December 2009
Dear Sakonnet Area Artist,
On behalf of the Exhibit Committee, I am pleased to invite you to participate in the 2010 Special Exhibition of the Little Compton Historical Society. The exhibition will focus on the early history of Little Compton from 1600-1820 and will celebrate the release of noted author Janet Lisle’s book titled The History of Little Compton, Part 1.
We are asking local artists to interpret a moment in Little Compton’s early history in the medium of their choice. A wide variety of media is welcome, including but not limited to paintings, photographs, fine handicrafts and sculpture. We will display these works in our 2010 special exhibition from July to October 2010. The exhibition will open on the Fourth of July weekend with an exhibit preview party and a Family Day Celebration. Each work will be for sale throughout the exhibition with 50% of the purchase price going to the artist and 50% benefiting the Historical Society. A variety of works from the exhibition will also be selected in the spring to illustrate Ms. Lisle’s book.
We hope that you will participate.
If you are interested, please choose one of the historical moments listed on the attached sheet and contact us to confirm that the subject is still available. Topics will be assigned first-come-first-served. Once your topic is confirmed, you may research it and interpret it in your own way, interpreting it in the medium of your choice. The Historical Society will be happy to assist you in your research and will provide you with access to Ms. Lisle’s manuscript to help you put your historical moment in context.
To confirm your participation, select your topic, or for more information, please call or write: Marjory O’Toole at 401-635-4035 (or 2625) or and/or Dora Atwater Millikin at 508-636-2280 or .
Sincerely,
Dora
Dora Atwater Millikin
LCHS Board of Directors
History of Little Compton Exhibit Committee
Artists’ Invitation
2010 Special Exhibition
The Little Compton Historical Society
Calendar
April 1, 2010 Artwork delivered to the Little Compton Historical Society 548 West Main Road, Little Compton.
July 3, 2010 Exhibit Preview Party – Tentative Date
July 4, 2010 Family Day Celebration – Tentative Date
July 3 – October 11, 2010 Exhibition Dates
November 3, 2010 Pick-Up of Artwork
Artists – Unsold Works
Purchasers – Sold Works
Works Eligible
Original works only. Paintings in all media; hand-made prints; works in mixed media; drawings; collages; sculptures in all media; photographs and fine handicrafts are eligible. No computer generated work. Due to space limitations, maximum frame width or height and any dimension in 3-D art cannot exceed 36”. It is our intention to include every work submitted in the exhibition. If we have an overwhelming response, we may need to exclude or relocate works for lack of space. All works will be considered by a three member jury for use as illustrations in Janet Lisle’s upcoming book, ‘The History of Little Compton.’
Procedure
Artists will sign up on a first-come-first-served basis for a topic from the list given and will interpret and illustrate their subject in their own way. Creative interpretations are welcome. Depending on the number of participants, more than one artist may interpret the same topic. To select your topic call Marjory O’Toole at 401-635-4035.
Requirements
Framed works must be ready to hang, with firm frames, sturdy screw eyes and strong wire. Only white matting under glass will be permitted. Two dimensional pieces, like quilts or rugs must also be ready for hanging. Pedestals will be supplied for 3-D works.
Sales
Works must be for sale and prices provided by the artist need to reflect a 50% commission taken by the Little Compton Historical Society. All sold works will remain as part of the exhibition until October 11.
Liability
All reasonable care will be taken with the artwork. Entrants are required to hold blameless the Little Compton Historical Society, their agents, representatives, volunteers or employees for any claim arising from damage to, or loss of, artworks. Artists are advised to insure their own artwork.
Publicity
All entered artwork may be digitally photographed by the Little Compton Historical Society. All digital images of the artwork become the property of the LCHS and may be used for the purpose of publicity for the exhibition, the Historical Society, and the book tentatively titled “The History of Little Compton.” Images may also be used as illustrations in “The History of Little Compton” and future LCHS publications. Artists will be credited for their work.
