Newport Historical Society acquires online magazine NewportSeen.com

Newport, RI – The Newport Historical Society has acquired Newportseen.com, according to Linda Phillips, Newport Seen Co-founder and Editor.

“The addition of Newport Seen, the archives of the recently sold Newport Daily News, and the John Hopf photo archive acquired in 2017, make the photographic collections of the NHS, which begin with the inception of photography in the mid-19th century, thoroughly up-to-date and increases the size of this important visual archive by 50%,” says Ruth Taylor, Executive Director of The Newport Historical Society, in a press release provided to What’sUpNewp on Monday. “The Society will be raising funds for the digital infrastructure and manpower needed to ensure these important images can be accessed by the public through the web in the years to come”.

“Whenever I took a photo of Captain Nicolas Brown (of the illustrious Brown family of Rhode Island), he would say’ Thank you for making us immortal’. With the transfer to the Historical Society of some 21,000 images taken since 2009, along with the extensive coverage of the city’s philanthropies and social service agencies, that immortality is assured,” Phillips stated in the press release.

Founded in 2009 by Ms. Phillips and Graphic Designer/photographer Thomas Roskelly, the magazine was a response to the recession of late 2008, which caused news outlets to shrink and drastically cut their staffs and coverage.

“No one was covering Newport at all, let alone the “soft news” of philanthropies, social events, non-profits, architecture, and the arts. We sought to expand the international connections and influence that Newport has, and the ongoing history it represents, ” Phillips said.

According to the press release, within a year, the online magazine won four awards, two national, for author and photojournalist Linda Phillips, who was cited by the Connecticut Press Club for her breaking news article on Raptorex, the newest fossil discovery, that beat The New York Times and NPR with its online news coverage. The magazine was judged the best online web site for Mr. Roskelly’s design and its purpose as a “Social, Cultural and Philanthropic Diary of America’s First Resort”. The two national awards were from The National Federation of Press Women in the same categories.

For more information, visit www.newportseen.com or www.newporthistory.org.