“He has put the east wing, second story, of Rhode Island Hall in fine condition for this new use, erecting beautiful and commodious cases, wherein our rapidly growing stores of anthropological material can be synoptically arranged and the study of them greatly facilitated.”
–President Elisha Andrews on Professor Jenks’ work on the Museum of Natural History
Rhode Island Hall was named in tribute
to Rhode Island residents, who donated
half the funds for its construction in
1840. The building was initially devoted
to the physical sciences, with lecture
rooms on the first floor, a collection
of minerals and other objects on the
second, and a chemical laboratory in the
basement. From 1871 to 1915, the
building housed an extensive Museum of
Natural History, open to the public and
cared for by curator, Professor John
Whipple Potter Jenks, Class of 1838.
After the physical science departments
moved out to larger, more specialized
spaces, the building served a variety of
academic and administrative functions.
In 2006, the building was extensively
renovated to LEED Gold standards
(Brown’s first) and today houses the
Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and
the Ancient World.