The Museum of Work & Culture, a division of the Rhode Island Historical Society, will offer free admission to veterans on Saturday, November 11 in honor of Veterans Day.
The Museum will also be screening an exclusive preview of a new episode of the documentary Slatersville: America’s First Mill Village at 1:30 pm. Visitors will be invited to view a special one time only work-in-progress preview of “The War Years,” Episode 7 of Slatersville directed by Christian de Rezendes. Registration is required and seats are limited. Guests can register here.
December, 1941. America responds to Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor by entering World War II. Like all mill villages across the Blackstone Valley, the Slatersville Mill, a division of the Kendall Company, shifts 100% of their manufacturing to meet the demands of the U.S. military. As the village becomes “manless,” its youth escape through life on the reservoir in camping, skating and the love of hockey, before they too would grow old enough to enter the war themselves. The origins of the North Smithfield VFW are explored as the stories of four men killed in battle are forever honored, and the letters written home by a young Navyman are preserved and voiced as the brutal war comes to a victorious but costly end.