What to do and see in Newport, Rhode Island (RI): The Best Museums

The NMAI is currently closed to due renovations, opening in the late Spring. Please check back for additional information at that time. The National Museum of American Illustration (NMAI) is situated in Vernon Court, a Gilded Age mansion (1898). Vernon Court is on the Natl. Register of Historic Places with interiors inspired by the palace at Versailles. The NMAI focuses on original illustration artworks created to be reproduced in books, periodicals, advertising and in other print media. Featured artists include: Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish, Howard Pyle, JC Leyendecker, Jessie Willcox Smith, NC Wyeth and 150 others. Free parking for museum visitors is available in our lot located on Victoria Avenue.

We are open for the year and offer glassblowing lessons most days. Please call for available time slots or come watch the glassblowers working. See their finished hand blown glass pieces at Thames Glass Glassblowing Studio & Gallery. Hand Blown Glass by Matthew Buechner since 1981.

A vibrant little art gallery showcasing the photography of Newport's own Alexander Nesbitt. Featuring Nesbitt's iconic Newport images and savvy world travel photos, Blink also shows art work by many local artists including paintings, artisan made gifts, carbon fiber jewelry and funky ceramics. Blink Gallery has been voted "Best Gallery" numerous times! If you enjoy the arts then visiting our gallery is a great thing to do in Newport.

Spring Bull Gallery founded in 1990, is a cooperative gallery of artists exhibiting their own works a wide variety of styles and disciplines in oil, watercolor, acrylic, sculpture, pottery the gallery hosts changing monthly exhibitions

The Breakers is the grandest of Newport's summer "cottages" and a symbol of the Vanderbilt family's social and financial preeminence in turn of the century America. Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt established the family fortune in steamships and later in the New York Central Railroad, which was a pivotal development in the industrial growth of the nation during the late 19th century. The Commodore's grandson, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, became Chairman and President of the New York Central Railroad system in 1885, and purchased a wooden house called The Breakers in Newport during that same year. In 1893, he commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to design a villa to replace the earlier wood-framed house which was destroyed by fire the previous year. Hunt directed an international team of craftsmen and artisans to create a 70 room Italian Renaissance- style palazzo inspired by the 16th century palaces of Genoa and Turin. Allard and Sons of Paris assisted Hunt with furnishings and fixtures, Austro-American sculptor Karl Bitter designed relief sculpture, and Boston architect Ogden Codman decorated the family quarters.

Commissioned by Nevada silver heiress Theresa Fair Oelrichs in 1899, architect Stanford White modeled Rosecliff after the Grand Trianon, the garden retreat of French kings at Versailles. After the house was completed in 1902, at a reported cost of $2.5 million, Mrs. Oelrichs hosted fabulous entertainments here, including a fairy tale dinner and a party featuring famed magician Harry Houdini.

The Isaac Bell House is one of the best surviving examples of shingle style architecture in the country. The house was designed by the firm of McKim, Mead and White in 1883 for Isaac Bell, a wealthy cotton broker and investor. After passing through a succession of owners, the Isaac Bell House was purchased by the Preservation Society in 1996, and is today designated a National Historic Landmark. The Isaac Bell House was remarkably innovative when it appeared in 1883. It is a combination of Old English and European architecture with colonial American and exotic details, such as a Japanese-inspired open floor plan and bamboo-style porch columns.

With more than 2,000 unique objects on display, from racquets, to attire, to trophies, as well as a variety of interactive exhibits, there is something for everyone inside the walls of the International Tennis Hall of Fame museum.

Newport Restoration Foundation’s Whitehorne House Museum is the only museum in the world dedicated to displaying and exploring the artistry, history, and culture of 18th-century Newport furniture and related decorative arts. The museum is located at 416 Thames Street in Newport.