Sidney Rider

Collector and writer Sidney Rider was born to George Clinton and Ann Eliza (Turner) Rider in Rensselaer County, New York, on November 5, 1833. Rider was the eldest of three sons (Frederic C. and Albert H. Rider). According to Rider, his ancestors came from the Kent region of England and he descended from Gershom Turner, proprietor of the Nassau Manufacturing Company in New York.

 

In the late 1830s, the Riders moved to Pomfret, Connecticut and finally settled in Rhode Island in 1845. That year, at the age of 12, Sidney began an apprenticeship with Charles Burnett, a Providence bookseller located in Market Square. During his apprenticeship, Rider found his calling and began an obsession with Rhode Island History.

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Rider married Lorania Burke of Providence County on November 4, 1858. The marriage produced two children: a son, Burnett, and a daughter, Annie. In 1859, Rider formed a partnership with Henry Stewart, and the two men sold new, used, and rare books and writing supplies at 17 Westminster Street, Providence. However, by the end of the year, Rider became the sole owner of a bookstore.

Rider’s strategy for marketing this enterprise revealed his genius. Uniquely, he merged his passion for history, politics, and culture with a business centered on selling books and subscriptions to his self-published periodicals. He captured the attention of potential customers in a highly competitive market by demonstrating his expertise in the book business and publishing magazines and journals that covered a variety of topics. Alongside his book listings and descriptions, Rider and other authors composed articles about Rhode Island culture, art, history, politics, and current events. Debunking popular historical myths and legends about Rhode Island became a specialty. His most successful magazine, Book Notes, ran for 33 years and produced 870 issues.

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Book Notes served as Rider’s controversial sounding board where he discussed the most pressing political, social, and economic issues. Powerful institutions such as the Providence Journal and the Union Railroad Company frequently suffered the wrath of his pen. Rider authored plenty of strong statements about legislation and legislators as well. In contradistinction to his complementary commentaries about historical figures like Roger Williams and Samuel Gorton, some of Rider’s most scathing literary assaults condemned contemporary politicians. In 1893, Rider boldly wrote that Chairman of the Providence City Council William Vaughan should be “hanged” for negotiating away the public’s property to benefit the Union Railroad and suggested bribery was involved. In the case of a more powerful politician such as and Republican Party boss Charles R. Brayton, Rider employed greater caution. Rider waited until Brayton’s death in 1910 before lambasting Brayton for disreputable deeds and blaming him for the suicide of Rider’s brother Frederic C. Rider. Rider’s opening statement read, “The time to write History is after men have cease to make it, the Time to writing an account of Brayton's connection with the History of Rhode Island is after he has ceased to manipulate it.”

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Rider also wrote quite a few art criticisms and many biographies, including one on Catherine R. (Arnold) Williams (1788-1872), a well-regarded poet and author who was intimately involved in the Dorr Rebellion. His promotion of the work of a female author perhaps suggests something of Rider’s liberal qualities. Rider’s journal Historical Tracts brought many other biographies, historical episodes and documents to an interested readership in the latter half of the 19th century.

Rider’s collecting habits transformed his shop into a time capsule of sorts, stockpiling everything from valuable manuscripts to the smallest vestiges of daily life, such as play bills, lottery tickets, and other paraphernalia. Consequently, Rider’s shop gained popularity as a gathering place for local bibliophiles and academics.

 

In 1880, Brown University awarded Rider with an honorary Master of Arts degree for his ambitious and educational essays on Rhode Island history and culture.1 However, Rider also suffered his share of personal and financial difficulties from the 1880s to the 1890s. In addition to the suicide of his brother in 1881 and the arrest of his son in 1893, Rider accumulated substantial debt, petitioned for bankruptcy, and was sued for loss of property.

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In the early twentieth century, Rider finally surrendered to old age and retired. In 1903, wealthy financier Marsden J. Perry purchased the Rider Collection and deeded it to Brown University. On January 17, 1917, Rider died and was interned at North Burial Ground, Providence, RI. Sidney Rider lived a full public life as an engaged citizen, merchant, critic, historian, writer, collector, reformer, and publisher. While his writings often centered on controversy and scuttlebutt, many of his contemporaries admired his erudite knowledge of Rhode Island History. Today, scholars and researchers are indebted to Rider for his meticulous collection of Rhode Island literary artifacts now housed at the John Hay Library.

 

Michelle Valleta, MA, Rhode Island College

Allison Kiernan, Student, Rhode Island College

 

Further Reading

Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame. “Sidney S. Rider.” (1833-1917) Inducted 2007.

Rogers, Horatio. “Mr. Sidney S. Rider’s Library,” in Private Libraries of Providence. Providence: Sidney S. Rider, 1878.

Russell J. DeSimone and Erik J. Chaput. “Sidney Rider And The Business Of Rhode Island History.” ProvidenceRI.com.