Henry Barnard School was founded in 1898 as The Observation School of Rhode Island Normal School – later named Rhode Island College (RIC). It consisted of ten classrooms in the Normal School, where young women trained to become teachers. The Normal School was originally located in downtown Providence. In 1920, the school was renamed in honor of Henry Barnard, Rhode Island’s first commissioner of public schools and the first U.S. commissioner of education, while the Normal School changed its name to Rhode Island College of Education.
