Secrets of Providence

Urban Studies Bus Tour 6

April 22, 2016 with Dietrich Neumann 1 Enid Yandell, Bajnotti Fountain, Burnside Park, Providence RI, 1901 Enid Yandell (1870 –1934) was an American sculptor who studied with and Frederick William MacMonnies. She completed degrees in chemistry and art at Hampton College and attended the Cincinnati Art Academy, where she completed a four-year program in two years, winning a first-prize medal upon graduation in 1889. Yandell apprenticeships with noted sculptors , andKarl Bitter. In 1894, Yandell went to , where she studied with Frederick William MacMonnies and other instructors at the Académie Vitti in Montparnasse. Yandell also worked with Auguste Rodin. She returned to Paris frequently, maintaining a studio there and exhibiting at the Paris Salon. In 1898 Yandell became the first woman member to join the National Sculpture Society. In Yandell died on June 13, 1934, in , Massachusetts, and is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky, Section O, Lot 396. Enid Yandell's sculpture the "Struggle of life" was commissioned by Italian diplomat Paul Bajnotti, of Turin, Italy, in memory of his wife Carrie Brown. Dedicated in 1899, the Carrie Brown Memorial (also referred to as the Bajnotti Fountain) is located in Burnside Park in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. Yandell described the sculpture as representing "the attempt of the immortal soul within us to free itself from the handicaps and entanglements of its 2 earthly environments." Founded in 1909 in Providence, RI, The Players at Barker Playhouse is America’s oldest continuously running little theatre.The present building is the second structure for this site. The first was a stucco house built in the mid 1700s and that building was purchased in 1840 and torn down to make way for the original St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. The 1840 building (the original St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church) is built from rubble stone, covered with cement, in a simple and severe Greek Revival style; the original spire was later removed. In 1862, the congregation moved to its current location on George Street and the building was used by the RI Episcopal Convention for its missionary work. In 1932, The Barker Foundation bought the building and the first production by The Players was performed on November 7, 1932.

Barker’s Playhouse, since 1932 in the former St. Stevens Tombstone for Pardon Tillinghast 3 Episcopal Church on Benefit Street. (1622-1718) Edward Mitchell Bannister (ca. 1828 – January 9, 1901) was a Black Canadian- American painter. His style and predominantly pastoral subject matter were drawn from his admiration for Millet and the French Barbizon School. Bannister was born in Andrews, New Brunswick and moved to New England in the late 1840s, where he remained for the rest of his life. While Bannister was well known in the artistic community of his adopted home of Providence, RI and admired within the wider East Coast art world (he won a bronze medal for his large oil "Under the Oaks" at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial), he was largely forgotten for almost a century for a complexity of reasons, principally connected with racial prejudice. With the ascendency of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1970s, his work was again celebrated and collected. In 1978, Rhode Island College dedicated its Art Gallery in Bannister's name with the exhibition: "Four From Providence ~ Alston, Bannister, Jennings & Prophet". Although primarily known for his idealised landscapes and seascapes, Bannister also executed portraits, biblical and mythological scenes, and genre scenes. Bannister died of a heart attack in 1901 while attending a prayer meeting at4 his church, Elmwood Avenue Free Baptist Church. He is buried in the North Buriel Ground in Providence.

Edward Bannister House, 93 Benevolent Street, Providence, RI. (before and after 1941) 5 Thanks to Prof. Robert Emlen, University Curator 6 Thanks to Prof. Robert Emlen, University Curator ‘Gaspee Affair’ – June 9, 1772 Boston Tea Party, December 16, 1773 Sabin’s Tavern on South Main Street, before 1891 10 11

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