etcWinter 2025

Winter 2025

Slim Aarons and Newport Coaching in Newport

The Magazine of The Redwood Library & Athenæum

Classicism in a New World: The Architecture of Colonial Newport

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W E LCO M E

CONTENTS 2

Dear members, shareholders, friends and supporters,

It is always a pleasure to welcome you to another issue of our magazine, which gives me occasion to communicate my gratitude for your support on behalf of the board and staff. In this sesquicentennial year, a moment in our nation’s history which should have us reflect on the shared citizenship that binds us, I would also underline my gratitude for your interest and participation in all that we are, in Newport and beyond.

Participation is civic engagement, with voting its most fundamental expression. It is also a concerted effort to take part in and enrich Newport’s cultural life for the benefit of all of its citizens. This was the original impetus for the founding of the Redwood, just as it is for this iteration of our magazine—a ‘Newport Special issue.’ Very helpful to those of us in the culture sector, Newport is an inexhaustible well of historical insight.

Indeed, the three articles contained herein touch on four centuries of our city’s history, showing us that Newport has for all times—as both source and site—incited countless notable interventions that render it a place like no other.

The lead article, imaged on the cover, cements in hard copy our hit Summer 2024 show devoted to the indelible pictures of photographer Slim Aarons, a visual record of a mythical Newport of sea, sun, and leisure now seemingly so distant from our present turbulence. The second piece, authored by the incomparable Paul Miller, also evokes days of bygone leisure, here in the realm of coaching. In it we learn of the historical context that undergirds this strand of the sporting life, the traditions of which endure to this day. Finally, the architectural historian John Tschirch reminds us that Newport was always a center of learned style. From the earliest days of the city’s grand public architecture—exemplified in Trinity Church and the Redwood itself—Newporters understood that buildings mean, and that Greco-Roman classicism was the exact language for their lofty aspirations.

With all of this in mind, and with so much forthcoming to celebrate Newport and its role in our nation’s rich history, it is always worthwhile to take stock of our good fortune to be living and working in this very special city, surrounded by its many remarkable natural attributes and cultural institutions. For those of you further afield, may reading this special issue have a ‘transportative’ effect, or better yet, may it spur you to make a return visit to Newport and the Redwood in 2026.

Slim Aarons and Newport Shawn Waldron

8

Coaching in Newport Paul Miller

1 2 Classicism in a New World: The Architecture of Colonial Newport John R. Tschirch

18 At the Athenæum 20 Permanent Installation at the Redwood

etc.

Winter 2025 | Vol. V, 1 redwoodlibrary.org Editorial Director Benedict Leca, Ph.D. Design Pam Rogers 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 2025-2026 Daniel Benson, President Michelle Drum, Secretary John D. Harris II, Vice President M. Holt Massey, Treasurer Elisabeth Clark Adam Keefe Maura Cullen Elizabeth Leatherman Edwin G. Fischer, M.D.* Waring Partridge Michael Gewirz R. Daniel Prentiss* Leslie Godridge Andy Ridall John Rovensky Grace Jeffrey Siegal William Guenther Robin Warren Edward W. Kane* *Emeritus Director

chartered 1747 Redwood Library & Athenæum 50 Bellevue Avenue Newport, Rhode Island 02840 401.847.0292 redwood@redwoodlibrary.org

Reprint of any content herein must bear following credit line: Originally Published in etc., The Magazine of the Redwood Library & Athenæum Winter 2025 Cover: Slim Aarons, Luncheon at Plaisance, the James Becks estate, 1953 © Slim Aarons / Getty Images.

@theredwoodlibrary @RedwoodLibrary @redwoodlibrary

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Slim Aarons and Newport

by Shawn Waldron

in North Africa and Italy and experienced the brutalities of war firsthand, including a close call with a Nazi bomb that earned him a Purple Heart. The violence and chaos left a deep scar that shaped his future in photography. In his own words, “The war was over; I The photographer George “Slim” Aarons (1916–2006) is hailed was eager to put all of that misery behind me.” as the quintessential chronicler of 20th-century American society Back in the States by December 1944, Aarons continued and the international leisure class. Born in the working for Yank1 but covering domestic tenements of New York’s Lower East Side stories. He soon began crisscrossing the In 1974, Slim wrote, “With its and later raised by extended family in New country photographing Main Streets from history, traditions, and Old Hampshire, Aarons enlisted in the U.S. Army Providence to Des Moines and even spent World atmosphere, there is no in the spring of 1939 aiming to learn the ten days traveling up the Missouri and Ohio resort in America that comes photography trade. Hitler’s invasion of Poland Rivers aboard the country’s last operating close to Newport.” in the fall thrust Aarons from the darkroom steamship. This new phase marked the to the front lines as a staff photographer beginning of five decades on the road (and for Yank magazine, a weekly magazine distributed to active-duty sea and sky). Following his honorable discharge in August 1945 he soldiers throughout the war. He spent years covering the front lines connected with an army buddy, the Pulitzer Prize-winning comic Following the exhibition Slim Aarons: Newport Days, a look at his photographic journey from combat to castle and the growing market for Slim Aarons works nearly twenty years following his death.

