Local organizations recall memorable gifts from the past year

Seven Newport nonprofits & museums weigh in on their favorite gifts of the year

The days are getting shorter and colder, but it’s holiday season, when acts of gratitude and generosity warm hearts and lighten the darkness. To celebrate the season, we asked representatives of some of Newport’s museums, galleries, and mansions to name the Favorite Gift their nonprofit organization received in 2025. They provided a bountiful assortment of spectacular and one-of-a-kind surprises that the recipients now may share with the members and visitors who admire their treasured collections and support their efforts to preserve them.

The spotlight on local museums also may be useful to shoppers who are scratching their heads in frustration as they search for unique and meaningful gifts to present to those on their holiday lists.

Newport offers limitless experiences one may gift to or share with their friends, colleagues, and loved ones. Tickets to an exhibit, a lecture, a concert, a film, or a performance offered at a local scholarly, artistic, historical, cultural, sports, or other special interest venue are always in style.

An annual membership to a museum is a gift that extends throughout the year and provides multiple opportunities for the recipient’s enjoyment as well as financial support for the organization enriching the local community. There are many to choose from, and for that we can all be grateful!

Newport Historical Society

Headquarters & Exhibition Space, 82 Touro Street, Newport | www.newporthistory.org

Jack Heller has photographed 100 houses of worship — 25 on Aquidneck Island — during the past four years and recently donated nearly 800 of the images to the Newport Historical Society. His “Sacred Spaces” collection is the museum’s favorite gift of 2025.

It includes photos of many of Newport’s historic churches and chapels, including St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Island Cemetery’s Belmont Chapel, Trinity Church, and the chapel at Salve Regina University.

“Every church has a story,” Heller says.

“Many of them were built a hundred years ago or more by immigrants. Many of them were illiterate.”

The churches served as more than a place to worship. They became the center of various communities, where people of like faith and similar heritage gathered to celebrate and socialize, support one another in hard times and even to provide education, as with the parochial schools built and supported by the city’s Catholic churches.

They are an important part of Newport’s history, and Heller’s photographs are a valued part of the Historical Society’s collection. Documenting them has been a labor of love, says Heller, who lives in Newport and serves as treasurer of the Newport Photo Guild.

“It’s a challenge because churches are difficult to photograph,” he acknowledges. The photographer must master the mix of light and shadows within the spaces to effectively capture light streaming through panels of stained glass — Heller’s collection includes works by both LaFarge and Tiffany — while preserving interior details surrounding the vividly hued windows.

“[Sacred Spaces] will help tell the story of Newport’s rich spiritual communities for generations to come,” notes the Newport Historical Society.

To view the full project, head to the NHS website and search for “Sacred Spaces” in the Collections Online.

International Tennis Hall of Fame

194 Bellevue Avenue, Newport | www.tennisfame.com

Perhaps the flashiest gift bestowed to any museum in Newport in 2025 is the purple, crystal-laden tennis dress Nike recently donated to the International Tennis Hall of Fame on behalf of Naomi Osaka. The four-time major champion wore the bubble-skirted stunner in her quarter-final victory over Karolina Muchova at this year’s US Open in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Osaka, 28, said she and Yoon Ahn designed the dress, which features more than 2,300 Swarovski crystals, as a tribute to New York City. The sleeveless, racerback spandex and nylon dress sports a crystal waistband, the Nike logo over the left breast and midback, and a double layer peplum skirt.

“It brings back flashbacks to the early ’90s and my prom days,” jokes Nicole Markham, director of collections at the International Tennis Hall of Fame.

As of this writing, the newly acquired dress had yet to be fully catalogued into the museum’s permanent collection and put on display. It may find a home in the Celebration Gallery’s recent acquisitions case.

“The Celebration Gallery focuses on the inspirational connections and legacies throughout the history of tennis,” says Markham. “Naomi has always had a very international following. She has a very strong off-the-court presence.”

Osaka was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and a Haitian father. A social activist who advocates for mental health awareness and racial equality, she represents the newest generation of tennis trendsetters. Her US Open dress is the second Osaka artifact the museum has acquired. Five years ago, she donated the racquet she used to win the women’s single title at the 2020 US Open. (Amanda Anisimova eliminated her this year in the semifinal match.)

Markham disclosed that the museum is eager to obtain another Osaka item — one of the Labubu figures she collects, bedazzles and names in tribute to tennis greats. Her collection includes “Billie Jean Bling” and “Andre Swagassi.”

Audrain Automobile Museum

222 Bellevue Avenue, Newport | www.audrainautomuseum.org

A 1932 Packard Standard Eight Phaeton is the Audrain Auto Museum’s favorite gift of 2025. James Thurston of Alexandria, Virginia, donated the vintage vehicle in honor of his late father, Jim Thurston, who drove classic cars for many years and always dreamed of owning his own Packard.

