We reached our goal, but we hope to exceed it! With more funds we can do more with app - we'd like to add oral histories, videos, and other multimedia. We can achieve this with your continued support!

This history of Newport, Rhode Island is important, and surprisingly unknown. The Newport Historical Society wants to change that! 

Newport Historical Society is excited to announce the development of a mobile app for web-capable devices. Like a walking tour designed for this century, visitors to Newport can now stand at historic sites and view historic images and stories about their surroundings using their smart phone or tablet. All mobile phones that are able to connect to the internet will be able to access this cross-platform app, not just on iPhones or Androids. 

In the colonial period, Newport was a center of religious tolerance – a place where misfits and minorities congregated. And together they succeeded in creating one of the five most prosperous colonial ports. Newport played a role in the build-up to the American Revolution, was an important American Navy center into the 20th century, and was the playground of the rich during the Gilded Age. Newport’s history also encompasses a significant role in the transatlantic triangle trade, and includes the life stories of many Africans brought here enslaved. Newport’s history is America’s history, and the Newport Historical Society wants to tell the stories of Newport’s history in as many ways as possible. 

One great way is through our “Explore Historic Newport” web-based mobile app. This program will allow visitors to Newport, and armchair visitors anywhere in the world, to take an annotated walk around the historic city and learn about Newport’s history.

This first release of the app covers the area of downtown Newport. This includes Washington Square up to Bellevue Avenue, Catherine-Kay Streets and down to the waterfront of Long Wharf and the Point Neighborhood. Users are not obligated to walk from site to site in any particular order as in a traditional walking tour. Using GPS-enabled interactive maps, the app pinpoints where a user is standing and orients them to historic sites nearby. In this way, the app functions more as a historical guidebook. Specific sites include The Great Friends Meeting House, the Ezra Stiles house, and Cardines Field.

We hope to grow the app to include more audio/visual content such as oral histories, video, and narration to enhance a visitor’s experience, making history come alive right in their hands. Also in the works is to expand the geographical cover, giving more in-depth coverage of Newport’s many neighborhoods. 

All this can happen if we raise $10,000 to launch the app.

We reached our goal, but we hope to exceed it! With more funds we can do more with app - we'd like to add oral histories, videos, and other multimedia. We can achieve this with your continued support!