2 etc. Win te r 2 02 5

All images © Slim Aarons / Getty Images.

Claiborne Pell and Alletta Morris McBean at Newport Tennis Week, 1953.

Minnie Cushing, 1965.

illustrator Bill Maudlin. The two men followed Horace Greeley’s Coast assignment covering the Glidden Tour of Automobiles. It advice and headed West in search of work. was his first for the magazine; Aarons, as did most of the American Another army connection—one of Slim’s great professional public, considered Life to be the pinnacle of magazine journalism. skills was networking—introduced him to the actress Jean Howard. Slim joined the group near Mount Washington, New Hampshire The fomer Ziegfiled dancer turned MGM contract player was one and rode along as it made its way south through New England half of a Hollywood power couple with agent to Newport. He photographed the antique to the stars Charles Feldman. Howard was cars, drivers wearing period clothes, and sites Over the years Aarons also an enthusiastic amateur photographer along the way capped off with a grand parade developed a simple philosophy: who took an immediate liking to Slim. She through the streets of Newport. The tour’s photograph attractive people introduced him to Beverly Hills society and closing awards dinner was held at the Viking doing attractive things in Hollywood A-listers; in return he gave tips on Hotel, steps away from the Redwood. Life’s attractive places. photography and tagged along on a few shoots editors ultimately decided not to run the story, as her practice developed. The two remained so the negatives were returned and filed away friendly, and years later Howard was named godmother to Slim’s for safe keeping.2 Nearly seventy-five years later, the negatives were daughter Mary. extracted from the archive and, in the summer of 2024, made their Slim sold a California story to Look magazine in 1946 which public debut at the Redwood as the opening images in the original led to assignments from Holiday. The Look editors chose to include exhibition Slim Aarons: Newport Days. a portrait of the fledgling photographer on the contents page and Although Aaron’s first assignment for Life was never published, described him as, “brash, likeable…and one of the most fabulous it established a relationship with the magazine that would change GIs of the war.” Slim’s first trip to Hollywood proved valuable the trajectory of his life. After a handful of published assignments for its connections and photographic education—the legendary on the West Coast Life offered Slim the opportunity to become Hollywood portraitist Clarence Sinclair Bull taught him about the part of the small team tasked with reopening the magazine’s Rome importance of glamour and MGM chief Louis B. Mayer gifted bureau. Slim jumped at the chance and in the fall of 1948 settled him a simple rule of thumb: The women must be beautiful, the men into a modest room in the Excelsior Hotel. Of this time, Slim handsome. wrote, “The hotel had special rates for actors, newspapermen, and Aarons spent the next two years bouncing between the coasts courtesans. The reasons were obvious, the manager told me: actors chasing assignments. In the fall of 1947, Life offered him an East and actresses decorated the lobby; newsmen might be working on r e d w o o d l i b r a r y. o r g 3

Picnic-goers at the home of Rudolph Ellis Carter, August 1987.

a book (remember Grand Hotel?), freelance life was still an endless and beautiful courtesans always hustle for magazine assignments demanded the biggest and best and commercial work. That suites from their current lovers.”3 year, Life changed his career in Rome was a bustling hub a different way when he met of postwar activity filled with Lorita Dewart, an assistant in the Hollywood stars, political figures, Life photo department. Lorita, and high society. Hollywood a Boston native and graduate of productions arrived in the city The Mary C. Wheeler School following the reopening of and Briarcliff, had moved to New the Cinecittà studios. Aarons York to pursue her dream job photographed Orson Welles at Life. As Lorita told me, Slim productions, Anna Magnani was immediately smitten but she at home, Louis and Lucille needed a little convincing. The Armstrong along with the nuptial young couple became engaged on celebrations of Tyrone Power a weekend visit to Newport and and Linda Christian, dubbed married in 1951. Rita became the “Wedding of the Century”. View from the umbrella boxes, Newport Casino, 1953.

Slim’s muse, model, travel partner, He befriended the actor Joseph and sometimes assistant. She can Cotton and had his heart broken following a brief affair with Joan often be seen dressed in red, providing a brilliant pop of color.

Fontaine. In the first big scoop of his career, Lucky Luciano, the Over the years Aarons developed a simple philosophy: exiled gangster (and fellow Excelsior Hotel resident), invited Slim photograph attractive people doing attractive things in attractive to join him in his forced return to Sicily. The Eternal City, with its places. This mantra led him to some of the world’s most glamorous potent mix of grand palaces and ancient ruins, became, in his own and exclusive locations—Palm Beach, Palm Springs, Gstaad, words, “a wonderful place to begin my quest for the beautiful and Rome, London, Capri, Cannes, and, one of his personal favorites, the elegant.”4 There was no looking back.

