Newport Antiques Show Talk - Fruits of Our Labor: Industry, Immigration, and Rhode Island’s Road to Riches

Newport’s allure as a summer
destination was firmly cemented by the families that built the magnificent
mansions for which the city has become so famous. To many in 2014, they
stand as a grand anomaly of gilded beauty but when they were built, Rhode
Island was a shining example of industry and enterprise. It was bustling
mills overflowing with the languages of the world; streets lined with housing
for the thousands of workers coming to the very seat of American
ingenuity. The new State House rose to illustrate just that glory. In
this talk Dr. C. Morgan Grefe, Executive Director of the Rhode Island
Historical Society, will discuss the rise of industrial Rhode Island and
explore the ways in which this state was much more than a playground for the
wealthy.