by NRF User | Jun 16, 2023 | NRF News
Newport, RI— The annual Doris Duke Preservation Awards, a joint program of the Newport Restoration Foundation and the City of Newport, encourages excellence in historic preservation by recognizing exemplary preservation, restoration, and rehabilitation projects as well as education and advocacy initiatives that have taken place throughout Newport County. This year’s awards also seek to highlight innovative approaches to preservation, including new technologies, materials/products, excellence in practice, creative adaptive reuse, climate change adaptations, and similar progressive concepts.
Newport Restoration Foundation and the City are calling upon the local community to nominate innovative and best practice preservation projects completed within the last three years that have added value to the character of the community. The winners will be acknowledged at an awards event on Friday, September 8, 2023 (details of the event pending). Please see below for award criteria and how to submit a nomination. The deadline for nominations is July 17, 2023.
Award Criteria
- Eligible recipients are individuals; non-profit or for-profit organizations; and federal, state, or local agencies.
- A wide variety of nominations of varying project budgets are encouraged, from small buildings to large; major rehabilitations to minor restorations; landscapes or streetscapes; new technologies and materials; individual or company-level excellence in practice; and education or advocacy initiatives. Particular attention will be paid to projects that include the following criteria:
- Adaptive reuse
- Multi-family, affordable housing building adaptation
- Resiliency and energy efficiency
- Company, firm, or individual exemplifying preservation practice
- New or emerging preservation technologies, materials, and/or products compliant in historic applications
- All work related to the project or initiative must have been completed within the last three (3) years.
- Nominations are welcome from Newport County (Newport, Middletown, Portsmouth, Jamestown, Tiverton, Little Compton).
- Properties that are currently (or anticipated to be) listed for sale will not be considered.
Further information about how to nominate a project or individual can be found at newportrestoration.org/DDPA or by emailing Margaret Back, NRF’s Preservation Associate, at margaret@newportrestoration.org.
by NRF User | Feb 16, 2023 | NRF News
Who was Cato Vernon?
One of our ongoing projects is to discover more about the people who lived, worked, and worshiped in NRF Preservation Properties like 46 Clarke Street—many of whom were enslaved women, men, and children.
While we do not have an illustrated likeness of Cato, he left behind a written record which helps reveal his lived experience.
[Exterior of 46 Clarke Street, 1933]
After the war, like many of those who served in his regiment, he was owed back-pay from the military and he also never received a military pension. In 1793, he was imprisoned in the Newport gaol for his debts and he dictated a letter to William Vernon, his former enslaver, asking for debt relief.
Cato Vernon disappears from the known historical record sometime around 1798.
There is certainly more to discover about Cato’s remarkable life and legacy—not only his service in the Continental Army but also his shaping of the city of Newport through his carpentry work.
For more information about the 1st Rhode Island Regiment, visit BlackPast.Org
Image credit:
Ancestry.com. U.S., Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Microfilm Publication M246, 138 rolls; NAID: 602384; War Department Collection of Revolutionary War Records, Record Group 93; The National Archives in Washington, D.C.
by NRF User | Nov 2, 2022 | Keeping History Above Water, NRF News
Keeping History Above Water®: Portsmouth Call for Speakers
Strawbery Banke Museum, the City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire Planning Department and DPW Water | Wastewater | Stormwater Division, the University of New Hampshire (UNH) Earth Systems Research Center, and the Newport Restoration Foundation (NRF) are proud to co-host Keeping History Above Water® (KHAW) in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on May 7-9, 2023 at the AC Hotel Portsmouth Downtown/Waterfront.
KHAW® was founded in 2016 by NRF to foster a national conversation focused on the increasing and varied risks posed by sea level rise to historic coastal communities. KHAW programs, conferences, and workshops focus on protecting historic buildings, landscapes, and neighborhoods from the increasing threat of inundation.
As one of the oldest port cities in the nation, Portsmouth has faced sea-borne challenges from the start. As its most historic neighborhoods and treasures find themselves increasingly threatened by sea level rise, more frequent flooding, and groundwater infiltration, the City, UNH, and Strawbery Banke Museum, a living history museum at the heart of that neighborhood – and at the lowest point in the city – are working together to collect data and test solutions.
KHAW: Portsmouth is designed to showcase the latest flood and climate data, discuss strategies and identify best practices, and bring new information to the dialogues on the impacts of sea level rise, recurrent flooding and climate change on historic resources begun at previous conferences. We seek to foster the discussion of how communities can adapt research data into actionable solutions and anticipate attracting presenters and attendees especially from the New England states.