Artist’s Statement
Each artist must submit biographical information as well as an Artist’s Statement describing your intent and process in creating this particular project. A form will be provided. Information is due on April 1.
Agreement with Terms and Conditions
Your entry into this exhibition constitutes agreement with the above terms and conditions. Work that does not conform to the above guidelines cannot be included.
Please direct all questions to:
Dora Atwater Millikin or Marjory O’Toole at 401-635-4035 or
Delivery of work to Exhibition Site:
No later than Thursday, April 1, 2010, 9 AM to 3 PM
or by appointment prior to that date.
Removal of Work from Exhibition Site:
Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010 9 AM to 3 PM or by appointment after that date.
Moments in The History of Little Compton
1660-1815
Artists are invited to select a moment in history and interpret it in the media of their choice. Creative interpretations are welcome as are the suggestions of new or different historic moments. All artists must reserve their subject by calling Marjory at the Little Compton Historical Society 401-635-4035 or 2625. Reservations will be made first-come-first-served. If there is a larger than expected response, more than one artist may interpret the same subject.
1. Landscape of Sakonnet Indians fishing off a Sakonnet beach (could be Warren's, Lloyds, Goosewing etc.), their beach-side camp visible behind. Summer.
2 Landscape of Awashonks' village as it might have looked on its "gravel rise" at the edge of Briggs marsh just north of Wilbur's Woods. Winter.
3. Sakonnet braves loyal to Awashonks intercept Mamanuah in Sakonnet woods and "violently" bind him as he attempts to hand over their lands to the Little Compton proprietors.(March, 1674)
4. Benjamin Church rides down the Sakonnet neck on his first survey of Sakonnet lands with Capt. John Almy. (spring, 1674) Could be a landscape of the Sakonnet neck, from Windmill Hill looking south.
5. King Philip-Metacom's warriors visit Awashonks in her camp to drum up support for war against the white settlers. Ben Church is there at her "great dance" trying to dissuade her from joining Philip. (June 1675)
6. Landscape of the famous peas field on Puncatest Neck, Sakonnet River in the background. This is the scene of a skirmish (July, 1675) between Church's militia and Indians, some of whom were Sakonnets. Could show Church's hat and cutlass "left at the well" by mistake. He goes back to get them dodging bullets. (See B. Church's account in his Diary) The field is located on the present day Duncan Merriman property. Access could be negotiated.
7. Sakonnet Indians, ragtag, starved and much reduced in numbers, make their way back to Sakonnet neck led by Awashonks after the brutal winter of 1675-6, during which many in the tribe had died at Wachusett Mountain, in MA.
8. Depiction of Sakonnet Indians after King Philip's war showing their skill at building stone walls.
9. Landscape of Lloyd's beach depicting the granite outcropping at the end: the Indian story of the Giant Maushop's wife, who was changed to stone by the great god Cantatowitt, is reflected in the shape of the rocks... (This was probably part of the outcropping called "Watch Rock" by settlers.)
10. Depiction of early Sakonnet settlers historic meeting to form an official township in July 1682. (NOT at the Commons; at a private residence probably on West Main Road.)
11. An early Little Compton homestead scene, based on the Samuel Wilbur House, around 1700. Farmhouse faces south, surrounded by fields going down to the Sakonnet River. Cows and chickens, etc. (This is the present day home of the Little Compton Historical Society.)
12. Almy's tax revolt. Massachusetts troops called out by the colony governor surround Daniel Wilcox's house on Puncatest Neck, then part of Little Compton. (1692) The insurgents, hanging out the upper story windows, refuse to come out.
13. Depiction of the town's Meeting House, 1693-94, the first public building on the Commons. Early drawings available.
14. John and Mary (Church) Wood lose six of their seven children to "a very fatal sickness of putrid sore throat which carried away many people in the town." [Sarah Soule Wilbour] March 1712. They are buried in four small graves still visible at the Commons.
15. Taggart's Ferry. April 2, 1714. John Searles, son of L.C. teacher Nathaniel Searles, is drowned when the ferry boat from Middletown to Taylor's Lane hits a rock during the crossing. A black servant also drowns. The horses swim safely to shore.
