May 26, 2013, 1pm-5pm
Colony House, Washington Square
Free, donations welcome
1PM: Ministers of Apollo
The Ministers of Apollo will present a fife & drum performance featuring traditional military music from the American Revolution.
2PM: Mother Earth Singers
Traditional Native American drum and singing courtesy of the Dighton Intertribal Council.
3PM: Gerard Edery and Meg Okura
Gerard Edery, who has been hailed as “a master of Sephardic song.” by The New York Times, and violinist Meg Okura, will present “Treasures of Sephardic Song”. This concert traces the surprising and exotic musical synergies between Christians, Arabs and Jews from Medieval Spain to the present. Secular and liturgical songs from Ancient Persia, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Turkey, Morocco, Egypt, The Balkans and Syria will tell a rich musical story and promote the cause of cross-cultural appreciation and understanding.
4PM: Stuart Frank and Mary Malloy
Dr. Stuart Frank, Senior Curator at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, joins his wife, Mary Malloy, to sing 18th and 19th century ballads and songs. This concert is based upon Rhode Island sources in whalemen’s shipboard journals from the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s collection.
June 3, 2013 at 1pm
Newport Historical Society Headquarters
82 Touro Street, Newport, RI
Reservations required, call 401-846-0813
$10 per person, free for NHS members
Whether you would like to know more about your house’s history or discover your family genealogy, the Newport Historical Society’s library is the place to start. Learn how to investigate the history of your house, family, neighborhood or any period from Newport’s history with the Historical Society’s expert staff. This workshop will acquaint you with the NHS collections and help you identify research strategies. Space is limited to eight attendees; reservations required.
The Ocean House Hotel, image from the NHS Collections.
Thursday May 9, 2013 at 5:30pm
Colony House, Washington Square
$5 per person, $1 NHS members
Please RSVP to 401-841-8770
Before the American Revolution Newport was a center for trade; in the 19th century the city became a popular vacation destination. When did Newport transition from trade to tourism? The Newport Historical Society’s Adjunct Curator Matthew Keagle will answer this question during May’s lecture.
The decade of the 1840s saw Newport at a crossroads. Devastated but not destroyed by the American Revolution, the town began to reinvent itself in the early 19th century. Learn about this neglected but pivotal period of Newport history when trade, not tourism, became the business of the town.
Matthew Keagle is enrolled in the Doctoral program at the Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture in New York City. He holds an MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. In 2010 he was the Newport Historical Society Buchanan/Burnham Fellow. Matt’s interest and expertise is in colonial-era material and cultural history, with a focus on 18th century military history and culture and the American Revolution. Matt is the first appointment as the Adjunct Curator at the Society.
Golden to Gilded
April 17, 2013 at 11am
From Newport’s colonial Golden Age to Gilded Age summer colony, discover the transformation of the city and its people.
History Walking Tour
April 18, 2013 at 11am
Call 401-841-8770 for tour details.
Rogues & Scoundrels Tour
April 19, 2013 at 11am
See where scoundrels lived, pirates profited and criminals were punished. Find out why this colony was known as “Rogue’s Island.”
Image from the NHS Photo Collection.
Merrilton: A Historic Newport Landscape
April 20, 2013 at 11am
Join Tim Brown of the Newport Tree Society for an in-depth look at the landscape of Merrillton, one of Newport’s historic Bellevue neighborhood estates. This Andrew Jackson Downing-inspired landscape is a beautifully preserved mix of woodland and cultivated spaces. The tour will focus on Merrillton’s emarkable trees, some of the oldest original trees on Bellevue Avenue, including a magnificent European Hornbeam, one of the largest in all New England. Tim Brown is a founding member of the Newport Tree Society and is currently serving on the Executive Board. He is also the owner of TJ Brown Landscaping. This tour is a Newport Arboretum Week event and a Newport History Tours “Tour of the Month.” $15 per person, reservations required.
Rum & Revolution Tour
April 27, 2013 at 11am
From the thriving colonial rum trade through the temperance movement and Prohibition-era smuggling, learn about the changing role of alcohol in the community. Presented by Newport History Tours.
Walking tours cost $12 per person. Tours depart, weather permitting, from Brick Market: Museum & Shop, 127 Thames Street, Newport, RI. Reservations suggested as space is limited. 401-841-8770
SOLD OUT!
May 6, 2013 at 1pm
Newport Historical Society Headquarters
82 Touro Street
$10 per person, free for NHS members
Reservations required: 401-846-0813
Whether you would like to know more about your house’s history or discover your family genealogy, the Newport Historical Society’s library is the place to start. Learn how to investigate the history of your house, family, neighborhood or any period from Newport’s history with the Historical Society’s expert staff. This workshop will acquaint you with the NHS collections and help you identify research strategies. Space is limited to eight attendees; reservations required.
"Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America" by Jennifer Anderson
Wednesday April 24, 2012 at 5:30pm
Colony House, Washington Square
$5 per person, $1 NHS members
By the 1760s, imported mahogany was all the rage for fine furniture in colonial America. Many examples of these elegant pieces were made in Newport and are in the collections of the Newport Historical Society, exhibited at the Museum of Newport History, and at the Newport Restoration Foundation’s Samuel Whitehorne House.