Preservationists, public historians, museum professionals, archaeologists, planners, floodplain managers, engineers, architects, landscape architects, artists, conservationists, environmental justice advocates, government officials, property owners, resilience officers and other stakeholders are invited to submit session proposals.
Sessions may be individual presentations, panel discussions, or workshops, and will generally be scheduled to last 30 or 60 minutes. Please indicate in your proposal the length of your session.
We welcome proposals related to the theme “Water Has a Memory: Preserving Historic Port Cities from Sea Level Rise.” We specifically encourage sessions that:
- Highlight adaptation, mitigation, and resilience strategies currently being employed to protect historic resources around New England
- Showcase projects that encourage public outreach/education and/or attempt to effect positive change in the greater community
- Discuss municipal concerns and processes for engaging stakeholders: residents, businesses, nonprofits and City government
- Offer models for collaborative, “real world” solutions
- Provide insights on resources and best management practices that foster affordable and equitable answers to sea level rise impacts on private and public assets.
Proposals should be submitted as Microsoft Word documents to sseacord@cityofportsmouth.com by 5 p.m. on December 10, 2022. Visit historyabovewater.org/2023-portsmouth for more information. Submit questions to the conference organizer, Stephanie Seacord at sseacord@CityofPortsmouth.com. Sessions will be selected by early January 2023.
by NRF User | Oct 5, 2022 | NRF News
Fall is in full swing and programming continues at Rough Point Museum. We hope you will join us for the exciting variety of programs planned this month!
TGIF Performance with Mixtapes and Pitches with Attitude
Rough Point Museum (680 Bellevue Ave.)
Friday, October 7
6:30 p.m.
$15, $5 for Salve Regina University students
Salve Regina University’s a cappella groups, Mixtapes and Pitches with Attitude, will close out our TGIF performances for 2022! Pack a picnic, bring chairs or blankets, and join us in the Formal Garden. Doors open at 6 p.m. In the event of rain, this program will be held indoors.
Funding provided in part by a grant from the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the Rhode Island General Assembly, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and private funders.
Asian Export Art: A Discussion with Karina Corrigan
Rough Point Museum
Thursday, October 20
6 p.m.
$15
Karina Corrigan, Associate Director – Collections and the H.A. Crosby Forbes Curator of Asian Export Art at the Peabody Essex Museum, will discuss the collecting of Asian export art (art made in China, Japan, and South Asia for export around the world) by Doris Duke, her parents, and others in the 19th and 20th centuries. Her talk will highlight pieces on display in our special exhibition, Inspired by Asia: Highlights from the Duke Family Collection.
Spooky Roam Around Rough Point
Rough Point Museum
Saturday, October 29
5 to 7 p.m.
$20, free for Newport County residents
Just in time for Halloween, grab your costume and come see Rough Point at its spookiest. Rooms will be illuminated by candlelight and the Formal Garden will be decorated with jack-o-lanterns.
Museum Property Updates:
Rough Point Museum is open for the regular season through Sunday, November 13. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. The museum will also be open on Monday, October 10 for Indigenous Peoples Day. Rough Point will reopen for A Rough Point Holiday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from November 25 to January 1 (excluding December 24 and 25). Ring in the winter season with us at Jazz in the House on Saturday, November 26 at 6 p.m.
Whitehorne House Museum, at 416 Thames Street in Newport, will close for the season on Sunday, October 30. The museum is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
Prescott Farm, at 2009 West Main Road in Middletown, is open daily from dawn to dusk.
by NRF User | Sep 13, 2022 | NRF News
During the sweltering summer months, I was lucky enough to be working in a refrigerator- a clothing refrigerator – hidden away in what was the servants’ quarters on the third floor of Rough Point Museum. Even though the climate-controlled textile collection storage lacks the never-ending ocean view that Rough Point is so famous for, it contains multitudes of other wonders – specifically the fashionable clothing of Doris Duke.
I felt like I had been working alongside Doris this summer, aiding her in organizing her prized possessions, stored carefully to extend their lives well beyond hers. I became accustomed to her style: she was practical but fun, stylish but unique. I was also introduced to all of her favorite designers and makers: Halston, Tina Leser, Taj of India, Star of Siam, Dior, and my personal favorite, surrealist designer Elsa Schiaparelli [i].
Schiaparelli and Doris seem like a match made in heaven. Both were extremely intelligent women who actively rejected the status quo in the quest for their own kind of life and maintained a good sense of humor. For these reasons, it makes sense that Doris had acquired some of Schiaparelli’s more practical designs, swimsuits.