Newport. In 1974, Slim wrote, “With its history, traditions, and By 1950, Aarons was back in New York living in a small Old World atmosphere, there is no resort in America that comes midtown apartment. His reputation was solidifying, but the close to Newport.”5 4 etc. Win te r 2 02 5

The Cushing brothers and friends surfing at Bailey’s Beach, 1965.

Michael Canfield and Jacqueline Bouvier at Newport Casino for Tennis Week, 1953.

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Croquet at Newport Casino, 1987.

The city’s allure as an stairs and stood amongst the elite summer destination was hundreds of stacked boxes. Five decades of non-stop shooting immortalized by Slim’s lens had produced 750,000 frames— during five separate assignments only a fraction of which had ever between 1947 and 1987. been seen by the public. The Collectively his photographs sheer volume was staggering, and highlight Newport’s gilded the list of locations, venues, and cottages, tennis at the famed personalities was unparalleled.

Newport Casino, water sports The two men shook hands and at Bailey’s Beach, the city’s within a year the archive was deep connection to sailing and shipped to the company’s archive the sea, and the personalities outside of London, where it that bring them to life. In The remains today.

Last Resorts, social historian Cleveland Amory famously Print sales were not part of called Newport the Queen of Slim’s lifetime practice, mostly Resorts, praising its blend of for practical reasons such as history, architecture, and social time, money and demand. As traditions. Slim’s photographs a committed freelancer, Slim’s reinforced Amory’s argument Spectators during match play at Newport Casino, 1953. professional life was an endless and played a critical role in loop of travel, shooting, editing, ensuring the city and its residents’ place in the visual lexicon of submission, securing new assignments, and repeating the cycle.

American society.

He preferred spending his limited free time indulged in one of Mark Getty personally acquired Slim’s archive for Getty Images his favorite activities—cutting his ample suburban lawn with a in 1997. The company was still fledgling, just two years old, and was hand mower—over toiling in the darkroom. Journalism was what keen to build up its library of photography. Getty turned up at Slim’s mattered. Beyond that, the market for fine art photography was 1782 farmhouse in Westchester County on a rainy morning unsure miniscule and undeveloped for most of Slim’s active years. What of exactly what the photographer had tucked away in his attic. The little interest that did exist was centered on black and white prints. two men, both well over six feet tall, climbed the rickety pull-down The acceptance of color photography as a legitimate art form was 6 etc. Win te r 2 02 5

Walter Stanley Gubelmann at the helm of Windago, 1965.

not only for its artistry but also for its role in slow to develop even as exhibitions such as the His legacy as a chronicler of shaping 20th century visual culture. From the groundbreaking show of William Eggleston’s high society and celebrity work at the Museum of Modern Art in beautiful people to the glamorous resorts such remains unmatched, and his 1976 helped to alter perceptions. Editorial and as Newport, his images serve double purpose work is celebrated not only for advertising work such as Slim’s was viewed and as historical documents and pieces of art. The its artistry but also for its role classified as commercial work that sat largely work is a testament to a unique moment in in shaping 20th century visual outside the purview of museums, galleries, and time—one that continues to inspire young culture. thereby, collectors. audiences and evoke nostalgia for the golden The shift began when London gallerist age of leisure and elegance.

Michael Hoppen recognized the inherent fine art value of Slim’s Shawn Waldron is Getty Images Curator of Exhibitions and manager work and came calling in the 1990s. While today there is a of the Slim Aarons archive. He is the author of Slim Aarons: Style robust global market for Slim’s prints, the change hardly occurred (Abrams, 2021) and Slim Aarons: The Essential Collection (Abrams, overnight—remember Mark Getty’s reason for buying the archive 2023). in 1997 was copyright and intellectual property, not fine art and property value. Since then, however, the art world and collectors 1Yank began including domestic stories as the war wound down and have come around to recognize Aarons’s oeuvre as a historically the enlisted men turned their attention towards returning home. The significant and aesthetically rich body of work. Slim Aarons limited magazine published its final issue in December 1945. editions prints are now sold in galleries on six continents. As the 2The Life darkroom staff labeled the negatives folder as belonging market for his work has expanded, so too has their value: in October to “George Ahrens.”

3 2024, a limited edition print of Poolside Glamour fetched $63,000 at Aarons, Slim. Once Upon A Time. Abrams, 2003.

Christie’s Fall Photography auction, easily surpassing the previous 4Ibid 5 Aarons, Slim. A Wonderful Time. Harper & Row, 1974. high of $40,300 set in 2022.

