What: Free talk and book signing
When: Tuesday, June 27, 5:30pm
Where: Aldrich House (110 Benevolent St., Providence)
Admission: Free; please register here
How did philanthropy become such an intrinsic part of the American ethos? In Grappling With Legacy: Rhode Island’s Brown Family and the American Philanthropic Impulse, Sylvia Brown has delved into one of the country’s largest family archives to understand what fuels a multigenerational compulsion to giving: Self-interest? A feeling of guilt? A sense of genuine altruism? Set against the distinctive backdrop of Rhode Island, the Brown family mirrors America’s evolving urge to do good while grappling with society’s toughest issues – slavery, immigration, child labor, the dispossessed – and their own internal family tensions.
Eldest of the 11th generation of Browns in Rhode Island, Sylvia Brown will explain why and how the modern notion of a university as a force for good was pioneered in Rhode Island, well before the famous philanthropists of the Gilded Age.
Space for this free event is limited – reserve your seats here.
