island???s early archaeology, and the African American struggle for Civil Rights in Rhode Island. The RIHS has hired an Education Outreach Manager, Samantha Hunter, who will take the lead on this project.??
???We are working to build this free and open resource to provide teachers and students of history an easily digestible way to find historical information and primary sources about our state, and allow them to connect major national themes with local examples,??? said Geralyn Ducady, director of the RIHS???s Newell D. Goff Center for Education and Public Programs.??
Both chapters are aligned with Rhode Island Grade Span Expectations for Social Studies. The EnCompass project, utilizing images of primary sources and artifacts, aims to provide teachers with free resources, content, and activities for their classrooms. EnCompass was launched with the help of a grant from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities. Visit EnCompass at http://library.providence.edu/encompass/
About the Rhode Island Historical Society
Founded in 1822, the RIHS, a Smithsonian Affiliate, is the fourth-oldest historical society in the United States and is Rhode Island???s largest and oldest historical organization. In Providence, the RIHS owns and operates the John Brown House Museum, a designated National Historic Landmark, built in 1788; the Aldrich House, built in 1822 and used for administration and public programs; and the Mary Elizabeth Robinson Research Center, where archival, book and image collections are housed. In Woonsocket, the RIHS manages the Museum of Work and Culture, a community museum examining the industrial history of northern Rhode Island and of the workers and settlers, especially French-Canadians, who made it one of the state???s most distinctive areas.