HERstory: Women of South County

“HERstory: Women of South County” Exhibit
(May 17, 2025 - December 5, 2026)

The Center is pleased to announce that our newest exhibit "HERstory: Women of South County" will be opening on May 17th, 2025. The exhibit explores the roles, experiences, and impacts of women on South County, which are often overlooked or unrecorded in historical records. This new exhibit is possible thanks to generous support from the Town of South Kingstown and Rhode Island Foundation.

Stay tuned: a virtual “HERstory” exhibit will launch in late summer 2025!

Through our research for this exhibit, we uncovered countless stories of women who made a difference through service to our community, including Mary “Mae” (Leslie) Gagnon (1900-1973), who is pictured in the banner above. In 1935, Mae was hired to be a clerk in the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, and she continued in that role until she was “discharged” in 1939 in compliance with a Rhode Island state policy that prohibited employment of married women in state positions. (More than half of U.S. states had similar restrictions at the time.)

Worker shortages during World War II created new employment opportunities for women, including those who were married. By 1942, Mae had not only gotten her old job back, she had been promoted to “woman deputy sheriff.” (Yes, “woman” was part of her job title.) You’ll learn more about Mae and our quest to learn about her life in the exhibit.

Another woman you will meet in the exhibit is Ann Webster Kenyon Morse (1917-1989). The Center has recently acquired a major new collection documenting her life, which contains incredible archival materials and more than 2,000 photographic images.

Locally, Ann is perhaps best remembered as a horsewoman - she was an award-winning equestrian by age 10 - and donor of the first 365 acres pf Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge. She raised sheep at her home on Ministerial Road, called “Long Pond Farm” and later “Kenyon Farms.” Ann was a debutante, a skeet-shooter, and, as you’ll learn in our “HERstory” exhibit, one of Rhode Island’s first women pilots.

Prior to World War II, Ann was the pilot and owner of a Taylorcraft monoplane, and she was among a small number of women who held a multi-engine license. Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ann became involved in the domestic war effort. When blackout tests were held in early 1942, Ann piloted a plane for the State Defense Council to observe the effort from above. Ann served as a supply officer of the Rhode Island Wing of the Civil Air Patrol and "flew her own airplane on courier missions without compensation for the AAF [Army Air Forces].”

In 1944, Ann was accepted into the competitive Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) program and success fully completed her training at the Army Air Forces Pilot School, one of only 1,074 women to earn her WASPs wings, which will also be on exhibit. When the WASPs were disbanded in late 1944, Ann returned to the Rhode Island Civil Air Patrol where she helped fight forest fires from the air and even once helped capture fugitives who escaped from the Washington County Jail.

Before the Center acquired the Ann Kenyon Morse Collection, many of its contents sadly sustained moisture and insect damage. While it has been stabilized, cleaning and conservation work is required to ensure its long-term preservation. The Center's estimate for cleaning and preserving the entire collection is $17,500, and we welcome donations to help save this nationally-significant resource.

Although the collection will not be available to researchers until the preservation process is complete, we will be featuring some World War II-era materials from it in our "HERstory" exhibit, as well as several items loaned to the Center by the International Women's Air & Space Museum in Ohio (including her flight jacket, pictured above).

If you would like to help the Center save this important new collection, please click here to make a donation. Thank you!

Banner Photo Above: December 1945 Providence Journal feature article about Mary “Mae” (Leslie) Gagnon from a scrapbook compiled by Winifred J.W. Kissouth.