online: www.rihumanities.org email: info@rihumanities.org phone: 401-273-2250
Edward Bannister, perhaps the best-known African American artist of the Gilded Age, said of his wife: "I would have made out very poorly had it not been for her; my greatest successes have come through her, either through her criticisms of my pictures, or the advice she would give me in the matter of placing them in public." Christiana Bannister also supported him financially when he was learning his craft. A free black/Native American woman, South County born Christiana Babcock became a successful hairdresser in Providence and Boston. She was active in the abolition of slavery, and after her return to Rhode Island helped found the Home for Aged Colored Women, which became Bannister House. Although she died in poverty and lies in an unmarked grave, in 2002 her bust was unveiled in the RI State House.
Jane Lancaster is an award-winning teacher, researcher, and writer. She received a PhD from Brown University, writing a dissertation on the life of engineer Lillian Moller Gilbreth (the mother of twelve celebrated in Cheaper by the Dozen). Her work on Rhode Island women has been published in periodicals ranging from the Providence Journal to the Journal of American History.
Availability: is sometimes away during the summer months Needs: slide projector and screen; lighted lectern/water
Needs: slide projector and screen; lighted lectern/water