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Source Description
This low elevation landscape view focuses attention on Newport's harbor, emphasizing the towns importance as a seaport, especially during the colonial period. As the town's maritime fortunes declined after the Revolutionary War, it became a summer resort for southern plantation families and Boston artists and scholars, and by the end of the century, for the wealthy industrial elite of the Gilded Age. Newells view, drawn just before the Civil War began, represents a traditional landscape view. It portrays the facades of buildings as viewed from a ground level perspective. While the harbor is filled with a variety of sailing vessels, the drawing also provides a skyline panorama, accentuating the tallest buildings, especially the church steeples. The large building on the horizon is the Ocean House, one of the hotels catering to the summer visitors. While bird's eye views were generally drawn from the perspective of a high oblique elevation allowing artists to depict a community's street pattern as well as individual buildings, other types of urban views were published at the same time. Two views of Newport illustrate perspectives from lower elevations.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
x059cb026
label
Newport, R.I
core
obj
dtoType
map
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
x059cb026
contentType
map
stage
normalized
title
Newport, R.I
description
This low elevation landscape view focuses attention on Newport's harbor, emphasizing the towns importance as a seaport, especially during the colonial period. As the town's maritime fortunes declined after the Revolutionary War, it became a summer resort for southern plantation families and Boston artists and scholars, and by the end of the century, for the wealthy industrial elite of the Gilded Age. Newells view, drawn just before the Civil War began, represents a traditional landscape view. It portrays the facades of buildings as viewed from a ground level perspective. While the harbor is filled with a variety of sailing vessels, the drawing also provides a skyline panorama, accentuating the tallest buildings, especially the church steeples. The large building on the horizon is the Ocean House, one of the hotels catering to the summer visitors. While bird's eye views were generally drawn from the perspective of a high oblique elevation allowing artists to depict a community's street pattern as well as individual buildings, other types of urban views were published at the same time. Two views of Newport illustrate perspectives from lower elevations.
date
["[1860?]"]
year
1860
rights
No known copyright restrictions.
rightsUri
No known restrictions on use.
reuseAllowed
no restrictions
language
English
identifierLocal
06_01_001837
creators
Newell, John Perry, 1831-1898
institution
Boston Public Library
collections
Urban Maps
Boston and New England Maps
Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center Collection
subjects
Newport (R.I.)--Aerial views
subjectsGeographic
Newport
Newport (county)
North and Central America
Rhode Island
United States
genreBasic
Maps
typeOfResource
Cartographic
Still image
country
United States
state
Rhode Island
county
Newport
city
Newport
thumbnailUrl
largeImageUrl
pageCount
1
source
import
pubPlace
[Boston, Mass.]
publisher
J.H. Bufford
Source extras
institutionArkId
sf268508b
collectionArkId
9s1621613
schema:latitude
41.4833
schema:longitude
-71.3
extent
1 view ; 28 x 86 cm.
hasTranscription
no
dcId
x059cb026
type
map
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
de181afacf8098cc