Helen Ginsburg Forman was born in 1911. Forman was raised in Providence, Rhode Island, and graduated from Rhode Island College of Education (RICE) in 1934, now called Rhode Island College (RIC). Forman became a school teacher shortly after, working with students from kindergarten to high school in various school districts in Warwick and Providence. In 1940, she married Sylvan Forman, a graduate of Bryant and Stratton College, who become a postal worker in Springfield, MA, and later was a supervisor at the U.S. Postal Transportation Office in Rhode Island. Together they had one child, Jeffrey. After retirement, Helen Forman spent her time volunteering for fundraising events at Rhode Island College and attended music, theater, and dance performances. In 1990, Sylvan Forman passed away, leaving Helen to make her first donation to RIC in her husband’s memory: $250,000 for the construction of an admissions office. Helen Forman died in 2005, leaving a $5.1 million donation to Rhode Island College, which at the time was the largest gift given by an individual to a public college in Rhode Island’s history. Two buildings at RIC are named for the Formans: the Helen Forman Theatre in the Nazarian Center and the Sylvan R. Forman Center Admissions Office.
The collection contains the personal and professional materials of Helen Forman. Included are contracts and letters of resignation from schools in which Forman worked, as well as earning statements, personal correspondence from Sylvan Forman, memorabilia, such as dance cards and graduation regalia, college transcripts, and awards. The collection also contains photographs with subjects including travels to Europe, various beaches in Maine and Rhode Island, Providence College, Lincoln Woods, RI, yearbook portraits, graduation ceremonies at RICE and RIC, and the Bureau of Jewish Education.
Researchers are advised to contact Rhode Island College Special Collections for questions regarding permissions to reproduce, distribute, or otherwise publish material from this collection. Although Rhode Island College has physical ownership of the collection, it does not necessarily hold literary rights. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the literary rights and to obtain any necessary permissions from them.
The collection is open for research.
Helen Forman papers, MSS-0034, Special Collections, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College.
The collection is arranged into the following series:
The collection was initially given to the Rhode Island College Development Office in 2007. It was transferred to the Rhode Island College Special Collections at that time. An addition to the collection was made in 2008.
An inventory to the collection was created sometime around 2008. In 2023, Special Collections student, Lilliana Martinez, arranged and described the collection, as well as created a finding aid using current archival standards under the direction of supervisor Veronica Denison, Digital Archivist and Special Collections Librarian at Rhode Island College. In 2024, the collection was reboxed by Special Collections student Abigail Standeven, under the direction of Denison.
Works used in preparation of inventory:
Mooney, Tom. “Rhode Island News.” The Providence Journal, October 28, 2006.
Rhode Island College gets record $5.1M gift. (2006, October 29). Sun Journal. Retrieved February 21, 2023, from https://www.sunjournal.com/2006/10/29/rhode-island-college-gets-record-51m-gift/.
"Sylvan R. Forman." Providence Journal (RI), July 12, 1990: B-02. NewsBank: America's News – Historical and Current.
Commercial high school yearbooks were removed from the collection and added to the Rhode Island College Special Collections Book Collection.
This collection has not been digitized. Please contact the Rhode Island College Special Collections about obtaining digitized materials.
This series includes memorabilia, such as degrees and regalia of Helen and Sylvan Forman, as well as correspondence. Correspondence from Sylvan Forman was mostly sent during the couple’s courtship and includes subjects such as daily life, meals, travels around Rhode Island and Massachusetts, fairs and expositions, plants to visit one another, examinations, purchasing tickets to shows, and the drawing of United States draft lottery.