New Web Portal Puts Newport's Rich History Online

NEWPORT, RI—Imagine being able to sift through a database of art, objects, manuscripts and documents chronicling the remarkable history of Newport.

Dream no more: Newportal, a free online collaborative database of Newport history has launched, thanks to a partnership between city cultural heritage institutions and a grant from the Rhode Island Foundation.

The site, available at www.newportalri.org, gives the public access to a growing collection of important artifacts ranging from paintings, furniture, textiles, to documents. The goal is to help researchers, encourage collaboration, promote scholarship and shed light on the unique history being preserved by local institutions.

Newportal was developed by a collaborative of five institutions: the Newport Art Museum, the Newport Historical Society, the Newport Restoration Foundation, the Preservation Society of Newport County and the Redwood Library and Athenaeum, a news release stated.

“By uniting access to collections across institutions, Newportal is a unique resource that encourages scholarship and presents a holistic story of Newport County’s cultural and social history,” the release stated. “The website will be useful to scholars and students of Rhode Island history and material culture, and visitors to the City-by-the-Sea.”

The site was first conceived in 2012 when a group of archivists and museum professionals met to discuss the creation of an online collections database where member institutions could share information.

The Rhode Island Foundation awarded a grant in 2013 to begin planning. It bolstered the effort in 2014 with a $60,000 implementation grant.

Daniel Kertzner, the Foundation’s grantmaker in the Arts sector, wrote in a statement about Newportal, “Our support promotes the reputations of the participating organizations as community resources and makes their collections much more accessible. [Newportal] is a wonderful example of how technology can be used to drive how people engage with arts and culture.”

The site will grow and expand over time as more Newport institutions sign on and members continue to add to the exhibitions.