While visiting Providence for the 2026 AASLH-NCPH Annual Conference, attendees have a unique way to explore the history of the Creative Capital.
Rhode Tour is a statewide mobile historical smartphone application developed as a joint initiative of Rhode Island Humanities and the Rhode Island Historical Society. Captivating places, intriguing people, and exciting events fill Rhode Island’s history. Rhode Tour offers a new way to interact with these untold tales of the state’s past. Using stories, sounds, and images, history comes alive on Rhode Tour.
Rhode Tour brings mapping technology, sound, images, videos, and well-told stories together in locally produced, place-based history tours that represent the flavor and diversity of Rhode Island. Rhode Tour includes 40 tours and 380 stories statewide, with many featuring Providence’s social history, archaeology and architecture, culture and food, industrial heritage, and environmental dimensions.
You can explore Providence on your own or with friends through tours on the app with topics such as The First Peoples of Rhode Island, East Side of Providence, West Side of Providence, Downtown Providence, “Places Please!”: Performing Arts History, Downtown Providence from 1870-2020, Jewish Rhode Island, and Rhode Island’s Black Heritage.
If you would like more of a group experience, bundle exercise and historical curiosity by signing up for the Rhode Tour Run as part of the conference. Run leaders will take you on a 2.75-mile loop and highlight famed Providence locations and lore. Preregistration is required for the tour which is on Thursday, September 17 at 7 am.
Image from the Rhode Tour Run at the National Humanities Conference in Providence in 2024
This resource is free. Go to www.rhodetour.org and/or download the Rhode Tour app from the Apple Store or Google Play to see the local history all around Providence!