His family affectionately referred to it as “The College Fund” for many years. It was intended to pay for the younger Thurston’s education one day. Fortunately, James Thurston earned the grades and merit scholarships necessary to cover his tuition, and his father was able to keep his favorite car. It became a centerpiece of family wedding photos and was the first car that James Thurston ever drove while growing up in Connecticut.

David de Muzio, executive director and chief curator of the Automobile Museum, drove the Packard during the museum’s most recent Tour d’Elegance, part of Audrain Motor Week, which set off from Second Beach, traveled to Little Compton, and concluded on Bellevue Avenue. “A quite handsome car and a great drive,” is how he describes it, adding that this style 501 Phaeton is one of the most desirable of all the Ninth Series bodies.

“The gorgeous lines, raked windscreen, and low roofline and long wheelbase give it a distinctly sporty appearance,” de Muzio explains. “This car wears an older restoration on its original Phaeton coachwork, just as it left the factory in 1932, selling for $3,450. The odometer shows just over 12,600 miles.”

For serious motorheads he provides more: “The Ninth Series Visual changes included a gently V-shaped radiator complemented by a new bumper with harmonic stabilizers at the ends to damp chassis harmonics. Internally a double drop frame lowered the frame and body height while second and third gears were synchronized and featured the venerable alloy and cast-iron 320ci L-head 8-cylinder engine, with 110 bhp at 3,200 rpm.”

The Thurstons discussed donating the classic car before Jim’s death. “(He) would be proud to know that the Packard is now in good hands and will be appreciated for years to come,” says de Muzio.

Newport Art Museum

76 Bellevue Avenue, Newport | www.newportartmuseum.org

An oil on canvas painting by Howard Gardiner Cushing that his granddaughter loaned to be the centerpiece of the Newport Art Museum’s most popular exhibition of the year has been selected as the museum’s favorite gift of 2025.

The 72-inch-by-54.5-inch portrait of Flora Payne Whitney is from Minnie Cushing Coleman’s private
collection. It anchors “Howard Gardiner Cushing: A Harmony of Line and Color,” which is on view in the museum’s Cushing Gallery until early spring.

Described as “the first major retrospective in decades of one of the Gilded Age’s most visionary — and overlooked — American artists,” the exhibit features more than 55 paintings, including loaned works from eleven private collections. Many are on public display for the first time in more than 60 years, according to the museum.

“The Newport Art Museum really tries to thread the needle between past and present,” says spokeswoman Meg Geoghegan, “and the Cushing exhibit is a beautiful example of that.”

Newport resident Minnie Cushing Coleman loaned the museum artwork from her personal collection of her grandfather’s paintings and encouraged family members to loan some of their pieces as well. She is
an artist and has long galvanized philanthropic support for the museum and its Summer Art Party, its signature fundraising event, Geoghegan says.

In appreciation, a plaque bearing Coleman’s name has been installed as a permanent fixture in the Cushing Gallery.

The portrait of Flora Payne Whitney will be returned to Coleman when the exhibit closes. Howard Gardiner Cushing was commissioned in 1905 to paint the young socialite, who was the daughter of Gertrude Whitney and the granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt. The restaurant at Gardiner House, a local boutique hotel, is named for her. Cushing’s portrait reportedly served as design inspiration for some of the elements featured in the dining room, where a replica hangs above the bar.

Museum of Newport Irish History

648 Thames Street, Newport | www.newportirishhistory.org

Patrick Murphy was a longtime state employee, working for the local Probation & Parole Office in the basement of the Florence K. Murray Judicial Complex, formerly called the Newport County Courthouse. He enjoyed spending his off hours at the Newport Public Library, City Hall, and church rectories scanning reels of microfilm, pouring over public records and certificates, and compiling volumes of information about generations of Newport’s Irish and Irish American families.

Murphy, now retired and Newport’s City Historian, recently donated all his materials to the Museum of Newport Irish History. Board member Steve Marino says the information is priceless and the museum’s favorite gift of 2025.

“It’s amazing what he’s acquired,” Marino says with admiration and appreciation. “It really is an honor and a privilege that Pat chose the Museum of Newport Irish History to share his life’s work with.”

It arrived in the form of alphabetically arranged files, slides, flash drives, and notebooks full of 8-by-10 photographs. There are manila envelopes labeled A through Z containing old clippings from The Newport Daily News, an Excel sheet listing every marriage performed at St. Mary’s Catholic Church from 1852 to the 1950s, and a flash drive containing thousands of obituaries dating back to the 1840s.

