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. Opening July 1, 2023: NRF and Art&Newport are excited to present a group artists exhibition on cards and card playing: Games, Gamblers & Cartomancers: The New Cardsharps
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.
The Whitehorne House Museum is a museum of Newport furniture that celebrates the craftsman (and woman)- ship, artistry, and industry of 18th-century Newport furniture and related decorative arts.
This season, explore extraordinary examples from the collection in the new Newport Galleries of Art, Design, and Craft—now on view at Rough Point Museum (680 Belleview Avenue).
Visit our online museum store!
The products of the Newport Restoration Foundation Store celebrate the life and passions of our founder, Doris Duke. We invite you to explore our curated collections—including unique, one-of-a-kind pieces inspired by our museums’ design, collections, and stories— exclusively available here.
Click here to start shopping from home or visit shopnewportrestoration.org.
Whitehorne House Museum is open by appointment only. Please email visit@newportrestoration.org for more information.
Many spectacular examples from the Whitehorne collection are on display at Rough Point Museum this year in the Newport Galleries of Art, Design, and Craft. Visit today!
416 Thames Street Newport, RI 401–846–4152 ext. 123 visit@newportrestoration.org
Limited metered parking available.
Porringer by John Otis
Painted and embroidered mourning picture on silk
Caleb Wheaton tall case clock
Carver Chair with braided cornhusk seat
Portrait of Timothy Orne by Joseph Badger
Tankard by Samuel Vernon
Painting on silk of two women in black outside a church with embroidered details.
This tall clock case is the work of eminent Providence clock manufacturer Caleb Wheaton. Tall clock cases like this example were prized possessions of mid-eighteenth century American families. The bonnet of the case has a molded curved cresting that supports three fluted urn and flame finials. The bonnet is supported by two full and two half fluted pillars and the white painted dial is decorated with urn and scroll spandrels. The dial also includes the hour and second hands as well as a date register and the maker's name "Caleb Wheaton Providence". The door block and carved at top with a projecting carved shell, the plain base supported on ogee bracket feet.
This armchair is one of a group of three that demonstrates a strong Dutch influence on some of the earliest furniture made in Newport, RI. It also speaks to connections, perhaps less well known, with local Native American craft production. Unique to the Whitehorne example is the braided cornhusk seat, possibly woven by local Wampanoag or Narragansett weavers. This is an unusual feature found in other early chairs associated with Little Compton, which remained a fairly isolated agricultural outpost into the twentieth century but had early ties through families such as the Browns, who owned this chair, to nearby Aquidneck Island and the urban centers of Portsmouth and Newport, as well as to local Native American craftsmen. The red paint with gold decoration dates to the Victorian period; it covers a layer of blue paint, date unknown, but also not likely original.
A silver tankard with a tapering cylindrical barrel with molded lip and foot. It has an s-scroll handle parting from a drop motif and terminating in an oval shield. A dome cover with a spiral thumbpiece and formal bud finial cover the tankard. "LRP" is engraved on the handle and the scratchweight 29 ounces is marked on body and handle. Stamped with "SV" maker's mark on body and handle.