Slim Aarons’s photographs continue to captivate audiences with their timeless elegance, offering unfettered access to a world of beauty, leisure, and privilege. His legacy as a chronicler of high society and celebrity remains unmatched, and his work is celebrated r e d w o o d l i b r a r y. o r g 7

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Illustration 1. Theodore A. Havemeyer at the reins of his park drag coach at Friedheim (now Sherwood), Bellevue Avenue, Newport ca. 1892 Collection of the Redwood Library & Athenæum

COACHING IN NEWPORT

by Paul Miller

Two generations have now grown up in Newport to the for affluent sportsmen able to handle a private coach and a team pageantry and horsemanship of the triennial Coaching Weekend of four horses with reins held in one hand. American gentlemen as part of the accustomed summer schedule. Most spectators have spending time abroad took up the practice and, once back in a notion of the event as being tied to the city’s Gilded Age past America, invited English trainers to provide driving instruction to but as to how generally remains unclear. On the occasion, this year, a growing coterie of enthusiasts. Purpose-built road coaches were of the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the 1875 founding of initially imported from London, including Olden Times for Jay and The Coaching Club of America, it is time to acknowledge and the celebrated Tally-Ho for Kane. celebrate those ties.

By 1876, New York carriage maker Brewster & Company began The Coaching Club was founded in New York by DeLancey production of regulation road coaches based on the Tally-Ho for Astor Kane (1844-1915) and William Jay the Coaching Club’s growing membership, (1841-1915), New York sportsmen and which attracted numerous Newport summer By 1876, New York carriage maker members of the Newport summer colony. residents. Appropriate vehicles to choose from Brewster & Company began DeLancey Kane was born at his family’s included the heavy road coach, capable of production of regulation road estate Beach-Cliffe on Bath Road (now carrying multiple passengers at 2,866 pounds coaches based on the Tally-Ho Memorial Boulevard) and Col. Jay was the and the lighter, more elegant, park drag at for the Coaching Club’s growing brother-in-law of Hermann Oelrichs of 2,249 pounds. Given the weight, sturdy horse membership, which attracted Rosecliff on Bellevue Avenue. Their aim was to breeds were needed to pull the load, generally numerous Newport summer encourage “four-in-hand” driving in America, Hackneys or Morgans. Rules and traditions residents. a sport inspired by the nostalgic tradition of were quickly adopted by the Club relating to late 18th-and early 19th-century British mail equipage, livery and protocol. These efforts coaches renowned for the efficient skill and punctuality of their resulted in an elegant display, and made of the Club’s Spring drivers. Driving road coaches modeled after the earlier mail coaches and Fall Fifth Avenue parades a highlight of the social calendar. for sport became a pastime of English aristocrats in the 1840s. Newport evolved as a center of the Club’s summer activities with Coaching was transformed from a public service into a test of skill popular August meets commencing in 1878 and drawing such 8 etc. Win te r 2 02 5

Newport evolved as a center of the Club’s summer activities with popular August meets commencing in 1878 and drawing such resident participants as Isaac Bell Jr., August Belmont and sons, James Gordon Bennett, Harold Brown, Theodore Havemeyer, Ogden Mills, William Watts Sherman, William K. Vanderbilt and George Peabody Wetmore.

Illustration 2. The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand on Ocean Avenue, Newport, 1879, oil sketch on board by Thomas Eakins (American, 18441916) Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Mrs. Thomas Eakins and Miss Mary Adeline Williams, 1930-32-18a

resident participants as Isaac Bell Jr., August Belmont and sons, James Gordon Bennett, Harold Brown, Theodore Havemeyer, Ogden Mills, William Watts Sherman, William K. Vanderbilt and George Peabody Wetmore. (Illustration 1.)

Members’ coaches were shipped to Newport via the Fall River Line for seasonal use. For an organized coaching meet, the road coaches or park drags would convene along Narragansett Avenue east. The coaches would arrive around noon for a prompt 12:30 departure, precedence was accorded to senior members of the Club.

Other coaches were positioned by order of arrival. The owner-driver, referred to as the “whip”, was elegantly attired, wearing a long coat in Coaching Club colors with brass buttons, silk top hat, driving gloves and shielded by a monogrammed driving apron. He would

be seated on the top front box seat, flanked, generally, by his wife carrying a nosegay of flowers matching those decorating the fourin-hand horse team. Up to eight passengers could be accommodated behind them together with a liveried groom and a guard whose duties including sounding the coaching horn. The interior of the coach was reserved for servants and provisions for al fresco dining.

Most frequently, the coaches would make a short trot to Bateman’s Hotel on Ocean Avenue at Brenton Point. (Illustration 2.) There, the coaches were drawn up in parade formation and guests moved on to decorated tables set up under tents on the lawn. Luncheon followed with the Casino Orchestra playing for dancing. The parade then re-formed and moved on to the nearby Polo Grounds to watch a match before disbanding. Alternate popular runs included r e d w o o d l i b r a r y. o r g 9

Illustration 3. The Annual Coaching Parade at Newport - The Start from Narragansett Avenue As drawn by Mac F. Klepper for Harper’s Weekly, August, 1892 Collection of the Redwood Library & Athenæum

excursions to The Glen in Portsmouth, Belmont Farm at Hanging the Club’s final long-distance trip before World War I was the Rock and Ward McAllister’s Bayside Farm in Middletown. In three-day, 205-mile drive from New York to Newport and Oakland August, 1892, eighteen coaches, the largest number ever in line in Farm.

