Peace Dale Museum of Art & Culture

11/16/2025

Join us for another fascinating lecture of our Evening Programs Series.

Narragansett's Gilded Age

Thursday, November 20 at 7:00 p.m.

in the Museum Gallery

Between the end of the Civil War and the early 20th century, Narragansett Pier was the place to be—and to be seen—if you were wealthy and fashionable. At its height, the Pier rivaled Newport as a summer resort that attracted thousands of vacationers from throughout the country.

On Thursday, November 20, Jim Crothers will be in our Museum Gallery to tell us about Narragansett’s Gilded Age. A former high school teacher and college instructor, Jim retired in 2020 after fourteen years as director of South County Museum.

Please join us in person or watch the program live-streamed on the Museum's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iImlacV6cM

09/18/2025

09/18/2025

Want to know more about what's going on this Fall at the Museum? Check out our Fall newsletter!

09/18/2025

This Fall we have a wonderful lineup of evening lectures! Join us in our gallery or live stream on our YouTube channel!

EVENING PROGRAMS FALL Programs Read the Museum’s Fall Newsletter for more details on our exciting Programs Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery Thursday October 30, 2025 7:00 P.M. , Professor Seth Rockman, Presenter Plantation Goods: A Material History of American Slavery, is a...

04/24/2025

JOIN US TONIGHT!
Conflict Archaeology: and the Battle of Rhode Island

Thursday April 24, 2025 7:00 P.M. , Joseph P. Waller, Presenter

In August of 1778, British troops had been in control of Newport and the rest of Aquidneck Island for nineteen months. The Rhode Island Campaign, the first joint French and American campaign of the Revolutionary War, was aimed at taking back the island.
Butts Hill Fort, the American command center during the battle and the largest Revolutionary War earthwork in southern New England, is on the National Register of Historic Places and is maintained by the nonprofit Battle of Rhode Island Association (BoRIA). But many locations in Portsmouth where fighting took place have never been studied.
In 2022, a group of volunteers began preliminary archaeological investigations at two privately-owned properties in Portsmouth. The battle-related items discovered during four days of metal detecting include a British coin, musket balls, a coat button, knee buckles, and shoe buckles.

Jay Waller, a Senior Archaeologist and Principal Investigator at The Public Archaeologist Laboratory, Inc., was one of the volunteers who investigated the two Portsmouth properties. On Thursday, April 24, Jay will be in our Museum Gallery to talk about what has been discovered, why it’s important, and what may yet be found.
Watch live on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/

03/16/2025

Roger Williams— his name is everywhere in Rhode Island. But how much do we really know about him? Charlotte Carrington-Farmer, Professor of History at Roger Williams University, believes that one way to understand Roger Williams and the complexity of his life is to read documents created during his lifetime.

Professor Carrington-Farmer’s new book, Roger Williams and His World: A History in Documents, reproduces forty documents that illuminate Williams’s world, his beliefs, and his interactions with others. She explains each document in the context of William’s life and times by defining 17th century words and concepts, and she invites us to read the original text and decide for ourselves what it tells us about Williams.

Please join us on Thursday, April 3 at 7:00 p.m., Professor Carrington-Farmer will be in our Museum Gallery to talk about Roger Williams’s personal, political, and spiritual worlds and how the documents in her new book help us understand them.

10/21/2024

Tales Both Tall and True

Thursday Oct. 24th 7:00 pm

Stories about strange or unexplained occurrences often appeared in 19th century New England newspapers, sometimes tailored for a reading public eager for stories of the supernatural. Such stories were reprinted and expanded upon by other newspapers, and in at least one case, serialized so that the story took on a life of its own, with bizarre episode after bizarre episode being added to the original tale. Mr. Geake will explore the fascination early New Englanders had with death and the afterlife, and reveal which astonishing tales were true and which were fictionalized for an enthralled reading public. Mr. Geake is the author of fourteen books about Rhode Island and New England history. He served two terms as president of the Cocumscussoc Association, which maintains Smith’s Castle in North Kingstown, and serves on the advisory board of the Rhode Island Slave History Medallion project. The program will take place in our Museum Gallery and will be livestreamed on our YouTube channel. Watch Live Stream on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/live/9apv7E6i0Mg

10/10/2024

What a great Gala we had this year! Best attendance ever and so many interesting items for Tom to appraise. Thank you Flora Fan for the great article in the Independent last week! Check out the article here!

The Peace Dale Museum of Art and Culture’s annual “Trash or Treasure” gala returned to the Dunes Club in Narragansett on Sunday, bringing together an eclectic mix of locals and

08/08/2024

Check out the great article about our museum in the July Issue of Hey Rhody!
https://peacedalemuseum.org/2024/08/08/pdmac-in-hey-rhody-july-issue-check-it-out/

06/26/2024

SAVE THE DATE
The Trustees of the Peace Dale Museum of Art and Culture proudly invite you to join us for our annual “Trash or Treasure” Fundraiser!

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Come join us for a fun and informative afternoon at The Dunes Club, Narragansett, RI
Don't know whether your piece is trash or treasure? Let professional appraiser Tom Tomaszek tell you!

Cocktails and open forum appraisals at 4:00 p.m.
Buffet supper at 6:00 p.m.
Tickets $100 each- view our flyer for additional information
https://peacedalemuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/2024-PDMAC-Trash-or-Treasure_flyer_6.20.24.pdf

05/08/2024

Thursday, May 16, 2024 7:00 P.M Mark Kenneth Gardner, Presenter
Free and open to the public! Join us at the museum or watch the lecture live on our YouTube channel!
https://www.youtube.com/

Old mills are an essential element in southern New England’s historic landscape. Water provided the power for 18th century grist mills and 19th century textile mills, so those mills, and the communities that grew around them, were located on rivers.

Learn about some of local mill villages that have been lost, and some that have persevered in South County’s post-industrial but still largely rural landscape.

04/25/2024

Our Spring Lecture Series Continues-Please join us!
The Wangunk: A little-known but historically important Connecticut tribe

For more than two decades, archaeologist and ethnohistorian Timothy H. Ives has studied the Wangunk, a little-known but historically important central Connecticut Native American tribe.
On Thursday, May 2, Dr. Ives will return to our Museum Gallery to tell us about his latest research into the tribe’s history and its relations with European settlers. View the lecture live on our Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/