16. Peaked Top schoolhouse, interior or exterior, Little Compton schoolchildren being instructed. They are a variety of ages. (1724)
17. The Commons, pictured as it might have looked around 1740. Blacksmith shop; tannery, village store; rustic (unpainted) Congo church facing south (it had been built in 1723), rutted lanes; old burial ground not full yet; the "pound", where wandering livestock were held temporarily. Etc.
18. Little Compton women making their own cloth, sewing their own clothes, making candles, etc. during the “period of austerity” leading up to the Revolution. The town was protesting British taxes on imported goods by boycotting them and making their own. [BFW p 53 ff]
19. After Little Compton's Thomas Church agrees to raise the first Rhode Island regiment in Newport County (May 3, 1775), Capt. Thomas Brownell recruits a company of twenty-four local men. They drill on a field south of the Commons.
20. Oct. 1777, Patriot spy Isaac Barker, a Middletown farmer, uses fence posts to relay intelligence on British troop movements across the river to Lt. Seth Chapin of the American forces in Little Compton. Chapin is stationed, with a high-powered spy glass near a coastal block house located near the old Amasa Gray house, the present day Duffield residence. (Could be a landscape of the view across Sakonnet River to occupied territory.)
21. Oct. 1778. British warship Kingfisher is cannoned by Little Compton militia men off Fogland Point. Ship explodes. (See story by P.F. Little) Ship's cat floats ashore on a piece of debris, "singed" but unharmed. (It lives for many years.)
22. 1779 Judge William Taggart's teenage son is murdered by a band of Tory thugs sent by boat from Newport. The killers land at night at Sakonnet Point and bayonet the boy after he is wounded by a rifle shot. The British-supported marauders were out to kidnap and kill Judge Taggart, a former resident of Middletown, for aiding the Patriot cause.
23. 1786. Because there are few books in Little Compton, and little opportunity of learning what is happening in the larger world, "a club is formed to meet once a month for mutual improvement intellectually, religiously, and morally." (Sarah Soule Wilbour diary, BFW, p 229) Original papers are read, writings by members are then "sewn together"{published}. Prominent members are Nathaniel Southworth, his sister Mary (afterwards the wife of Judge William Wilbor), Daniel Wilbor, Philip Wilbor and their sisters, Lydia, Sarah and Mary, William Wilbor and Thomas Burgess.
24. Isaac Wilbor, soon to serve as R.I. governor, presides as moderator over political fracas at town hall. (May, 1802) Disgruntled town clerk Ben Tompkins, who has just lost re-election, grabs the town records, leaps out a window and takes refuge in the Congregational church. (See Gov. Isaac Wilbour profile in Profiles in History, LCHS publication.)
25. The famous incident in which Gov. Isaac Wilbor intercedes on horseback at Tiverton Four Corners as a woman tied to a whipping post is about to be flogged. Never again would a Rhode Island woman be sentenced to public flogging.
26. Primus Collins, an African American landowner and former Little Compton slave, casts his vote in an election despite the objections of many of his white neighbors.
27. War of 1812. Rapacious British soldiers come ashore to steal livestock and kidnap residents. (Sarah Soule Wilbor, then age nine, recalls incidents in BFW.)
28. The Nimrod Incident. July, 1813, as reported in the Newport Mercury. A "spirited militia of Little Compton" fires with guns and canons on a British ship that is chasing an American sloop carrying flour and corn just south of Fogland Ferry: "Edward Woodman, then a man advanced in years, stood up in full sight of the enemy, boldly firing from his gun and accompanying each shot with an oath." [Sarah Soule Wilbor.]
29. The Hurricane of 1815 causes widespread destruction throughout the area. House roofs torn off, trees uprooted, chickens fly through the air, boats and ferry landings are destroyed, huge violent waves crash on Little Compton shores sending spray far inland. ETC. This hurricane may have been stronger than that of 1938.