Explore the World with the Museum Travel Alliance

The Redwood Library & Athenaeum is an esteemed member of the Museum Travel Alliance (MTA), a consortium of museums dedicated to enriching cultural exploration through exclusive travel. The MTA provides affiliated museums and cultural institutions with access to carefully curated, behind-the-scenes travel experiences led by renowned curators and scholars. Embark on transformative journeys with the MTA and the Redwood, gaining new perspectives on art and culture. Go behind the scenes of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, attend exclusive events in historic venues, join owners to explore their private collections, and experience a bygone era of travel on elegant, privately chartered small ships and luxury trains.

Sicily by Sail: Round-Trip Valletta Aboard Sea Cloud II

October 10 – 18, 2023

Cuba: Art, Culture & History

October 28 – November 3, 2023

Cultural Treasures of Dallas-Fort Worth & the American West

November 2 – 6, 2023

History & Gardens of the Caribbean: Round-Trip Barbados Aboard Emerald Azzurra

February 24 – March 2, 2024

Treasures of Northern Europe, Medieval to Modern: England to Denmark

Aboard Ocean Albatros

April 27 – May 7, 2024

Alluring Aegean: Athens to Istanbul

Aboard Sea Cloud II

July 8 – 17, 2024

We LC o M e

Dear Friends and Members,

It is in collaboration with you, and the entire community of our forebears, that we have been the anchor institution in Newport and the region for 276 years. Thank you. Certainly, our role as the city’s intellectual center is as vital as ever. But it bears reiterating that in addition to the lectures, concerts and exhibitions we host as a civic commons, we forever remain an active collecting institution as a municipal archive. In short, we enrich lives not only through our programs, but also as much through what we hold, collect and display in the public trust. Last year’s exhibition Treasures of the Redwood: Celebrating 275 Years was proof—if proof were needed—that history is most accessibly apprehended through the material culture of the past; and that even the most abstract of the historian’s theoretical ruminations inevitably must refer back to objects, text to tea cup.

It is for these reasons—and with particular appreciation of the power of object-based learning for our younger patrons—that with the help of generous benefactors we continue to enrich our core collections. Hence the theme of this issue—collecting. Accordingly, you will find in these pages a lead article on collecting—that “gentle madness”—and four pieces that remind that collections are actually rather more people than objects: the first treats Roderick Terry, perhaps the single greatest collector/ benefactor to the Redwood, followed by, successively, one on the set of important architectural drawings of Touro Synagogue bought with the thoughtful largesse of Mrs. Elaine Rosenberg; another on the monumental black Murano glass chandelier by superstar contemporary artist Fred Wilson, acquired through the generosity of a major foundation and seven forward-thinking benefactors listed on p. 13; and a last one on a singular set of photo albums containing historic images of Newport found nowhere else in the city purchased with funds drawn from the 2012 bequest of Lillian and Rudolf Dwyer.

In closing, if collecting is a “disease” or a “gentle madness,” we might view its fruits in the still gentler terms of storytelling and autobiography. In keeping with our mission of operating “with nothing in view but the good of mankind,” what we continue to gather allows us to not only strengthen our community through our shared history, but also to look out onto the world with the satisfaction that we honor history while shaping the present with the collections we hold.

Thank you again, and see you soon at the Redwood,

Contents

2 Art of Collecting nick Basbanes

4 Roderick terry: the Clergyman Collector

Michael simpson

6 Drawings of touro synagogue

Daniel snydacker, Ph.D.

10 Fred Wilson: Black Light and enlightenment

Leora Maltz-Leca, Ph.D.

14 In Focus: Redwood Collects Vintage newport

Paul Miller

18 At the Athenæum

Celebrating 275 Years

20 exhibitions at the Redwood etc. summer 2023 | Vol. IV, 1 redwoodlibrary.org

Editorial Director

Benedict Leca, Ph.D.

Editor

Patricia Barry Pettit Design

Benedict Leca, Ph.D. Executive Director

Mission Statement

Founded in 1747 on the enlightenment ideals of intellectual pursuit and civic engagement, and committed to lifelong, interdisciplinary learning, the Redwood Library & Athenæum generates knowledge in the humanities for the benefit of the widest possible audience with “nothing in view but the good of mankind.”

Redwood Library & Athenæum

Board of Directors 2022-2023

Janet Alexander Pell, President

Daniel Benson, Vice President

Michelle Drum, Secretary

M. Holt Massey, Treasurer edwin G. Fischer, M.D., Honorary Board Member

R. Daniel Prentiss, Honorary Board Member

Marvin Abney

Josiah Bunting III

Maura smith Cullen

Jacalyn egan

Michael Gewirz

John Rovensky Grace

John D. Harris II

Aida neary

Waring Partridge earl A. Powell III

Andy Ridall

Jeffrey siegal susan sipprelle

Robin Warren chartered 1747

Redwood Library & Athenæum 50 Bellevue Avenue newport, Rhode Island 02840

401.847.0292 redwood@redwoodlibrary.org

@redwoodlibrary

@theredwoodlibrary

@RedwoodLibrary

@redwoodlibrary

Pam Rogers Design

Reprint of any content herein must bear following credit line: originally Published in etc., The Magazine of the Redwood Library & Athenæum summer 2023

Cover:

(Grolier) Club Bindery binding, 1900 for: Songs from the Dramatists

By Robert Bell new York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1882 the Redwood Library & Athenæum’s commitment to environmental responsibility includes utilizing paper products manufactured through sustainable forest practices and using low VoC inks and solvents.

Gift of the estate of Roderick terry Jr., september 1951. Formerly owned by Roderick terry (sr.)