Exhibits & Collections

Archeology Dig Shares Details of Merchant Life & Slave Trade

Now in its third summer, an archeological dig at one of the Newport Restoration Foundation's historic homes has unearthed thousands of artifacts and exciting information about 18th-century Newport.

Located in the back yard of 415 Thames Street, now the NRF Museum Store, the excavated area was once the home of Thomas Richardson II, a prominent Newport merchant, rum distiller and slave trader, who lived there from 1761-1782. Researchers hope this project will provide a fuller picture of the lives of merchants, enslaved Africans and others who lived in Newport, the fifth largest city in the colonial era.

The dig, a summer field school program for college and graduate students, is one facet of a multi-year collaboration between NRF, Salve Regina University and the Andrew Fiske Memorial Center for Archaeological Research at the University of Massachusetts-Boston.