Newport Show 2016

When people choose to save and collect objects, they define what is important, interesting or lovely on a personal level. When museums and historical societies collect for the future, they also make a statement about what they think is, or should be, important to everyone – and what people in the future should know about the present. Collecting can be a very private activity, or a societal one. A collection has meaning to the collector and, if it survives, to all who interact with it going forward. What did people collect 160 years ago when the Newport Historical Society was formed? Initially the Society assembled papers and books as they sought to gather information about Newport’s history; collecting objects, furniture, paintings and photographs came later, and colonial-era buildings last of all. How they thought about history evolved with time, and what was important to collect to encompass and preserve that history consequently evolved. Today the Newport Historical Society’s Archives & Special Collections consist of more than 1,500 linear feet of manuscript materials including merchants’ records from the 18th to the 20th century, church records, log books, family papers, an extensive African-American history collection, town and city records and a unique assortment of diaries and journals. Additionally the Trends in Collecting Today  Curating the Future  22