As the coveted mahogany trees were quickly depleted in their native Caribbean range, the mahogany trade became an increasingly risky and competitive business. Nevertheless, many Rhode Island merchants, sea captains, and cabinetmakers—eager to profit from this desirable and luxurious wood—took their chances in this new line of trade. In her talk, Dr. Anderson will discuss the adventures (and misadventures) of some of these participants and their quest to secure this precious material.
Jennifer Anderson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Stony Brook University (SUNY). She recently completed a new book entitled Mahogany: The Costs of Luxury in Early America (Harvard UP 2012) about the social and environmental history of the tropical timber trade in the 18th century. Jennifer has a PhD in Early American and Atlantic History from New York University, an MA from the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture, and a BA in History from Barnard College (Columbia University). She has received many awards and fellowships, including the prestigious Society of American Historians’ Nevins Prize for Best-Written Dissertation. She has worked as a consultant at over a dozen historic sites and museums. She also served on the research team for the Emmy-nominated documentary, “Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North,” about the Northern slave trade. She is delighted to return to Newport where she spent many happy hours in the archives.
This lecture is co-presented with the Newport Historical Society and the Newport Restoration Foundation, and is sponsored in part by the James Finch Bed & Breakfast. This lecture is part of the 2013 Newport Arboretum Week presented by The Newport Arboretum.
Friday March 29, 2013 at 11am
Rogues & Scoundrels: See where scoundrels lived, pirates profited and criminals were punished. Find out why this colony was known as “Rogue’s Island.”
Saturday March 30, 2013 at 11am
Discover Colonial Newport in Costume: Follow a guide in colonial costume as she recounts the stories of Newport’s early history. Learn about the city’s founding, its prosperity and its role in the American Revolution.
Sunday March 31, 2013 at 11am
Golden to Gilded: From Newport’s colonial Golden Age to Gilded Age summer colony, discover the transformation of the city and its people.
Offered March 29-31, 2013, 11am – 3pm
Historic Site Tours: Visit the following Newport Historical Society properties:
- Colony House: This historic site, built in 1739, was a center for RI’s colonial government and houses a Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington.
- Great Friends Meeting House: Explore RI’s oldest house of worship, built for the Society of Friends in 1699.
- Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House: Tours Newport’s oldest house museum, built c.1697.
Tours cost $12 per person, $10 for Newport Historical Society members and $5 for children ages 5-12. Reservations suggested as space is limited. 401-841-8770 Tours departs from the Brick Market: Museum & Shop located at 127 Thames Street, Newport, RI.
Detail of the Masonic symbol from a late 18th/early 19th century pitcher in the NHS collections.
Thursday April 11, 2013 at 5:30pm
Colony House, Washington Square
$5 per person, $1 NHS members
Please RSVP to 401-841-8770
Commonly associated with democratic patriotism and the American and French Revolutions, Freemasonry in the eighteenth century was far more complex than familiar myths assume.
During the lecture, Mr. Biagetti will discuss how the early Freemasons of Rhode Island defy simple generalizations. After a brief period of success and prestige in the 1750s, the lodges in Newport and Providence imploded in the Stamp Act crisis. In the years of political turmoil that followed, many Rhode Island Masons fled in the Loyalist exodus. Mr. Biagetti will explain how the story of Freemasonry in Rhode Island underscores the importance of ritual, symbolism, and emotion in forging Masonic bonds—and the power of politics to challenge or even destroy those same bonds.
Samuel Biagetti grew up in Maryland and received his A.B. in History from Brown University in 2006. He is currently a PhD candidate in early American history at Columbia University, researching early Freemasonry in Rhode Island before 1800 for his dissertation, titled, “The Unfinished Temple: The Rhode Island Freemasons and the Masonic World”. He has previously presented research at the Symposium on American Freemasonry and Fraternalism, and is also a published poet.
This program is sponsored in part by Pearls Boutique Hotels.
February 21, 2013 at 5:30pm
Renee Walker-Tuttle
Colony House, Washington Square
Living history interpreter Renee Walker-Tuttle will dress herself in reproduction 18th century garments, allowing visitors to get a glimpse into the dressing room of the 18th century woman. She will dress from her undergarment, known as a shift, into a working class women’s gown, then change into an upper-class gown while describing each garment’s material, manufacture and function. Each piece of her clothing is a meticulously crafted period reproduction. This lecture shows the challenges working and upper class 18th century women faced as participants in the world of eighteenth century fashion.
Renee Walker-Tuttle has worked in Colonial Williamsburg’s Costume Design Center and with their 18th century historic clothing collection. In 2010 she completed her Master of Science in Historic Textiles and Dress at the University of Rhode Island department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design. Her education and work provided her in depth information on the history of 18th century fashion and she has meticulously recreated reproductions of 18th century garments for her personal collection. Ms. Walker-Tuttle is currently employed with Newport Historical Society and Newport Restoration Foundation.
General admission costs $5 per person, $4 with Winter Festival button and $1 for NHS members. Please RSVP to 401-841-8770.
