The Newport Historical Society is pleased to debut a new digital exhibit Making of a Newport Meal: Selections from the Newport Historical Society’s Collections, curated by NHS summer intern Michelle Montalbano, on the Explore Historic Newport app.
This digital exhibit, part of the Newport Eats history of food program initiative, explores the role of food and culture in Newport in the 19th and 20th centuries. Making of a Newport Meal reviews the early 20th century mussels industry, neighborhood groceries in ethnic and immigrant enclaves, and the guest book and vouchers from wealthy estate owners alike. The images exhibited range from digital reproductions of glass plate negatives, to bound recipe books, household records, and advertising cards and other ephemera.
To view Making of a Newport Meal click here. The Explore Historic Newport app is also available as a free download on the App Store and Google Play.
Newport Eats explores the lived experience of the past through food. The NHS is regularly featuring programs, events and exhibits that explore the role of food in Newport’s rich and diverse history. Click here to learn more about Newport Eats.
Michelle Montalbano is currently the Associate Archivist at The Digital Ark in Providence RI, a digital archiving and media development firm specializing in digitally preserving and sharing historic collections at many prominent Rhode Island cultural heritage institutions, including the Newport Historical Society, Little Compton Historical Society, U.S. Naval War College, St. George’s School, Brown University, and the Providence Public Library. She created two other digital exhibits for the Newport Historical Society: Fraternité: All Things Come Back to Newport, which connected to the docking of the Marquis de Lafayette’s ship L’Hermione on Newport shores, and Newport at War, which expanded upon the exhibition created by the Buchanan Burnham Fellows at the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard/ Revolution House—both in 2015. She also created finding aids for two collections in the Newport Historical Society’s holdings: the Old Stone Mill Collection and the Newport Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers records.
Above: A collection of historic images and advertisements featured in the digital exhibit “Making of a Newport Meal”.