Rhode Tour is a free mobile app and website that tells stories by and about Rhode Islanders. A joint initiative of Rhode Island Humanities and the Rhode Island Historical Society, Rhode Tour brings mapping technology, sound, images, videos and well-told stories together to engage us in learning about the places we live, work, visit—or perhaps simply pass by—in Rhode Island.
With 38 tours and over 360 stories now available, Rhode Tour has been developed with statewide heritage and cultural producers as a premiere source for locally produced, place-based history tours that represent the flavor and diversity of Rhode Island. In telling Rhode Island stories, Rhode Tour is about the power of place, including archeology, the environment, race and ethnicity, manufacturing, and social issues.
Visit www.rhodetour.org to take a thematic tour sitting at your computer, or download the app for free from the Apple Store or Google Play to experience Rhode Island in a whole new way.
Note: Brown University’s former John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities was integral founding partner and we gratefully acknowledge the dedication of Ron Potvin and many students of the Public Humanities program for their contributions to Rhode Tour over the years.
RHODE TOUR AS A TOOL FOR CONNECTION:
Free statewide digital humanities app and website enhanced through nationwide United We Stand initiative.
Free statewide digital humanities app and website enhanced through nationwide United We Stand initiative.Rhode Island Humanities has launched two new Rhode Tours focused on belonging and community.
RI Humanities staff collaborated with Community Content Partners to create a new tour, “LGBTQIA+ Histories in Rhode Island,” and curated another tour from existing content, “Creating Home in Rhode Island,” on the ways diverse communities have found refuge, created home, and built legacies that span generations in the Ocean State. These tours deepen public understanding of complex community, state, and national histories. Through the tours, users are introduced to myriad ways that historically and currently marginalized communities demonstrate resilience—and indeed, joy—in the face of hate. In the process, these communities have helped to disarm misunderstanding through the preservation of cultural practices and the insistence on creating safe spaces in often unique ways.
Our sincere thanks to our three Community Content Partners: Janaya Kizzie, Selene Means, and Mev Miller; Matthew Lawrence and Jason Tranchida for their thoughtful and thorough review of the tour, and Casandra Inez, United We Stand Engagement Coordinator for her dedication to the initiative. Thanks also to Alissa Bateman, Faith Carbon, Geralyn Ducady, and Kathryn Farrington for their time advising on the initiative’s connections to the education and tourism sectors.
Development of these tours was supported by “United We Stand: Connecting Through Culture,” a nationwide initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities focused on combating hate-motivated violence.
Featured: West Side of Providence Rhode Tour
Learn about two of the 23 stops on the West Side of Providence Rhode Tour:
Bell Street Chapel and the Kendrick-Prentice Tirocchi House (a.k.a. Wedding Cake House). Featuring West Side of Providence Rhode Tour curator Taylor M. Polites; Bell Street Chapel co-President Kate Gillis, and the founders of the Dirt Palace Xander Marro and Pippi Zornoza.