I learned that when Doris liked something, she bought it in every possible color. Specifically, Doris owned three different colors of Schiaparelli’s “Briefer” swimsuit: green, black, and a rainbow-striped print. This design was a collaboration between Schiaparelli and the swimwear brand Catalina that consisted of a convertible two-piece seersucker bikini set that was adjustable for swimming or tanning (See Figure 1). This design gives the wearer options of how high-waisted the bottoms were, and if their top had straps or not (See Figures 2 and 3). This ingenuity was perfect for Doris’ lifestyle, providing coverage and comfort when she was catching some waves surfing, but also some stylish tanning abilities when relaxing on the beaches of Hawai’i.
A sweet and humorous detail on two of the three swimsuits is patches of Schiaparelli’s reinterpretation of the Catalina Swimwear logo, a flying fish [ii]. The first iteration of these swimsuits and the interpretation of the logo was seen in 1948 as the “Official Swim Suit of the Atlantic City Miss America Pageant” before the suits made it to mass production [iii]. The designs on the suits in Doris’ closet have a bit more whimsy to them, with a flying minnow on one of the suits. I like to think that these fun flying fish were part of why she purchased these glamorous swimsuits.
Even though these swimsuits are just a small portion of the giant clothing and textile collection that Doris left behind at NRF, they embody who she was, how she operated, and how she presented herself. The fact that this is a mass-produced design, and also a designer item, speaks to her dueling shopping habits of department stores versus couture houses. With all the money in the world, you would think she would only have purchased one-of-a-kind designer items, but she had a humbleness to her. She knew she was not better than a fairly-priced and well-made item of clothing. Although there are many pieces of clothing in this collection that are couture, they are outnumbered by the number of t-shirts, comfortable caftans, eclectic dance costumes, and tourist treasures that she connected with enough to take home, protect, and save.
By Mel Kennelly, University of Rhode Island intern
Melissa Kennelly is a current Graduate student at the University of Rhode Island perusing her master’s degree in Textile History and Conservation. She obtained her Bachelors of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2020, majoring in Apparel Design with a special interest in dress and textile history. Upon graduation into a global pandemic, she realized that she didn’t want to create more clothing for a world that already has more than enough, which is when she started pursuing a career where she could protect the textiles and clothing that already exist through the artforms of conservation and curation.
References:
[i] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elsa-Schiaparelli
[ii] https://catalinaswim.com/pages/about
[iii] https://thevintagetraveler.wordpress.com/2015/05/11/schiaparelli-for-catalina-swimsuit-1949-part-ii/
by NRF User | Sep 4, 2022 | NRF News
September brings with it a new season and the last of our Whitehorne Days and Second Sundays programming for 2022. We hope you will join us for these fun upcoming events! Advance registration is encouraged.
Whitehorne Day: Port City
Whitehorne House Museum (416 Thames St.)
Saturday, September 10
12 – 3 p.m.: Drop in for crafts, activities, and more
3-4:30 p.m.: Discussion with Silver Moon of the Tomaquag Museum
Free admission to the event and museum
Discover the role of the ocean in Newport life in the 18th and 21st centuries! From 12 to 3 p.m., drop into the garden to take part in crafts, activities, and conversations with craftspeople, experts, and shop owners. Uncover the secrets of the ocean with the Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, learn all about sailing with the crew of the Oliver Hazard Perry, and meet team members from The Sailing Museum and the Tomaquag Museum. From 3 to 4:30 p.m., join us in the back garden for a discussion with Silver Moon from the Tomaquag Museum.
Whitehorne Days programming is made possible through major funding support from the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, an independent state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Council seeds, supports and strengthens public history, cultural heritage, civic education, and community engagement by and for all Rhode Islanders.
Second Sundays
Prescott Farm (2009 West Main Rd., Middletown)
Sunday, September 11
12-3 p.m.
Free admission
Climb inside the historic Robert Sherman Windmill, explore the gardens with URI’s Master Gardeners, and enjoy the beauty of this open space. This month, the Boys and Girls Club of Newport County invites you to try your hand at rock painting!
Roam Around Rough Point Seasonal Celebration
Rough Point Museum (680 Bellevue Ave.)
Saturday, September 24
5-7 p.m.
Free admission
Join us for a very special Roam Around event to celebrate the end of summer! In celebration, admission is free for all attendees. Enjoy complimentary refreshments including Del’s Lemonade, listen to live music by local blues band Cee Cee and the Riders, and challenge your friends to lawn games overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
About The Museum Properties:
Active duty military and their families receive free admission to Rough Point and Whitehorne House Museums through Monday, September 5. Rough Point is open on Monday, September 5, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. To plan your visit, please visit newportrestoration.org/tickets.