There are reams of lined yellow legal pads bearing handwritten notes about local religious services, school plays, graduations, military inductions, and other milestones. The material includes wedding photos, Mass cards, neighborhood artifacts, and genealogical information that appears to have been compiled at the request of specific individuals, says Marino.

“What we’re trying to do is to make this information accessible to everyone,” he says. The Irish Consulate in Boston awarded the museum a $15,000 grant that may help with that effort, and an intern is helping to digitize the collection.

Murphy’s decades of research already have helped a college professor prepare a scholarly article for publication, Marino says, and a man obtained the ancestral information he needed to apply for Irish citizenship.

“This stuff changes people’s lives. People are in tears reviewing their family history. It’s a legacy and it just keeps on giving.”

Preservation Society of Newport County

Chateau-sur-Mer, 474 Bellevue Avenue, Newport | www.newportmansions.org

Richard Fleischner was among the 40 artists and designers featured in 1974’s Monumenta, a groundbreaking modern art exhibit that set 54 outdoor sculptures and installations on display throughout the City-by-the-Sea.

Fifty-one years later, his Sod Maze at Chateau-sur-Mer, one of the 11 historic properties owned by the Preservation Society of Newport County, is the only Monumenta piece remaining at its original site in Newport. Fleischner recently gave the Preservation Society the preparatory drawings he made of the maze, as well as several finished works of art.

Those sketches and selected artworks from throughout the multimedia artist’s career are the Preservation Society’s favorite gift of 2025. They will be the nucleus of a winter exhibition at Rosecliff opening February 6 and running through March 29, 2026, says Jim Donahue, the Preservation Society’s curator of historic landscapes & horticulture.

Fleischner’s living creation Sod Maze was inspired by English country gardens and set within a meadow on the northeast quadrant of the Chateau-sur-Mer estate. Built in 1885 for China trade merchant William Shepard Wetmore, the property stretches from Bellevue Avenue to the Cliff Walk and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006.

In addition to Fleischner, Monumenta artists included Christo, Willem de Kooning, Robert Indiana, Louise Nevelson, Jules Olitski, Henry Moore, Barnett Newman, David Smith, Claes Oldenburg, Barbara Hepworth and Alexander Calder.

The maze measures about 24 inches high, 120 feet wide and is covered with the same grass as the lawn surrounding Chateau-sur-Mer. While the furniture, artwork, and exhibits inside the mansion are strictly hands-off, Donahue says visitors are encouraged to step inside the earthwork and stroll through its winding, manicured paths.

Artillery Company of Newport

23 Clarke Street, Newport | www.newportartillery.org

Since England’s King George II issued a charter to the Artillery Company of Newport in 1741, it has amassed a priceless treasury of historic uniforms, weapons, artifacts, and memorabilia. Although no gifts were added this year to the military museum it maintains in its Armory on Clarke Street, Colonel Commanding William Farrell continues to express gratitude for a World War I era firearm that was presented to the company four years ago during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I am trying to highlight it, as it has an important role in Black American military history,” says Farrell.

The .45-caliber pistol belonged to Col. William Hayward, who was born in Nebraska in 1877, made a living as a lawyer and a county judge, dabbled in politics, traveled around the world and eventually settled in New York. When the United States entered World War I, he recruited, trained, and led an all-Black volunteer regiment that came to be known as “The Harlem Hellfighters,” says Farrell.

Officially designated the 369 Infantry, the regiment arrived in Europe in the spring of 1917 and was assigned to fight with the French. “The 369th spent 191 days in front line trenches, more than any other American unit, and suffered the most losses of any American regiment with 1,500 casualties,” according to an online report. “Under Colonel Hayward’s command and despite severe losses, the 369th turned in a good account in heavy fighting, capturing important villages, advanced faster than French troops and became the first Allied unit to reach the Rhine River.”

The son of a local gun collector gave Hayward’s pistol to the Artillery Company. Farrell obtained a letter from the Office of the Colt Historian in February 2022 attesting to its authenticity.

It confirmed that the Colt government model automatic pistol, which has a 5-inch barrel and a blue finish, was shipped from the factory on Oct. 23, 1916, says Farrell. The factory engraved “Col. Wm. Hayward 15th Infantry New York, New York,” on the slide.

During his research, Farrell also uncovered what he calls “something of a Newport connection” in Hayward’s history. The war veteran married heiress Sarah Mae Cadwell Manwaring Plant in 1919 and served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York until 1925. He later served as general counsel to the new American Professional Football League. Hayward died in 1944.

His widow married her fourth husband, New York financier John Rovensky, and lived with him in his estate in Newport. She died there in 1956, at the age of 75, and her funeral was held at Trinity Church. She was entombed in the Plant–Hayward–Rovensky Mausoleum at Cedar Grove Cemetery in New London, Connecticut.