Newport Historical Society

January 14, 2012 at 11am

Discover Colonial Newport. Hear stories of revolution, struggles for religious liberty and remarkable entrepreneurship among Newport’s diverse people. $12 per person, $10 Newport Historical Society members. Weather dependent; reservations suggested. Departs from Museum & Shop at Brick Market, 127 Thames Street. 401-841-8770

January 15, 2012 at 11am

Souls and Stones Tour. Explore the Common Burying Ground, view the remarkable gravestones that make this cemetery a work of art and learn about select colonial-era and 19th century residents who helped shape Newport’s history. $12 per person, $10 Newport Historical Society members. Weather dependent; reservations suggested. Departs from Museum & Shop at Brick Market, 127 Thames Street. 401-841-8770

January 16, 2012 at 11am

Road to Independence. Riots and rebellion, enemies and allies! Hear stories from the years surrounding the American Revolution in Newport. $12 per person, $10 Newport Historical Society members. Weather dependent; reservations suggested. Departs from Museum & Shop at Brick Market, 127 Thames Street. 401-841-8770

February 4, 2012 at 11am

Newport’s Buried History. Discover the early history of Newport’s people of color, enslaved and free. Visit the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House and the colonial African burying ground. $12 per person, $10 Newport Historical Society members. Weather dependent; reservations suggested. Departs from Museum & Shop at Brick Market, 127 Thames Street. 401-841-8770

In April 1865, John Wilkes Booth was a guest at the Aquidneck House Hotel in Newport shortly before the assassination of Lincoln in Washington, DC. The hotel was located on the west side of Corne Street, between Mill and Pelham Streets. The site is now occupied by modern, colonial style condominium townhouses. Old timers may recall it was the site of the Knights of Columbus parking lot. Booth’s brother Edwin later built Boothden on Indian Avenue in Middletown.

The Historical Society holds several items associated with President Lincoln in its collections, including military commissions and a silver tassel from his catafalque.

The catalog record is here: “http://newport.pastperfect-online.com/32053cgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=2124487C-4A9E-4AD4-A880-761922141993;type=101“

Newport’s early inhabitants of former Puritans and Quaker converts did little to celebrate the Christmas season in colonial times. Quiet reflection, a special sermon delivered from a pulpit and the hanging of decorative greens was the extent of festivities. The Victorian period ushered in the robust decorations, music and outward merriment that defines the modern Christmas season.  

Santa Claus, an essential participant in the season, has very close ties to Newport. Clement Clarke Moore (1779-1863) was a classics scholar and Episcopal vestryman who lived on Catherine Street in Newport during the summer. He is the author of A Visit From St. Nicholas (The Night Before Christmas), first published in 1823. Written to entertain children, the poem inspired much of what we now consider to be a traditional Christmas, including our vision of Santa Claus. Inspired by Moore’s poem and its descriptions of St. Nick, political cartoonist and satirist Thomas Nast (1840-1902) refined the modern image of St. Nicholas as the large, bearded, jolly elf we know today in the 1881 edition of Harper’s Weekly.  Nast himself was best known for his stinging images of Boss Tweed and the Tamany Hall gang of New York and creating the political icons of the donkey and elephant. While visiting Newport, he made a drawing of himself being posted for late payment at a local drinking establishment.

 Clement Clarke Moore’s desk, made by Duncan Phyfe in New York, is on display at the Museum & Shop at Brick Market.

And, you can see its catalog record here.

St. Mary's Church, image from the NHS Collections

Thursday February 2, 2012 at 5:30pm 

Colony House $5 General Admission, $1 NHS members

New England was inhospitable territory for Catholics from the colonial era until the Civil War. In colonial Massachusetts priests who entered the territory would be subject to imprisonment. In the nineteenth century, a Jesuit was tarred and feathered in Maine, a convent near Boston was torched, and another nuns’ residence in Providence narrowly escaped attack. Newport, by contrast, accepted Catholics just as it had accepted Jews, Quakers and Baptists before them. Dr. Quinn will explain how, from 1780 when French troops landed in Newport to aid with the Revolutionary War, through the following decades when the Irish settled, Newport proved to be an oasis of tolerance for Catholics in New England.

John F. Quinn is Professor of History at Salve Regina University, where he has taught since 1992. He specializes in Irish and Irish-American History. His publications include Father Mathew’s Crusade: Temperance in Nineteenth-Century Ireland and Irish America (University of Massachusetts Press, 2002) and articles in the New England Quarterly, the Catholic Historical Review, the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography and the Newport Historical Society’s journal Newport History.

Thursday January 19, 2012 at 5:30pm

Colony House, Washington Square

$5 per person, $4 for active duty military with ID, and $1 for NHS members. RSVP to 401-841-8770.

Everyone has a few old books. But are they valuable? Dust off those books and join the Newport Historical Society for The Value of Books with Ray Rickman.  

During this interactive program, Rickman will discuss what makes a book valuable. Using an Antiques Road Show-format with books brought by audience members, Rickman will provide information and insights about what types of books have the highest retail value and he will offer complimentary estimates of the books’ value. Guests can bring up to three books.

Rickman is a long-time rare book dealer and former host of “Bestsellers” on Rhode Island Public Television. He is the founder of The Rickman Group, which raises money for nonprofits, including the Gloria Gemma Breast Cancer Research Foundation. A former State Representative, he often lectures throughout the Rhode Island community on a range of cultural topics pertaining to American literature and African American history.

Thursday January 26, 2012 from 1pm-2pm

Thursday February 23, 2012 from 1pm-2pm

$10 per person, free for NHS members

Winter is the perfect time of year to research the Newport history questions that have been on your mind. Whether you would like to know more about your house’s history or discover your family genealogy, the Newport Historical Society’s library can help.

This January and February, the Newport Historical Society will offer two library workshops to help acquaint you with its collections. Learn how to research the history of your house, family, neighborhood, or any period from Newport’s history from the Historical Society’s expert staff. The workshop will introduce you to the NHS library holdings and help you identify research strategies.

Reservations required as space is limited. 401-846-0813

The Sampler exhibit displayed at the 2011 Newport Antiques Show will hang in the Baptist Meeting House at our Resource and Education Center at 82 Touro Street from Monday, December 19th through February’s Winterfest. The creation of this exhibit was sponsored by Woodbury Auction LLC.

Recently we received a donation of an almanac printed in Newport in 1788 by Peter Edes, founder of the short-lived “Newport Herald.” The almanac was formulated by Quaker teacher Elisha Thornton of Smithfield, RI.  We have several other copies of this printing, but this one has notes indicating that it was owned by a farming family, including records of visitors and the breeding of cattle.  The page below is the history of the world in important dates, including the creation of the world in 3949 BC:

The Newport Historical Society has begun to place collections data online as part of our Lost & Found project.  The collections are in a searchable database that can be accessed below.

As of December 2011 about 2,400 objects, and 1,500 photos are available in this database. 

Artifact collections that are represented include Fine Art (drawings and paintings), Clothing, Furniture, Toys, and some Needlework. 

Users can search by keyword, or by a myriad of other terms including object name, year range, title, artist, photography studio, material, associated people, subject terms, and local terminology (such as “Forty Steps” or “Rough Point”).  You could even search by NHS object number, if you happen to have it.

As we continue to refine and validate our data, more of our collections will appear. As always, however, if you are doing research, you will get your best information by contacting us.

This catalog was developed with support from:

The van Beuren Charitable Foundation

The Alletta Morris McBean Charitable Trust

The Newport County Fund of the Rhode Island Foundation

The Bay and Paul Foundations

many charitable individuals