NRF promotes and invests in the architectural heritage of the Newport community, the traditional building trades, and Doris Duke’s fine and decorative arts collections, for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of all.
As a leader in the preservation of early American architecture, NRF supports research and education in areas directly related to its collections and issues of critical concern to the field of historic preservation.
Visit Doris Duke’s art-filled mansion and enjoy panoramic ocean views from the extensive grounds. Open late March to November.
The Vernon House is a site for expansive story-telling, contemporary dialogue, and preservation trades skill-building.
Newport Restoration Foundation holds one of the largest collections of period architecture owned by a single organization anywhere in the United States.
Celebrate excellence in historic preservation efforts within the City of Newport, Rhode Island.
Live amidst history by renting one of our many historic properties.
You’re invited virtually to Rough Point for a special jazz concert! In Doris Duke’s lifetime, music often filled the halls of her Newport home, and NRF is excited to bring jazz music back into the house for this filmed performance featuring Leon Lee Dorsey, Greg Skaff, and Mike Clark playing interpretations of tunes by jazz titan Thelonious Monk. Their album, MonkTime, is available now from Jazz Avenue 1 Records.
No registration necessary. This video program will be available for viewing on YouTube after its completion.
Click here to join the event: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wle0E4Xr9oM
We hope you will consider supporting NRF’s free online educational programming by making a donation. Please click here to give today.
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Join the Newport Restoration Foundation and its Whitehorne House Museum for a series of online discussions that explore why Americans routinely seek inspiration from the material culture and personalities of British, colonial America. In other words, “Why do we return to the Colonial Revival?”
Beginning at 7:00 pm, every Wednesday night in July, we will host a variety of scholars, artisans, and museum professionals to discuss the profound impact 18th century aesthetics and history had and continue have on American culture.
July 28th Revivals in Practice: Ruth Taylor, the Executive Director of the Newport Historical Society, and Reginald Richard, an actor in the Washington, D.C. area and an interpreter at George Washington’s Mt. Vernon will join NRF staff to discuss the practical realities and challenges of interpreting 18th-century American life.
July 21st Comparative Revivals: Dennis Carr, the Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator of American Art at the Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens, Elizabeth Humphrey, former Curatorial Assistant and Manager of Student Programs at Bowdoin College Museum of Art and PhD student, Art History, University of Delaware, and Lydia Mattice Brandt, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Art History at the University of South Carolina, will compare a variety of aesthetic revivals in American life, and consider their significance, from Southern California’s famed Mission Revival, to the Moorish Revival of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and the 20th and 21st century revivals of Colonial Southern architecture and material culture.
Please RSVP to Dr. Erik Greenberg at erik@newportrestoration.org to receive free access to the online discussions. Attendance to every session is not required.
July 14th Reviving Colonial Furniture: Steven Brown, a former member of the cabinet and furniture making faculty for 21 years at the North Bennet St. School in Boston, and Mickey Callahan, the co- founder and past president of the Society of American Period Furniture Makers will discuss why they find inspiration and excitement in recreating the forms and styles of 18th-century American furniture.
Beginning at 7:00 pm, every Wednesday night in July, we will host a variety of scholars, artisans, and museum professionals to discuss the profound impact 18th century aesthetics and history had and continue to have on American culture.
July 7th Creating Antiques: Briann Greenfield, Ph.D., author of Out of the Attic: Antiques in 20th Century New England, and Erica Lome, Ph.D., historian and the Peggy N. Gerry Curatorial Associate at the Concord Museum will discuss the ways in which a group of early 20th century immigrants helped create the American antique business, spurring interest in 18th-century American furniture and other material culture.
In the next edition of our virtual Furniture Inside Out series, join us as we explore a special 18th century mahogany desk in the Whitehorne House Museum collection. Furniture maker and researcher Jeffrey Greene will show us what makes the piece a “typical” Newport desk and what features make it unique—as well as what the desk can tell us about its makers and original owners.
This special virtual experience will premiere at 6:30 pm EST on Tuesday, February 9 on our YouTube channel. No registration or payment necessary. This video program will be available for viewing on YouTube after its completion.
Click here to join the event: https://youtu.be/5QNRUlBpwJY
We hope you will consider supporting NRF’s free online educational programming by making a donation. Please click here to give today: https://bit.ly/2z68z7I
On Thursday, November 19 at 6:30 PM, you’re invited to enjoy a rare look at one of the hidden gems of Newport’s streetscapes. In our virtual Preservation Pop-Up series, we’ll take you behind-the-scenes at one of our 75 historic homes to learn about its history and the restoration process. On this episode, we’ll check out the projects that are keeping our preservation crews busy at Sisson Collins House at 40 School Street in Newport!
This special virtual experience will premiere at 6:30 pm EST on Thursday, November 19 on our YouTube channel. No registration necessary. This video program will be available for viewing on YouTube after its completion.
Click here to join the event: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ynmp0RYKalc
We hope you will consider supporting NRF’s free online educational programming by making a donation. Please visit www.newportrestoration.org/support-programs to give today.
For our final Second Sunday program of the year, we join the crew of Oliver Hazard Perry Rhode Island aboard their ship for a virtual tour, explore what ships and windmills (like the historic windmill at Prescott Farm) have in common, and put together a craft that catches the wind like sails do!
This special virtual experience will premiere at 6:00 pm EST on Sunday, October 11 on our YouTube channel. No registration necessary. This video program will be available for viewing on YouTube after its completion.
Click here to join the event! https://youtu.be/OMcrOYDZFQw
Thanks to Doris’s wishes, the public can enjoy Rough Point’s stately English portraiture, sumptuous Flemish and French tapestries, ornate European furniture, and vibrant Chinese export porcelain. But how and why did these objects end up on display at Rough Point? What do a Russian empress, a makeup mogul, and a tobacco heiress have in common? Who were the collectors behind the Rough Point collection?
This edition of Myth & Mystique will take a closer look at Doris Duke’s fine and decorative arts collection at Rough Point. Join us as we explore the Rough Point collection, listen to stories about special objects, and meet the women collectors whose tastes and collectors’ eyes paralleled Doris Duke’s own passion for collecting.
This special virtual experience will premiere at 7:00 pm EST on Tuesday, September 29 on our YouTube channel. No registration necessary. This video program will be available for viewing on YouTube after its completion.
Click here to join the event: https://youtu.be/FhKYOYob-v8
Photo courtesy of Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Historical Archives, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
Join us virtually at the Whitehorne House Museum for an exciting historical music performance by the Ministers of Apollo, Eliza and Erik Lichack. Erik and Eliza, using historic instruments, perform selections you may have once heard around the streets and in the homes of Newport during the 18th century, including a piece from a comic opera and a Rhode Island regiment march. The pair also introduce the importance of taking tea, and highlight the value of music and tea to the social lives of Americans during the time period.
This special virtual experience will premiere at 6:30 pm EST on Wednesday, October 7 on our YouTube channel. No registration necessary. This video program will be available for viewing on YouTube after its completion.
Click here to join the event! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqlj6W8arJ0
