The Ocean House Hotel, image from the NHS Collections.
Thursday May 9, 2013 at 5:30pm
Colony House, Washington Square
$5 per person, $1 NHS members
Please RSVP to 401-841-8770
Before the American Revolution Newport was a center for trade; in the 19th century the city became a popular vacation destination. When did Newport transition from trade to tourism? The Newport Historical Society’s Adjunct Curator Matthew Keagle will answer this question during May’s lecture.
The decade of the 1840s saw Newport at a crossroads. Devastated but not destroyed by the American Revolution, the town began to reinvent itself in the early 19th century. Learn about this neglected but pivotal period of Newport history when trade, not tourism, became the business of the town.
Matthew Keagle is enrolled in the Doctoral program at the Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture in New York City. He holds an MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. In 2010 he was the Newport Historical Society Buchanan/Burnham Fellow. Matt’s interest and expertise is in colonial-era material and cultural history, with a focus on 18th century military history and culture and the American Revolution. Matt is the first appointment as the Adjunct Curator at the Society.