America, participated in the Newport meet; the line stretched from Newport-New York Club members with part-time residences Bellevue & Narragansett Avenues to the Pinard Cottages at the abroad founded the Reunion Road Club in Paris in 1893,participating corner of Annandale Road. (Illustration 3.) in the Paris-Trouville meets. While in New York, a Ladies FourDriving a coach on a public road between pre-arranged points, in-Hand Driving Club was formed in 1901 as a counterpart to according to a fixed time-table that allowed for changes of horse the Coaching Club for women who took an interest in driving. teams, was the ultimate test of the whip’s skill. Public coaching (Illustration 5.) The First World War and increased automobile excursions began in 1876 when DeLancey Kane ran the Tally- congestion diminished interest in the practicality of Coaching. The Ho on a seasonal basis, with subscription Interwar years, however, witnessed a short Driving a coach on a public road passengers, from the Brunswick Hotel in resurgence of the sport. In the 1920s and ‘30s, between pre-arranged points, New York to Pelham, NY. Whip Fairman renewed interest in coaching was led, locally, according to a fixed time-table Rogers, of Philadelphia and Fairholme on

by Gov. William H. Vanderbilt, son of Alfred, that allowed for changes of horse Ruggles Avenue, challenged the Club to and his cousin Muriel Vanderbilt Phelps, teams, was the ultimate test of undertake more arduous, cross-country before fading almost completely after World the whip’s skill. excursions, resulting in a round-trip New War II. Nevertheless, as Newport “whip” York to Philadelphia run on May 4-7, 1878.

O.H.P. Belmont predicted: “No sport which (Illustration 4.) The practice expanded and continued annually. requires the perfection of skill and dash and the exercise of nerve A Newport Casino to Tiverton, RI public route, with the coach will ever be abandoned by Americans”. Coaching in Newport was Aquidneck, was put on by W.R. Travers and H.R.A. Carey in 1892. reborn in 1968 through the initiative of the Carriage Association In the following generation, Alfred G, Vanderbilt of Oakland Farm, of America and its then president, J. Cecil Ferguson of Greene, RI, Portsmouth, would considerably expand these runs in New York, with the support of fellow whips James K. Robinson of Westchester, Newport and abroad, operating in England, between 1908 and PA, John M. Seabrook of Woodstown, NJ, Chauncey D. Stillman 1914, a London to Brighton route, with his coach Venture. In 1909, of Amenia, New York and George A. “Frolic” Weymouth of 10 etc. Win te r 2 02 5

Illustration 4. The Fairman Rogers Four-in-Hand, Fairmont Park, Philadelphia, 1879-80, oil on canvas by Thomas Eakins (American, 1844-1916) Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of William Alexander Dick, 1930-105-1

Chadds Ford, PA. Their passion for the sport was infectious and the enthusiasm generated by the initial August 9-11 exhibition and parade led to the creation of a triennial Weekend of Coaching.

Visiting “whips” and vintage coaches again maneuver the routes of yore under the auspices of the Coaching Club of America and The Preservation Society of Newport County.

Paul F. Miller is Curator Emeritus of the Preservation Society of Newport County and currently serves as Director of the Clouds Hill House Museum in Warwick, RI. Illustration 5. Coaching at Newport, Lady Whip at the reins of a four-in-hand coach As drawn by Max F. Klepper for Harper’s Weekly, August 1895 Collection of the Redwood Library & Athenæum

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Classicism in a New World: The Architecture of Colonial Newport

by John R. Tschirch, Architectural Historian

Charles Blaskowitz. A Plan of the Town of Newport. 1777. Courtesy of the Library of Congress. The cartographer captured Newport at the height of its prosperity, and just as the town would decline economically as a result of the War for Independence. Note the detailed list of all public buildings and houses of worship.

Robert Feke. Portrait of Ebenezer Flagg. Oil on canvas, ca. 1749.

The Gladys Moore Vanderbilt Szechenyi Memorial Collection.

Photo Courtesy of the Redwood Library. This prominent Newport merchant rests his hand upon the base of a classical column.

How did a 2,000 year Greco-Roman architectural tradition make its way across a 3,000 mile ocean to settle in what British colonists perceived as a New World? It is a story of cultural aspiration and design adaptation. The result in Newport, Rhode Island was the creation of a city propagating the virtues of enlightenment and practicing the vices of empire in architectural form. As architecture was not an established profession in the colonial period, it remained to the gentleman amateur and the local carpenter to conceive of and 12 etc. Win te r 2 02 5

raise up Newport’s buildings. In each case, the private dwellings and houses of worship demonstrate an adaptability to local climate and materials, and a degree of freedom in proportion, scale, and overall composition. By 1712, the minutes of the colonial assembly declared the city to be “the admiration of all.” Civic pride already manifested itself in the physical environment, a projection of an ancient classicism in a new setting.

