Treasures Inside the Museum

This show features the Fort Rodman/Fort Taber Military Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where they honor and celebrate military history through the eyes of local veterans. The program also visits the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum in Jamestown, Rhode Island.

The New England Wireless and Steam Museum in East Greenwich, RI, has numerous working steam engines that powered local industries, including a generator that once powered University of Rhode Island. There is also a complete and working wireless communications collection, including the Massie Station, once used by the Providence Journal to send news back and forth from Point Judith to Block Island.

This program takes viewers through the South County Museum in Narragansett, RI, a living museum that chronicles life in rural Rhode Island. It includes a working print shop and blacksmith shop. There is a collection of horse-drawn carriages, textile samples from different eras, and living examples of the Rhode Island state bird, the Rhode Island Red, an American breed of domestic chicken.

The Varnum Military Museum in East Greenwich is home to an extensive collection of rare military pieces dating back to the earliest days of the American Revolution. There is also a look at delicate textile conservation. A visit to the Carpenter Museum in Rehoboth, MA, includes cooking period food on an open hearth and celebrating the Rehoboth Milkmaids, an all-women’s soft women’s softball team.

This is an extensive look inside Rough Point, one of Newport’s grand mansions and home of heiress Doris Duke. From the finely manicured grounds to a collection of Asian pottery and paintings, each treasure from the family collection tells a story of how life was lived on the other side of the garden walls.