9:15 a.m. - SESSION I

RICHARD GUY WILSON, Commonwealth Professor and Chair of Architectural History, University of Virginia: American Image: the Colonial Revival

The Colonial Revival is one of the most pervasive elements in American culture. Americans have defined themselves through the lens of the Colonial Revival and have created a native and nationalistic expression in architecture, decorative arts, painting, literature, and gardening; it is the idealized view of the American past. Although the Colonial Revival can be seen as a reaction to the forces of industrialization, commercialism, urbanization, and modernization, it has become a national image that exists on its own without reference to its origins. This talk will examine some of the myths and symbols across nearly two centuries of American artistic production.

10:30 a.m. - SESSION II

Introduction: James Yarnall, Assistant Professor, Department of Art, Salve Regina University

ANNIE ROBINSON, Doctoral Candidate, Boston University:
“Affectionate Remembrances”: Peabody & Stearns and the Useable Colonial Past

Robert Swain Peabody, architect and founding partner of Peabody & Stearns, Boston, was an early supporter of the Colonial Revival. In April 1877 he counseled his fellows at the Boston Society of Architects that “the work of the Colonial days….is our legitimate field for imitation.” The designs of the Colonial Past provided Peabody with nostalgic reminiscences, artistic inspiration and the raw materials for architectural manipulation. How did his work, both in Newport and farther afield, affect and/or reflect the larger Colonial Revival impulse?

11:30 a.m. - SESSION III

Introduction: Jay Lacouture, Professor, Department of Art, Salve Regina University

JAMES C. GARMAN, Assistant Professor, Cultural and Historic Preservation Program, Salve Regina University:
“Down at the Old House”: Norman Isham, Maud Lyman Stevens, and the Restoration of the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, 1927-1929

For nearly a century the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House has served as the icon of Newport’s eighteenth-century past. This paper considers efforts to first save and then restore the house in the late 1920s. Sponsored by Hazard descendant Maud Lyman Stevens and executed by Norman Isham, the project was the first restoration of a living house as a museum in Newport. Decisions made during the project, such as the installation of a garden lined with boxwood parterres, reflect Colonial Revival sentiment and speak to the political, cultural, and social milieus of the movement. The paper concludes with a discussion of recent archaeological research on the house.

2:15 p.m. - SESSION IV

Introduction: William Vareika, William Vareika Fine Arts

BARBARA J. MITNICK, Adjunct Professor of American Art History, Drew University:
The New American History Painting: 1876 - 1930

Until recently, most students of American art believed that any interest in or market for American history painting disappeared after the Civil War, never to be revived. Despite the fact that historical representation had for centuries been considered the highest form of artistic expression, memories of Civil War carnage appeared to destroy its popularity. This notion, however, fails to consider the onset of the Colonial Revival after the nation's celebration of the 1876 centennial, which encouraged a nostalgia for the so-called “good old days.” This paper will focus on this phenomenon and the artists who began to depict events and characters of American history in a new form of painting informed by a new historical mythology associated with the optimistic, nostalgic and patriotic context of the Colonial Revival.

9:00 a.m. - SESSION V

Introduction: John Buckley, FSC, Chair, Department of History, Salve Regina University

KEVIN D. MURPHY, Professor, Graduate Center of the City University of New York and Brooklyn College:
Picturesque and Refined: The Colonial Revival in Northern New England

This discussion will examine the two aspects of the Colonial Revival in northern New England from the 1870s to about 1900: the renewed interest in pre-modern vernacular architecture and the recovery of Colonial and Federal-period Neoclassicism. These dual interests will be shown in the architecture of early New England as generated by Boston architects and their draftsmen, especially the group that was active in the office of Robert Swain Peabody and John Goddard Stearns in the early 1870s. Further, it will be argued that many of the draftsmen in his office had first-hand knowledge of surviving examples in northern New England which they incorporated into new designs executed in Peabody’s office and elsewhere.