Upon its founding in 1639, Newport developed into a cosmopolitan seaport, spurred on by the Rhode Island colony’s founding principle, and later codified in a charter, granting freedom of conscience, with a population comprised of a variety of Protestant sects, the Society of Friends, and Sephardic Jews. By 1640, the clearly established urban plan consisted of two main streets, Thames along the harbor with space for attendant wharves of the merchant oligarchy, and Spring Street running along the base of today’s Historic Hill district. The area of present-day Washington Square

Interior. Trinity Church

evolved from a spring site into a triangular area terminating to the addition to these classical forms, bolection mouldings are used for west in Long Wharf, established in 1680 by a group of proprietors, door and window frames and for the interior galleries and pulpit. a true corporate undertaking to create the ideal access point for Curved and raised from the wall surfaces, these mouldings lend a large ships. Easton’s Point, donated to the Society of Friends in the sculptural baroque quality, and are a testament to the skill of the 1680s by Nicholas Easton, was laid out in a classic grid pattern woodworker. And here is the critical point: wood was the primary

by Samuel Easton in 1725. These areas formed the basic template artistic medium of the colonial era. Architecture and furniture, of the city’s colonial districts. Noticeable were the lack of grand practical in use and ideal for the display of wealth and aesthetic buildings in the cityscape. Commerce dominated in this seaport discretion, were the wood carver’s domain. linked to the trading networks of the ever expanding British Munday’s Colony House (1741), placed at the eastern edge of Empire. Great architecture, when it began to arise in the 1700s, present-day Washington Square, created a grand visual terminus inserted itself where space allowed. since it aligned with Long Wharf. A visitor disembarking from Many 17th-century buildings in Newport, ship had a clear view to the building marked Trinity Church and the Colony and throughout the British colonies in North by a broken carved pediment with a gilded House became models, inspiring America, were more Medieval than classical. pineapple, a symbol of hospitality and wealth, the forms and adornments of The Great Friend’s Meeting House (1699) of voyages to far off places with a return of houses grand and modest, built is of half-timbered construction, a direct riches. The pineapple is also a mark of the by carpenters whose names are heir to the craft traditions of England. By connection with the Caribbean and the largely unknown, but whose the 1700s, classicism made its entry on the trade in enslaved Africans, here at the very skill interpreted the pediments, scene. During the first half of the 18th century, visual heart of Newport. Made of brick with bolection mouldings, and overall a lush, bold, baroque-inspired approach to brownstone used for the window surrounds, forms of Munday’s works. design prevailed, while a restrained classicism quoins at the corners, and the front steps, the appeared by mid-century, prompted by the structure cost a fortune as lime mortar and fashion for Palladian architecture transmitted through pattern books. brownstone had to be imported from outside of Rhode Island. The Among the earliest large scale works is Trinity Church (1726) by result is a building representing political power and mercantile Richard Munday, who excelled at extravagantly carved detail. The wealth.

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, based in Trinity Church and the Colony House became models, England, produced a book of designs in order to establish a uniform inspiring the forms and adornments of houses grand and modest, church type for Anglican houses of worship across the empire. In built by carpenters whose names are largely unknown, but whose accordance with Anglican practice and modeled on the galleried skill interpreted the pediments, bolection mouldings, and overall hall churches of London by Sir Christoper Wren and James Gibbs, forms of Munday’s works. The Nichols-Wanton-Hunter House Trinity Church is markedly simple on street level, while its steeple is (1747, and expanded in the mid-1750s) sports a lush pineapple an original concoction of classical pilasters, arches, and obelisks. In pediment. The Dr. David King House on Pelham Street contains r e d w o o d l i b r a r y . o r g 13

Trinity Church Tower and Steeple. HABS photo, 1969. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Nichols-Wanton-Hunter House.

Intersecting cornices, layered Corinthian-style pilasters and bolection mouldings for wall panels. Photo Courtesy of the Preservation Society of Newport County.

Detail, Split Segmental Pediment of Colony House. Double layered pilasters, projecting mouldings and the pediment broken in the center illustrate a baroque richness in exaggerated proportion. Photo, John Tschirch, 2020.

King House, ca. 17. Broken door pediment.

Photo Courtesy of the Newport

25 Walnut Street. A simply rendered triangular pediment and flat surfaced pilasters.

Restoration Foundation.

Photo Courtesy of the Newport Restoration Foundation.

William James Stillman. Photo, 1874. McKim Portfolio. The curved pediment supported on scrolled brackets is a dramatic example of early to mid-18th century Newport carving.

Courtesy of the Newport Historical Society.

14 etc. Win te r 2 02 5

Edward Hoppus edition of Andrea Palladio’s Il Quattro Libri, 1739.

