Inductees in Explorers & Adventurers

James Allen (1824-1897)
Inducted in 2006

James Allen (1824-1897) a native of Barrington, became the pioneer American balloonist when he made the first of over 150 ascensions in 1856. The “Zephyrus,” the first of his fifteen balloons, rose three-and-a-quarter miles over Providence from a vacant lot at the present site of City Hall.

When the Civil War began, Allen and his brother Ezra enlisted with the Union army as observers, becoming the first American military balloonists. They provided intelligence to ground forces at such encounters as Yorktown, Chancellorsville, Malvern Hill (for which James named his youngest son) and Fair Oaks. Read more >
Dr. Robert D. Ballard (1942-)
Inducted in 2010

Best known for his 1985 discovery of the Titanic, Dr. Robert Ballard has succeeded in tracking down numerous other significant shipwrecks, including the Lusitania, the German battleship Bismarck, the lost fleet of Guadalcanal, the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown (sunk in the World War II Battle of Midway), and John F. Read more >
Billie Ann Burrill (1921-2010)
Inducted in 2013

World-class master’s athlete, coach, sports administrator, and indefatigable worker for the performing arts in Rhode Island, Billie Ann Burrill’s talents have known no bounds. While she was director of the Health and Physical Education Department at Rhode Island College, her drive and enthusiasm enabled the school’s Performing Arts Series to become the finest in the state.
Burrill was born in Joliet, Illinois on March 11, 1921. She served in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) during World War II. Read more >
Giovanni DaVerrazzano (1485-1528)
Inducted in 1997

Mr. DaVerrazzano was an Italian explorer and navigator who sailed in service of France. In 1524 he crossed the Atlantic and explored Narragansett Bay. He gave Rhode Island its name. Read more >
John DeWolf, II (1779-1872)
Inducted in 1967

Mr. DeWolf, of the noted Bristol family, also known as "Norwest John", was a mariner who left Bristol aboard the "Juno" on August 13, 1804, before rounding Cape Horn and sailing northward to Sitka, Alaska. There, he exchanged the "Juno" for a Russian ship and sent his crew on that vessel to China. He then crossed Siberia to St. Read more >
Captain Robert Gray (1755-1806)
Inducted in 1967

Captain Gray was a sea captain and explorer. The Tiverton native commanded the "Columbia" from 1789 to 1793, a vessel on which he became the first American to circumnavigate the globe in 1789. Shortly after this feat he set sail again from his home port of Boston to the Oregon Country, and on this voyage he explored the mouth of the great river of that region and named it for his ship. This 1792 visitation established an American claim to the Pacific Northwest. Read more >
Sam Patch (1799-1829)
Inducted in 2012

Sam Patch (1799 - November 13, 1829) was born in North Reading, Massachusetts, one of six children produced by the stormy union of Samuel Greenleaf Patch and Abigail McIntire Patch.

Following several family moves to northeastern Massachusetts towns, the Patches arrived in the mill village of Pawtucket at the falls of the Blackstone in 1807. Shortly after their arrival Sam began work in Slater’s “White Mill,” where he rose to the coveted position of mule spinner--one of the first American-born workers to achieve this status. Sam’s fame, however, would be made not in the mill but at the falls outside it: he eventually leapt feet-first from the six-story “Stone Mill” into a deep hole called “the pot,”a descent of 100 feet. Read more >
Annie Smith Peck (1850-1935)
Inducted in 2009

Annie Smith Peck was born on October 19, 1850 in a two story house at 865 North Main Street in Providence. She lived with her parents and three brothers in a home that her grandfather had built. Her mother traced the family's roots to Roger Williams the founder of Providence.

Although she was to gain wide-spread fame when she climbed to the top of Mount Huascaran in Peru and other sites around the world, Annie had already made her presence felt wherever she lived and worked whether in the Providence school system or in far away places like Germany and Greece where she excelled in languages and music. Read more >
Edward Payson Weston (1839-1929)
Inducted in 2010

One of Rhode Island’s most colorful native sons, Edward Payson Weston, was born in Providence on March 15, 1839. His father, Silas Weston, was at one time a school teacher and at another a publisher and the editor of a semi-monthly paper entitled The Pupil’s Mentor. Edward’s mother, Maria Gaines, was a talented writer who published several poems and novels.

Edward was the eldest of four children. Read more >
Abraham Whipple (1733-1819)
Inducted in 1999

Abraham Whipple, from Providence, was a famous privateersman and naval officer. Of humble birth, Whipple went to sea at an early age and became associated with the wealthy and influential Brown family of merchant entrepreneurs. During the French and Indian War, Whipple served as a privateersman under the command of Esek Hopkins, whose sister Sarah he married in 1761. They had three children. Read more >