10:00 a.m. - SESSION VI

Introduction: Rebecca Rex, Office of Academic Grants and Conferences, Salve Regina University

PAUL MILLER, Curator, Preservation Society of Newport County:
“Oldport Days” - The Making of Newport's Colonial Mystique

Much of the genesis of the Colonial Revival in America may be traced to the direct impact of Newport on influential literary and artistic tastemakers of the early post-Civil War period. This paper will focus on the documentary sources, buildings and romantic legend, that inspired these luminaries.

11:00 a.m. - SESSION VII

Introduction: Ron Onorato, Professor, Department of Art, University of Rhode Island

THOMAS DENENBERG, Richard Koopman Curator of American Decorative Arts, Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art:
Pilgrim Furniture for the Modern Century

Wallace Nutting (1861-1941), a Harvard-educated Congregational minister, left the pulpit and became a vocal advocate of the Colonial Revival. Nutting employed the new consumer culture of the early twentieth century to sell an interconnected line of domestic goods for the middle-class home of good taste. From hand-colored photographs to books, magazines, and reproduction furniture, the erstwhile cleric offered a complete anti-modern aesthetic and ideology for the modern era.

1:00 p.m. - SESSION VIII

Introduction: Joyce Botelho, Director, John Nicholas Brown Center for the Study of American Civilization

SARA A. BUTLER, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Art and Historic Preservation, Roger Williams University:
The Federal Stamp: Colonial Revival Post Offices in the 1930s

During the New Deal period, federal arts administrators turned to the past to inspire the present. Historians examining 1930s federal art and architecture have focused on the role that history played in giving form to broad, overarching notions of collective and national identity. Post office and courthouse murals of the period recalled events from local and national history to foster pride and to reinforce the buoyant New Deal message that a bountiful future was still attainable. The adoption of the Colonial Revival for 1930s federal architecture is one facet of the pervasive retreat to the past in search of a reassuring national identity. This paper examines the molding of the Colonial Revival in the New Deal era to serve both public needs and institutional ambitions.

2:00 p.m. - SESSION IX

Introduction: John Tschirch, Director of Academic Programs, The Preservation Society of Newport County

JUDITH B. TANKARD, Landscape Design Program, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University:
Garden Design of the Colonial Revival

Garden design of the Colonial Revival drew heavily on a romanticized notion of the so-called Old Fashioned Garden. The characteristic geometric layout, hedged enclosures, and ornamental features appealed to both enlightened homeowners and professional landscape architects. Surviving examples, such as those at Chatham Manor (Virginia), Longfellow house (Massachusetts), and Hamilton House (Maine) are among the diverse examples to be discussed.

3:00 p.m. - SESSION X

Introduction: Richard Guy Wilson, Commonwealth Professor and Chair of Architectural History, University of Virginia

JAMES YARNALL, Assistant Professor, Department of Art, Salve Regina University:
Steps Along the Way to the Colonial: An Exhibition and Walking Tour

Seven buildings on the Salve Regina University campus demonstrate the revival of interest in the colonial past that began in Newport during the 1870s. These include the William Watts Sherman House, Althorpe (Founders Hall), the Vinland Farm complex, and the Rodgers Recreation Center. Conference participants will be invited to the University Gallery to view an exhibition of architectural photographs and to take a walking tour of the seven buildings.

9:00 a.m. SESSION XI

PIETER ROOS, Executive Director, The Newport Restoration Foundation: A Revival in the Neighborhood: Vernacular & High Style Colonial Revival on the Streets of Newport

The Colonial Revival swept Newport as it swept the rest of the country, not just in its large high-style houses but proliferating on its smaller residential streets as well. Examples of the vernacular and small-scale Colonial Revival abound in the local neighborhoods. In a situation typical of Newport, some of the nation’s most respected architects made their contributions in the local streets, sometimes almost hidden away for the discerning eye. This last session will take place in the St. John’s Church lecture hall on the Point, and will examine and feature an intimate view of the Colonial Revival that spans the city.