Courtesy of Redwood Library and Athenæum.

Redwood Library. Roman Doric Portico and rusticated wood siding.

Photo Courtesy of the Redwood Library and Athenæum.

Vernon House. Doric pilasters and lintel door surround and rusticated wood siding inspired by the Redwood Library.

Photo Courtesy of the Newport Restoration Foundation.

a simplified version of a curved broken pediment. Depending upon one’s economic means, a house in Newport could feature an elaborate door surround supported by pilasters (half-columns) with fluting at extra expense or in a more affordable unadorned manner.

These entry ways illustrate the adaptability of the classical language of design, from simple to complex arrangements.

By the mid-1700s, a new spirit infused the design world, and it declared itself with the Redwood Library and Athenaæm (1747).

Aided by a fine collection of pattern books, Peter Harrison devised the Roman Doric temple front in wood for the group of divines, merchants, and men-of-letters who had first gathered in the 1730s as the Society of the Propagation of Knowledge and Virtue Through a Free Conversation. This philosophical and literary group evolved into the the Redwood Library Company, which promoted in its mission to “propagate virtue, knowledge and useful learning with nothing in view but the good of mankind.” This principle is the spirit of the Enlightenment at its very core. At the same time, wealth produced by the Triangular Trade in human enslavement was the stark economic foundation of this organization, where enlightened thought and imperial realities intersected, a trait not specific to the Redwood Library alone, but permeating colonial life. These two contrasting traits also expressed themselves in a home for books. Born of the book, the Redwood Library is based on a temple structure in Edward Hoppus’s 1739 edited version of Andrea Palladio’s Il Quattro Libri dell’ Architeturra, or The Four Books of Architecture, (1570). No baroque flourishes in broken pediments and high relief bolection mouldings characterize Harrison’s library.

If theatricality presented itself in Richard Munday’s buildings, serenity prevailed in Harrison’s designs. Forms are pristine, carefully framed, and the wood siding is rusticated to appear as stone, the preferred material for fine building in England. Local craftsmen quickly adopted these details for houses, among them the remodeling of the Vernon House (remodeled in the 1760s) on Clarke Street and the Buliod-Perry House (ca. 1750) on Touro Street.

Peter Harrison’s practice of architecture demonstrates that classicism is not simply the process of applying Greco-Roman

Vernon House. HABS drawing. The pilasters and rounded window form a Roman triumphal arch motif. The classical details are restrained and relatively flat against the wall, reflecting the Palladian taste prevailing in the latter half of the 18th century.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Nichols-Wanton-Hunter House. Detail of pediment. HABS drawing. A product of the earlier half of the 18th century, this door pediment demonstrates the baroque richness and high relief carving of the period, in contrast to the work at the Vernon House later in the century.

Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

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William James Stillman. Brick Market. Photo, 1874. McKim Portfolio. Courtesy of the Newport Historical Society.

The Buliod-Perry House. Rusticated wood with beveled edges meant to resemble stone was a labor intensive craft. This building is another example of the classicism of the Redwood Library influencing Newport’s domestic architecture.

Photo Courtesy of the Newport Restoration Foundation.

Detail. Brick Market. The alternating triangular and segmental pediments and the pilasters are rendered in exact proportions and rest relatively flat against the surface of the brick façade in contrast to the high relief details of early 18th century Newport buildings.

William James Stillman. Touro Synagogue.

Photo, 1774. Renowned as the photographer of the Parthenon, the Acropolis and ancient sites throughout Greece, William James Stillman was commissioned by architect Charles Follen McKim to record Newport’s 18th century buildings and objects of interest. Photo Courtesy of the Newport Historical Society.

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Washington Square. Photo, 1965. The two faces of Newport’s 18th century classicism in two landmarks that have stood the test of time: The Baroque richness of the Colony House rises above 20th century traffic; a detail of the Brick Market, its restrained Palladianinspired pilasters rest nobly as constant classical landmarks in a changing cityscape of utility wires and neon signs.

What survives as Newport’s artistic heritage from the colonial age is a lesson in cultural aspiration and technical adaptation. From the Parthenon atop the Acropolis in Athens to Redwood Library and Athenæum set upon a high point of land originally with views to Newport harbor, classicism has proved an enduring aesthetic.

columns to a cube. He proved that the classical idiom is an adaptable system, beginning with proportion and purity of form as a foundation and utilizing ornamental detail only to enhance, not to dominate. In this he was a disciple of the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, whose country villas in and around Vicenza and churches in nearby Venice are founded on basic geometries of square, rectangle, and circle. This simplicity is what made Palladio so attractive to English builders, who then brought this to their colonies overseas. One could build in an august manner on a budget and with limited technologies, creating a square that one added ornament if and when needed.

