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Textiles in 18Th-Century Rhode Island

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Textiles in 18Th-Century Rhode Island ________________......1 RHO DE ISLAND HISTORY Published by The Rhode island Hi.\wrical ,XJCicty cssumes THE RHODE ISLANO H I~ TO R lCAl <;{)OETY no responsIbility fur opiniom of con ttibuwn:. 5 2 POWU. STa U T, PROVIDE:'"C1. '-H O DE ISLAND Issued Quan erly at Providence, Rhode Islan d, February, M ay, August, an d N ovember. Second class pos tage paid at Providence, Rhode Island. Joseph K. 011, presiden t GCOf,lCC C. Davis, vrce preside n t Table o( CO Ul ~n ts Du ncan Hu nter Mauran, vice president Bradford F. Sw an , ,~ec re l ary M rs, Norman T. Bolles. (J5s isw n t secretary Paintings at john Brown House Townes M . Ha rris, Ir., tteasu ret by Fr<ln k H. GIKkfyca r./r. 35 Lawrence Lan ph er. a ,Hi .~ra nr tetosurer Albert T. KlyberJ!:, di rector " Fortunes to be Acqu ired"- Tex tiles in t at b-Cemurv Rhode Island by f lorence M. Mont gomery 53 PUBUCA n ON S COM ." '1 tTTIE Stuart C. Sherm an . chairml Jn Rhode Island Housew righrs, Shipwrights, Henry L. P. Beckwith, [r. and Related Craftsmen Mr s. Ph ilip Dav is hy Joseph 1<.. O tt (,5 Wendell Ga rren Nor man W. Smith Earn ing a Living 1788-1818: lob Danforth, Cabinetmaker by William M. Jlilh bur y 81 STAff Joel A. Cohen, editor 150th Annual Meet ing 94 Noel P. Conlon, n ld n aKjn ~ edi tor Mildred C. Tilley, picture editor VOLUME 31, NUMIlERS 1$, 3 MAY AND AUGU ST 1911 T ni.1 ,~ dl"C tI0 n from the S(Jci('ly'.~ prized m useum po.~ seH i om Inclu'/rl .\I·wral ilrnu mode by skillell Rhode Idand "rri..vins In the /8th century. The nrve r wn kord. c. 1725, bears Ihe mark of Newport _I ilver,Imuh S"m uel Vern on (1683· 1737). Robert Feke pmnted the pon rai l of the Revr rrnd tohn Callender In Newport. 1745: and the Krwt WinK chair 1\ atw/>lIl('d 10 the hand of lohn Godda rd o f S ewport. c. / 7(,(1 The fKqui.~Hi:ly nand.mme pIe crust Ulble wa~ prol>ahly mode In Chat/elmn. SOlllh Carolina. bUI it ha.~ a hl'lOry of rarly Rhode /.land ownenhip. """'o.t l~r" bv CDI~""," dul'on! .nd '.ul GD~lun I/.hod~ ""'nd Sch"DI,,1 ~..... TrJI\'IHd till' ,'lUI", 1m trnn "" lilt, RllOdc "'1<1/1.1 IIII/miclIJ .\u, J,'I" ',",lhll1l't ',,'<,/,<,r JIl lli~J. tdwlIJ Martl1l SHm/' 1<'1'''11,'<1 d icntv l,u,~1 ,,,lInll"/1 "I ""kf'''/'''c~ of Rhode "1,m,I"" IlIlll RhO/k "1,111<1 ,'V,'I1I>"" Some are shown ha," In tht' Cdl'I1l"t 0/1 \\'llh'rIIlllll \!ret'! dllplllved "wJlIl '''III'' ftJ:,<1/11 10 o"la dud titn."""" 3S Paintings at John Brown House by Frank H. Guodyw r, /r," Through Art we gam hl lther glllnp.'> c,<; oj Naturc­ was encou ntered by th e nmeteenrh-ccntury an critic Thomas Cole. and coll ector lames lackson Iarvcs who lor over ten years attempted without succ ess to sell to an American Thomas Jefferson in "Hints to Americans Travelling museum - at a price cons iderably below his cost - his in Europe, 17RX" expressed w hat was probably the own collccnon oi early Italian paintings assembled prevailing sentiment of m ost pragmatic Americans in during years abroad. In 18591;nves approached Charles the years immediately succeeding the War for Eliot Norton w irh hope that the Boston Athenaeum Independence in abbrcvrared remarks on painting wou ld buy th e co llect ion, but the Athenaeum was and statuary - unable ro sohcn funds necessary for purchase. Five Paintin g..Hatuary. Too expensive for th e state of years larer with sti ll no buyers larves offe red thc wealth umong U ~ _ 11 would be usetess therefore and collection 10 th e Ne....'· York H istorical Society. Again he preposterou s ;or us to endeavor to make ourselves met w uh no success The Society Solw no reason why it ccnncuseurs In tho\e e ns. Th ey are worth seeing. should acquire a collection of pictures that had aroused bur nor .H udying. 