Arguably the most notable building in North Easton, MA is the Oakes Ames Memorial Hall designed by American architect H. H. Richardson. I made the one hour journey here this morning to purchase a used lens that I have been wanting to add to my collection. The hall was built between 1879 and 1881 as a gift to the town from the children of Congressman Oakes Ames. Its first floor is constructed of native, pinkish-gray North Easton granite with Longmeadown brownstone trim. The second floor is brick and the steeply peaked roof above is finished in red tile. Having traveled this far south I decided to continue on to Providence. Pictured below is the Rhode Island State House which is built from 327,000 cubic feet of white Georgia marble, 15 million bricks, and 1,188 tons of iron floor beams. The dome of the State House is the fourth-largest self-supporting marble dome in the world, after St. Peter’s Basilica, the Minnesota State Capitol, and the Taj Mahal. On top of the dome is a 500 pound, 11 foot tall, gold-covered bronze statue of the Independent Man which represents freedom and independence and alludes to the independent spirit which led Roger Williams to settle and establish Providence and later Rhode Island.

I spent the balance of the day at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art. The 20th largest museum in the country, it features a broad range of works from around the world, including Egypt, Asia, Africa, ancient Greece and Rome, Europe, and the Americas including paintings by prominent international artists such as Picasso, Monet, and Manet. Normally not my cup of tea, I enjoyed the visit more than I anticipated and learned a lot about portraiture lighting by studying the works of the masters (painting is just as much about lighting as photography). I also enjoyed seeing furniture pieces from contemporary Craft and Studio artists Tage Frid, George Nakashima, and Wharton Esherick whose work I am familiar with from my days reading Fine Woodworking magazine from cover to cover.