"Let us build a home for such children" - Stories of the State Home and School
ESTABLISHED AT RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE IN 2002, the committee members of the State Home and School Project and its companion Oral History Project have collected interviews from over thirty former residents, workers, and volunteers of the State Home and School. The CD features only the voices of some of these individuals. Interviews were conducted in the homes of the participants, many in the company of spouses and children. Some were collected over the phone. All were taken in environments where the story could be told in a comfortable setting.
Teacher Resources
A collection of articles from The Providence Journal.
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- Articles indexed by Providence Library from the Providence Journal and Evening Bulletin. These pertain to the O'Rourke Children's Center.
- Article indexed by Providence Library from the Providence Journal and Bulletin. These pertain to the State Home and School.
- Excerpts from Annual and Special Reports submitted by the Superintendent of the State Home and School, various committees and state agencies. Reports from 1888 to 1939. Original reports can be found in State Archives, university collections and in state agencies.
- Chart of State Home and School attendance from 1885 to 1979.
Oral History Resource Forms
Protocols used by the State Home and School Oral History Project
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The State Home and School Oral History Project has collected over thirty interviews with former residents, staff and volunteers familiar with the State Home and School, later known as the Patrick I. O'Rourke Children's Center. These interviews will be preserved in a special collection that will remain at Rhode Island College.
Members of the Oral History Project have created protocols that govern their work. These include forms and procedures that regulate the processes by which individuals are interviewed, the way in which interviews are conducted, and the processes by which transcripts are prepared and approved by the interviewees before deposited in the archives. Procedures are also in place to regulate access to the written transcripts and audio and videotapes.
The documents found here can be used as templates for oral history projects. These include:
- Disposition Form
- Interview Protocol for Residents
- Interview Protocol for Staff
- Template for Tracking Interviews
CD Transcript
"Let us build a home for such children, and let this home be so situated and so managed that it shall entirely remove its inmates from all degrading and disreputable circumstances; and let us adopt therein every possible method to train them into good citizenship...In each cottage, I would place a good woman and a certain number of children and this should be their home."
-Elizabeth Buffam Chase
Audio Samples from "Stories from the State Home and School"
To learn more about the project contact Patricia Nolin, Special Assistant to the President, call (401) 456-9854, or email pnolin@ric.edu.
To contribute to the oral history project contact Diane Martell at dmartell@ric.edu (email) or 401-456-8628 (phone).
