{"id":7307,"date":"2009-04-04T15:52:46","date_gmt":"2009-04-04T19:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.brown.edu\/bulspecialcollections\/2009\/04\/04\/brown-university-and-the-hurricane-of-1938\/"},"modified":"2009-04-04T15:52:46","modified_gmt":"2009-04-04T19:52:46","slug":"brown-university-and-the-hurricane-of-1938","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/brown-university-and-the-hurricane-of-1938\/","title":{"rendered":"Brown University and the Hurricane of 1938"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On September 21, 1938, a category 3 hurricane slammed into Long Island.  Continuing northward through Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, the Great Hurricane of 1938 caused 682 deaths and $306 million of damages ($4.7 billion in today&#8217;s dollars).<br \/>\nRhode Island was one of the hardest hit and Brown University was no exception.  The Hurricane felled trees throughout campus.  Major flooding in downtown Providence obliterated the writing on the University&#8217;s original charter, which was being stored in the bank vault of the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company.  And the statue of Caesar Augustus lost its right arm.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.brown.edu\/project\/archives\/hurricane%231.jpg\" alt=\"Felled trees in front of Manning Hall\" width=\"350\" height=\"206\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Felled trees line the path on the front campus.  Hope College and Manning Hall are in the background.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.brown.edu\/project\/archives\/hurricane%233.jpg\" alt=\"Students clearing fallen trees\" width=\"350\" height=\"282\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Students help clean campus after the Hurricane.  Carrie Tower and Robinson Hall are in the background.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.brown.edu\/project\/archives\/hurricane%234.jpg\" alt=\"Destroyed trees in front of the Van Wickle gates\" width=\"350\" height=\"284\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Hurricane toppled a tree right near Van Wickle Gates.  The John Hay Library is in the background.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.brown.edu\/project\/archives\/hurricane%235.jpg\" alt=\"Students clearing trees near Carrie Tower\" width=\"350\" height=\"280\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Students help clear trees near Carrie Tower.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.brown.edu\/project\/archives\/hurricane_memo.jpg\" alt=\"Memo sent out to faculty and staff in the aftermath of the hurricane\" width=\"500\" height=\"645\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Vice-President James P. Adams sends a memorandum to faculty and staff warning them about using fire as a substitute for light and telling them to go home before dark until further notice.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.brown.edu\/project\/archives\/letter_re_charter1944.jpg\" alt=\"Letter explaining the loss of the University charter\" width=\"500\" height=\"644\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Memo sent to President Henry Merritt Wriston in 1944 describing the loss of the University&#8217;s original charter during the hurricane and efforts to restore the &#8220;obliterated&#8221; text.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.brown.edu\/project\/archives\/storm_damages.jpg\" alt=\"List of storm damages at Brown\" width=\"500\" height=\"659\" \/><\/p>\n<p>List of damages incurred at Brown by the Hurricane of 1938.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On September 21, 1938, a category 3 hurricane slammed into Long Island. Continuing northward through Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, the Great Hurricane of 1938 caused 682 deaths and $306 million of damages ($4.7 billion in today&#8217;s dollars). Rhode Island was one of the hardest hit and Brown University was no exception. The <a href=\"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/brown-university-and-the-hurricane-of-1938\/\" class=\"more-link\">&#8230;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Brown University and the Hurricane of 1938<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-university-archives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7307\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/libnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}