Newport through a New Lens: Treasures of Photography at the Preservation Society

The Preservation Society holds an extraordinary archive of Gilded Age photographs encompassing portraits of celebrities and families, transporting foreign views, and images of Newport landmarks. Rare pictures by Felice Beato, José María Mora, Matthew Brady, Marian Hooper Adams and others capture the glamour and tumult of the era. Dr. Williams will explore how these pioneers pushed the limits of the medium, often blurring the line between truth and artifice, to cultivate intimacy, critique injustice and convey knowledge and power. Her talk will also reveal how photographs shed new light on Newport’s iconic architecture and art collections.

Dr. Nicole Williams is Curator of Collections at The Preservation Society of Newport County. She earned her PhD from Yale University in the History of Art with a specialization in American art. Dr. Williams has taught American art history at Yale University and Washington University in St. Louis. Her work as a scholar and curator focuses on the global contexts for 19th-century American art, women’s histories, and practices and theories of craft in the age of industry.

Her research has been published in museum catalogues and scholarly journals including Woman’s Art Journal, The Journal of Modern Craft, Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, Photography and Culture, and Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art. Dr. Williams recently curated the exhibitions Global Vistas: American Art and Internationalism in the Gilded Age (2020) at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum and The Celestial City: Newport and China (2023-2024) at the Preservation Society of Newport County, winner of the 2024 Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History.