Two buildings assert the flexibility of the classical manner in Newport: Brick Market (1762) and Touro Synagogue (1763). In 1760, the proprietors of Long Wharf gifted land at to the city for a commercial center and Harrison created a Palladian palace as the triumphant symbol of maritime trade. The arcaded first floor provided open space for trading a variety of commodities; the second and third levels are marked by Ionic pilasters and windows with alternating triangular and curved pediments, a formula derived from Palladio’s designs and its English interpretations, such as Somerset House (ca. 1625) and the terraced houses of Covent Garden (1637), both by Inigo Jones, who introduced Palladian principles to England. Touro Synagogue is the most inventive of all of Newport’s colonial era buildings, due in great part to the fact that Jewish communities largely worshiped in private to avoid persecution so there were few models to consult. The great synagogue in Amsterdam did offer a template of basic features, which Harrison would draw upon in plans that addressed the need for a galleried space with a raised bimah in the center for the reading of the Torah, a storage cabinet for the holy texts, and the back wall facing east in the direction of Jerusalem. Other than these requirements, Harrison was left to devise an appropriate scheme. He produced a perfect cube of absolute exterior simplicity. Only four Ionic columns and three arches topped by a triangular pediment comprise the entrance porch. The interior is composed of twelve columns on two levels, representing the twelve tribes of Israel. Balusters for the railings are taken from Palladio’s churches, and the cabinet for the Torah with the frame for the ten commandments above is based on Georgian fireplace compositions. Something entirely unprecedented emerged from an innovative combination of historic precedents.

One site in Newport, a place of eternal rest, speaks to GrecoRoman influences of another sort; the imposition of classicism not only on buildings, but on a people. God’s Little Acre, a parcel in the Common Burying Ground, contains the gravestones of enslaved and free Africans and African Americans. One artist, Pompe Stevens, carved his name into the stone he created for his brother, Cuff Gibbs. With an arched top and scrolls on the sides, the marker is evidence of his skill and his time as an enslaved worker in the

Detail. Gravestone of Cuff Gibbs by Pompe Stevens in God’s Little Acre, Common Burying Ground. Newport, RI

stone cutting shop of the Stevens family on Thames Street. Pompe combined classical detail and created an image of his wife, Phillis, and son, who had both died in childbirth, in African dress for their grave marker. Not only the stones themselves but the names on them speak of classical precedence, for other grave markers bear the names of Cesar, Cato, and Hercules, all summoning up ancient Roman generals, senators, orators and gods. Just as in their buildings, colonial Newporters projected their classical will upon the enslaved. Among the earliest and intact signed, work of art produced by African Americans, these stones sit quietly, witnesses to a classical age in a New World, where the enlightened ideas of classicism and the realities of an empire of commerce coincided and co-existed.

What survives as Newport’s artistic heritage from the colonial age is a lesson in cultural aspiration and technical adaptation. From the Parthenon atop the Acropolis in Athens to the Redwood Library and Athenæum set upon a high point of land originally with views to Newport harbor, classicism has proved an enduring aesthetic. It has been a journey through time, cultures and artistic interpretations, all linked by the classical language of design, encapsulating hopes, desires, and the mix of dreams and realities.

John R. Tschirch is an architectural historian and an Honorary Member of the Garden Club of America.

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At the Athenæum

Austin and Mary Willis, Aliett Buttelman and Parke Leatherman, Will Leatherman

Benedict Leca, Janet and Toby Pell

Drs. Christina and Nicholas, John and Anne Manice

Gala 2025

Janet Pell, Elizabeth McMillen, Jackie Egan

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Anna and Adam Keefe

Chris Norton

Redwood Summer Party

John Harris and Linda Sawyer, Sal and Chris Naro, Joe and Kat Branson

Exhibition Opening “This Drop of Earth”: American Landscape Miniatures 1840-1890

Exhibition Opening Jackie Gendel: Recreation Myths

Newport Classical

Members enjoying Rovensky Room

Mark and Nancy Jarzombek

Larry Brown Swinglane Orchestra

Rovensky Room

Washington Salute

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PERMANENT INSTALLATION AT THE REDWOOD A project engineered by the Redwood Contemporary Arts Initiative (RCAI), graphic master Andrew Raftery has created a custom, block-printed Redwood Library wallpaper now permanently installed in the vestibule.

Winner of this year's prestigious Abbey Mural Prize from the National Academy of Design, the wallpaper is a monumental contemporary print made by hand-carving Redwood specific motifs into wooden blocks, in this way re-inscribing the Library as a center for the study of decorative arts, while gesturing to Newport's longstanding place as a city of artists and makers.

Join Us in Honoring the Past and Celebrating the Future

Become a Redwood Member redwoodlibrary.org/membership Tel: 401.847.0292 x 115

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Back cover graphic: Fleming + Company

An arrangement of works by artist-in-residence Kevin Dacey from the Redwood's recent purchase of a 75-volume trove of historic British country house books. (Photo: Kevin Dacey)

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From Redwood Library & Athenæum charter, 1747

www.redwoodlibrary.org