The graphics collections of the Newport Historical Society include photographs in all
historical formats, postcards, prints, architectural plans and drawings, and maps. Of
these, the photograph collection is by far the largest, comprising over 200,000 images
dating from the 1840s to the present.
The major categories of Photographs and Graphics Collections at the Newport Historical
Society are as follows: Photographs
Photograph Special Collections
Graphics |
| Photographs |
|
 |
All historic photographic formats are
represented in the Society=s holdings:
daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, lantern slides, stereopticon views, cyanotypes,
albumen prints, and paper prints produced through a variety of printing techniques. The
Society also holds thousands of negatives, both glass and film, many of which have never
been printed.
The majority of these images are filed according to geographic location, subject
matter, or, in the case of the portraits collection, alphabetically by name. Major subject
headings include:
NHS P1337 |
| America's Cup Races |
Ida Lewis/Lime Rock Light |
Small Craft and Catboats |
| Architecture |
Lighthouses |
Tiverton |
| Beaches |
Little Compton |
Touro Synagogue |
| The Cliff Walk |
Middletown |
Trinity Church |
| Decorative Arts |
Newport Harbor |
The U. S. Navy |
| The Fall River Line |
Parades and Pageants |
Naval Torpedo Station |
| Ferry Boats |
Matthew Calbraith Perry |
U. S. Naval Vessels |
| Goat Island |
Oliver Hazard Perry |
West Island |
| Hotels |
Portsmouth |
The Waterfront |
| Hurricanes |
Prudence Island |
Yachting |
| Jamestown |
Redwood Library |
Yacht Racing |
|
| Photograph Special Collections |
| The Society=s reputation as a
repository for historic images has compelled many individuals to donate or bequeath
substantial collections over the years. These special collections include: |
Joshua Appleby Williams |
|
| The Charles Follen McKim Portfolio |
 |
The Clarence Stanhope Collection |
|
 |
The Stanhope/Covell Collection |
The Jonas Bergner Collection
|
|
| The Mabel Norman Cerio Collection |
|
| The Henry O. Havemeyer Collection |
 |
The Hugh Willoughby Collection
|
|
 |
The Samuel Kerschner/Gilbert Harrington Collection |
The Newport Daily News Collection |
|
| The Newport Daily News glass plates collection is comprised of
nearly 20,000 images of Newport activities, structures, and individuals from the turn of
the century to the 1940s. In 1998, it was augmented by the gift of Newport Daily News photo tiles, bringing the collection up to the late 1980s. Typically, of the many
exposures made at an event, only one or two were actually published. The Society=s holdings include those that were published, and
many more that never appeared in the newspaper. From the historian=s perspective, it is often the latter that carries
important information. The library=s collection
of the Daily News on microfilm helps to identify and interpret many of these
extraordinary images. Subjects include: |
| Aerial Views |
Fires |
Police |
| Architectural Views |
Funerals |
Railroads and Trolleys |
| Automobiles |
Moving Pictures/ Theatricals |
Schools |
| Beaches |
Newport Artillery Company |
Sports |
| Carnivals |
Newport City Yard |
Street Views |
| Cemeteries |
Organizations |
Water Works |
| Churches |
Parades and Processions |
The U.S. Army |
| Fire Department |
Playgrounds |
The U. S. Navy |
|
| The Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House and Great Friends Meeting House
Restorations |
These collections provide invaluable documentation of the restoration of
the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House by Norman
Isham in 1929 and the Great Friends
Meeting House by Orin Bullock in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Both collections have
been instrumental in the Society=s stewardship
and preservation of these important properties. The Friends Meeting House collection has
recently been enlarged by the addition of material from the office of the late Donald
Dodge, a Jamestown architect and builder who worked with Bullock on the restoration. |
| The Henry Curtis Collection |
|
| Henry Curtis was a professional photographer from the 1940s until the
mid-1960s. An early member of the Newport Camera Club, in the late >40s he ran the former Newport Photo, a
Sunday newspaper that later became the Newport Post, a daily newspaper. Upon his
death in 1995, the Society acquired over 25,000 images, most of his own creation, the
remainder taken by family and friends. |
| Operation Clapboard |
|
| The Patrick Kirby Collection |
 |
| Graphics |
|
| The photographic collection is supplemented by graphics materials of other
types: prints, post cards, architectural plans and drawings, and maps. |
| Prints |
Postcards |
 |
| Architectural Drawings and Plans |
Maps |
