Rhode Island Hall: Architecture and Memory

by Elise Nuding

Introduction

In Spring 2008 I undertook an Independent Study Project, ‘An Archaeology of Rhode Island Hall’, in the wake of the building’s impending renovation. I investigated the materiality of the building, looking at how it had changed over time, and what effects these changes had. One aim was to produce an online archive for the building (in the form of the ubiquitous wiki); another was to experiment with the idea of archaeology of the present (an oxymoron by definition), and a focus of my work was how the building was used in Spring 2008, and how the building’s history played into that usage. I decided to take the opportunity of this assignment to follow up on some aspects that I did not pursue as fully as I would have liked to last year.

Spring 2009- With the interior of the building completely removed, and renovations for the new Joukowsky Institute well underway, there is no remaining record of the building's materiality. The archival materials in various locations around Brown University, and the online archive of the wiki, can only go so far in acting as a record of the building as it was. They represent the official documentation of the building, with photographs, and architectural records created intentionally to document various stages of the building's history over the past 169 years. This project intends to address the unofficial record of the building's history, that is, what memories people hold of RI Hall. How did the building stand out in the memory of Brown students, faculty, and employees? And how did these perceptions change as the building changed? With the tangible, material, record of the building removed, I am pursuing the intangible record of RI Hall; the memories of people who interacted with the building.

Section One

I interviewed students, faculty, and alumnae, with a focus on the Department of Geological Sciences, who were based in RI Hall from around 1915 until 1982. This primary research, a form of oral history now documented on the wiki is the first section of the project: http://brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/about/rihall/6862

Section Two

The second section draws the information together and provides some thoughts on the role of materiality in the formation of memory with regard to RI Hall: http://brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/about/rihall/6861

I am also including the link to the homepage of my wiki for all the work on RI Hall. The Memory section might make more sense in the context of the primary fieldwork and research from last year: http://brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/about/rihall.

Assignment 1: Memorials, monuments and sites of memory in Providence

Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology