Portsmouth Asylum   
1833-1926
This wonderful project ( a work-in-progress) has been created by the employees of Raytheon Company in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Click on their logo to the right to read more about them.
                                                      PHL

See other projects by REWHC
e-mail their webmaster@rewhc.org 
The PORTSMOUTH ASYLUM link will take you to the beginning of this story on an excellent website which is very responsive to the planning, physical work on the location, and on-going historical research  they are doing. For that reason, the website is constantly changing.
We recommend that if this project captures your interest ... you should bookmark it so you can return often to see what new developments are being shared. The long list of links to the right 
(on the page to which our link will take you) will lead you to many historical documents of interest to not only RI researchers but all students of poorhouse history.

Some of those include:

The  1832 Act -- Establishing the Asylum

The 1838 --  "Rules & Regulations"

The 1851 Statewide Investigative Report
(documenting abuses & making recommendations for needed laws)

Excerpts from Local Records
(i.e. inventories, production reports, etc.)

plus ...

Many tidbits of information which will make  day-to-day life in the poorhouse seem real!

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