Newport Historical Society

Current Exhibits

Through May 31, 2013
Hearth & Home: Keeping Warm in Early Newport
This explores the hearth, the fuels and tools used to start and maintain the fires that kept Newporters warm before the modern thermostat. Brick Market: Museum & Shop, 127 Thames Street, Newport, RI. Open daily at 10am. For more information call: 401-841-8770.
Suggested admission $4 per person. http://www.newporthistorical.org/index.php/hearth-in-home-keeping-warm-in-early-newport/

Handwritten History: Correspondence of Great Americans from the Collections of the NHS
Available to borrow; please call 401-846-0813
An exhibit of large-scale facsimilies of significant documents written or signed by Presidents and signers of the Declaration of Independence. This exhibit underwritten by BankNewport.

Cases and Types: The Lives and Works of Printers in Early Newport.Available to borrow; please call 401-846-0813
The history of the James Franklin Press — housed at the Museum & Shop at Brick Market — features large-scale facsimiles of a diverse range of documents that were printed on the press. Documents include early newspapers, including two of the oldest papers in the country, Newport Mercury and Rhode Island Gazette, almanacs from the 1750s to the early 19th century, broadsides, discourses and sermons, advertisements, pamphlets and other official documents printed for the colony of Rhode Island.

You can also see paintings from the Collections at the Newport Historical Society at the Newport Art Museum, 76 Bellevue Ave. Griswold House staircase

Past Exhibits

Diversions and Entertainments in 19th Century: Broadsides from the Newport Historical Society’s Collections
Museum and Shop at Brick Market, November 6th through January 31st.

Did you know that a Mummy was put on display in the Old Colony House? That lectures on astronomy were given in Newport’s 4th Baptist Meetinghouse? Or that the city was a center for live entertainment hosting musicals, comedies and Shakespeare’s plays? The Newport Historical Society will present the exhibit Diversions and Entertainments in 19th Century Newport, which features historic advertisements and highlights some popular forms of entertainment.

The advertisements featured in Diversions and Entertainments in 19th Century Newport, which were known as broadsides, promote the wide range of entertainments available to 19th century Newporters. The broadsides highlight how people learned about activities in town while showing how Newporters from over a hundred years ago spent their free time.  Diversions and Entertainments in 19th Century Newport runs from November 6^ththrough January 31, 2012 at the Museum of Newport History, located in the Museum & Shop at Brick Market, 127 Thames Street, Newport, RI. The Museum is open daily from 10am to 5pm, and is closed on major holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day). Museum admission is by donation; suggested donation is $4 per person.

Diversions and Entertainment in 19th Century Newport is part of the Rhode Island Center for the Book’s 2012 Art of the Book Program “Rhode Island’s Broadsides Rule!” which offers statewide exhibits and events celebrating Rhode Island’s broadside history. Participating organizations include: John Hay Library at Brown Univeristy, Pettaquamscut Historical Society, Providence Public Library at the Providence Athenaeum, Redwood Library & Athenaeum and the University of Rhode Island Special Collections. The sponsors are: Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, John Russell Bartlett Society, American Printing History Association and The Rhode Island Historical Society.

Hold Fast: Newport’s Enduring Bond with the Sea, and
Newport and the Cup!

This exhibit offers visitors to this City a reminder that Newport’s story begins before the American Revolution and continues to develop today. A glimpse of how the sea has been integral to our history is enhanced by a large-scale photo exhibition of historic America’s Cup yachts in Newport. Exhibit created with the support of the Alletta Morris McBean Foundation.

The Many Faces of George Washington

Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington in the Colony House

The exhibit is an examination of our Nation’s first president as a military and political leader but also as an intriguing and accomplished man. Washington visited the Colony House several times as Commander of the Continental Army and as President.

The Many Faces of George Washington is a traveling exhibit produced by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association in conjunction with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and generously supported by the F. M. Kirby Foundation.

Their Manners Pleasing, and Their Education Complete: Newport Samplers 1728-1835
This selection of 18th and early 19th century local samplers, from the Newport Historical Society’s collections, reflects the evolution of Newport needlework over the course of a century and includes examples of the different types of samplers that a girl might produce during her lifetime.

Set for the Holidays

On display for the holiday season at the Newport Historical Society’s Museum & Shop at Brick Market is an elegant table setting in a recreated corner of an 18th century merchant’s parlor.

The large and beautiful dining table was made in Newport for the Marchant family. Henry Marchant was a lawyer and farmer who practiced law in Newport and farmed in South County. He was State Attorney General of Rhode Island in the 1770s, a delegate to the Continental Congress, a delegate to the Rhode Island General Assembly after the war, and was the first judge of the US District Court for Rhode Island. Marchant’s son, William, practiced law in Providence, and this table stood in his office there. It was passed down from father to son until 2010, when it was donated to the Newport Historical Society by Jane Cole.

The table was recently added to the Society’s museum. Laid out on the table is the dessert course of a period holiday meal, featuring items such as Chinese export porcelain and Newport-made pewter from the 18th century.