About

Welcome to the Newport Historical Society’s Collections Online, where you can search many of the Society’s extensive collections of artifacts, photographs, and manuscripts. These include:

  • fine and decorative arts, furniture, musical instruments, textiles and clothing, artifacts of everyday life, and architectural fragments, with particular strength in the 18th century.
  • photographs dating from the 1840s to the present, including many images and scrapbooks from the Gilded Age period, as well as urban renewal and historic preservation efforts of the mid-20th century.
  • more than 1,500 linear feet of manuscript materials, including merchants’ records from the 18th to the 20th centuries, church records for fourteen congregations, log books for dozens of ships, family papers for hundreds of Newporters, an extensive African-American history collection, town and city records, and a unique collection of diaries and journals.

Please note that cataloging and digitization is an ongoing process, and this online catalog is not a complete representation of NHS’ holdings. As we verify data and update our database, more items will be available for online access. For information about our full collection, please contact us.

See the Help page for tips on how to use this site.

Please note that the digital images reproduced in this database are the intellectual property of the Newport Historical Society and must not be reused or reproduced without permission. Fees may apply. For more information, please visit our licensing page. 

Contact
Newport Historical Society
82 Touro Street
Newport, RI 02840
401-846-0813

research@newporthistory.org