SAMUEL J. HOUGH

Samuel Jones Hough III.  Died-March 4, 2019 in Rhode Island.
Born January 2, 1939 in Philadelphia, eldest son of Samuel Jones Hough and Margaret Hoffman Hough; siblings Bill (children Alden, Ben), Sherna, Brian (children Travis, Ashley), and Bonnie.  Married Penelope in 1967; children Matt, Claire.
Sam was educated at Kenyon College (AB English literature 1960) and Columbia University (MS Library Service 1964).  He was drafted in August 1964 and spent two years at Fort Bragg as library janitor as well as lecturer in ancient history at North Carolina State University.  In August 1966 he returned to the John Carter Brown Library, at Brown University where he earned an MA History in 1972.  The same year he was awarded a Florence Schepp fellowship to Villa I Tatti in Florence, Italy, where for two years he conducted research on the transition during the Italian Renaissance from manuscript to printed page as manifested in libraries of doctors and lawyers.
In 1974 he returnedagain  to the JCB, where he became assistant librarian and prepared exhibitions:  ‘The Relationship between Agricultural and Social Organization in Colonial Jamaica’, ‘An Archival Portrait of John Russell Bartlett’, ‘Africans in Colonial America’, ‘Early European Interpretations of American History’, ‘Music in Colonial America’, ‘Americans in French Libertarian Thought’, and ‘The Italians and the Creation of America’.
He departed the JCB in July 1980 to establish himself as bookseller, appraiser, and researcher.  The Owl at the Bridge sells good and unusual books both new and used and has an international clientele of university libraries, private collectors, and dealers.
In 1983 Sam co-directed the Legacy of Roger Williams program for the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities.  In 1986-87 he organized and prepared a 500-page inventory of the archive of the Gorham Manufacturing Company, now at Brown University.  From his researches in that archive have come numerous publications including a roster of Gorham craftsmen and an as-yet-unpublished guide to Gorham flatware of the 19th century.
Sam and Penelope catalogued a collection on the Lesser Antilles given to Hamilton College by Walter Beinecke, Jr., consisting of approximately a thousand each of books and manuscripts as well as maps, prints and watercolors.  The book was published by the University Press of Florida in 1994.
Sam joined the Rhode Island Civil War Round Table in 1998 and was a staunch member thereafter.  He attended meetings regularly and served as the group’s treasurer from 2009 to 2017.  He frequently submitted the correct answer to the trivia question posted in the organization’s monthly newsletter.  He also made presentations to the Round Table over the years on Rhode Island troops and Robert Hale Ives at the Battle of Antietam, Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, and Brown University in the Civil War.
 

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