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Winter Program Series: "Lifting the Curtain"

Material Clues: A Framework for Object Interpretation

With Allison Donoghue, Decorative Arts Research Fellow

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What you need to know

March 12, 2026 11:00am – 12:00pm
  • This program will be held at Preservation Society headquarters, 424 Bellevue Ave., Newport.
  • Parking available onsite.
  • Program will be held in the Burnham Boardroom on the first floor.
Ticket Type Price
Non-Member Adult $25
Member Adult $20


Program Dates:

The dates on which this program will be held are listed below.

Friday, February 27
Thursday, March 12


Using a mystery object that will not be immediately identifiable, participants will be guided through the steps of a formal Prownian Analysis, pioneered by Jules Prown, the Paul Mellon Professor Emeritus of the History of Art at Yale University. At the end of the analysis, the group will draw hypothetical conclusions about what the object is, who owned it and what it was used for. The program will end with the revelation of the object’s function and an open discussion about how we study and engage with the material world.


Allison Donoghue approaches material culture and decorative arts through an interdisciplinary lens incorporating art historical, archaeological and anthropological theory into her work. She earned her master’s degree in Decorative Arts, Design History and Material Culture from the Bard Graduate Center in 2024. Her Qualifying Paper, “‘A bead, a thimble or some other pauble’: Thimbles and Self-Identity in Early New York,” interrogated the social and culture role of the thimble in the creation of identity for both settler women and Indigenous groups living in 18th- century New York.

Prior to her role as Decorative Arts Research Fellow at the Preservation Society, she spent a year as the Tiffany & Co. Foundation Curatorial Intern in American Decorative Arts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is excited to contribute object-centered research to the upcoming collections catalogue.

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