1 so lmlc Interest among the public while on vie ..... in From a man of such obvious intellectual eclecticism . Ne..... Ynrk Finally in 1871 the entire co llec tion of 119 jeflerson's ncgauve remarks may come as a surprise. Ital ian paimings w as so ld to Yale College tor S22,(XX). Nonerhele.." that such an att itude prevailed seems Today th e larves Collccncn is one of the prized indrspurable. posse ssion s of Yale University An Callery. Many oi America's leadtnx artist s oi the eighteenth Like other art academics, athe nae ums and histo rical century consistently belittled the American co nnois­ associations organized in the n ine teenth century, the seur and his bck of patronage to the arts, In the 1760s Rhode Island Historical Society was founded by a small fohn Singleton Copley blamed his lack of development group of cinzcns concerned about genera l public apathy on the "disadvantages" of hl'ing a painter in the and subsequent disregard for tangible materi als of colonies, Charles Willson Peale rem ar ked to the history. ln its constuuucn of 1822, the Society's expatri ated American artist Ben jamin West in Londo n raison d'eue was so defi ned : th at "the Sta te of the a rts in America is not very to procure and preserve whatever relates to the favo rab le at present." z Like so many of his peer s, topography, lInti'1uitic$, lind civil, religious, literary an d Peal e found it difficult to support a fam ily on income rla lutlll hislOry of the Stare of Rhode Island, derived solely trorn po rt rait co mmissions and was To accomplish th ese ends it s activities were tu forced [(J dive rsity his ac ti vities. The situ atio n wa s n o incl udc col lection and preservation of a library of books, better over fifty years later when T homas Cole pa m ph lets, m ap s, manuscripts, prints, pa pe rs, and (I8Ul- ltl4tl j lamented - painrinXs "relating m the histo ry of Rh ode Island , .." I am not the rainrer I ,~llO u l d Iwve been had there It was also to maintain a museum, been a hixher r<l .,re. Imlcad of workin!': ac cor ding 10 the W h ile ItS founders recognized value in collecting dictares of fa lin}: and im axi na tioll, / have painted to painnngs and museum objects, the Society nonetheless plea.,e Olller, in order to exi, r 1 was primarily conceived of as an in stitution ro Insntunonal Ind ifference to the fine urrs was not encourage and promote the st udy of h istory. That a uncommon Perhaps the must notorious of all slighb collection of paintin,.;.. and museum " rclics"- lndian ·B ,A. Y,Jll"UOI H"rSII' . .\1 A wuncnhur Pw/:ram LO Early Am c ncan Culture Funk II Goods-car, Ir has served as J Charles Coleman Scllcrv. Chtlr/(', WJI/\(l/I Pf'a/e cura tor ul r alnlin/:s at the Rh od e Island Historical SOCIety, (:"'c ... Yu rk I%<)I! H 1969-191 1, and cu etcnrlv IScurator ni luhn Brown House. ; F1ail'ara "' ,,\'ak AmalcQn I'tllrHlTlg v I rll" ~ Jn "r eenlh (',mur,' R<:<lII\III. /d'·dIJ'm and th., Amarctln 1 "apr" "I Thl>lll'h '''''''''''" [L!69 hp"Tlwcr l:'\:cw York , I96'JJ M. 36 rAI~TlN G~ artifacts, small household implements, and personal time, interspersed in Society publications were art icles ephemera- was inctderual is borne out in the Society's on an hisruncal subjects, notably George C. Mason's records of accessions. lectures, publications, and work on Gi lhert Stuart and Professor Carey Poland's co rresponde nce. pion eer research on Robert Feke - first delivered as a As the Society advanced Into the IS70s, its foun ders' lecture before Society members. broad defin ition of institution al goal s and activities Even though Per ry recognized the value of museum reali zed grea ter actuality. It would be w rung however to collections, ohiects like paintings were not int erpret ed conclude that an eq ua l ble nd of act ivity existed; rather or collected as all objec ts. It was not that Perry or his there ex isted a greater d ive rsity. For exa mple, toward ci rcle lac ked the " h igher tas te" alluded to ea rlier by the end of Edwin Stone's term as cabinet keeper 11851­ Thomas Cole, but ra ther that pn m arv emphasis w as on 1~80 I , he was able 10 pomt wi th satisfaction 10 a faitly study oi history. Perry expressed such a sentiment large collecnnn of "likenessses of Rhode Islanders and when he remarked th ai whereas in ", an Art Club or Rhode Island events" as well as to indicate a degree of a School of Design, the olrti~t and his wo rk might well aesth etic appreciation in noting th at " the pictures . ta ke the first placc .:" in an his torical society the have been rc-hung with some regard to orde r and 10 pro mi nen ce of the surer or event as it rela tes to Rhode fitness."! It is also recorded during this pe riod that the Island histo ry was of paramou nt im po rta nce.
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