The Redwood Library & Athenaeum

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• Contemporary Art

Chartered in 1747 by 46 prominent citizens of Newport, the Redwood
Library & Athenæum is a hybrid museum, rare book repository, and
the oldest continuously operating lending library still in its original
structure and the nation’s oldest public Neoclassical building.
Designed by Peter Harrison, the Library is a registered
National Historic Landmark.
Throughout the library on permanent view is an exceptional
collection of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century portraits by such artists
as Gilbert Stuart, Robert Feke and John Smibert, as well as sculpture,
furniture, and decorative arts. Two fine gallery spaces feature rotating
exhibitions, while the Reading Room, with its iconic green leather chairs
and original Palladian windows, is a welcome sanctuary for visitors.