Richard Morris Hunt is widely known for shaping America’s Gilded Age with architectural marvels like The Breakers and Marble House. But a new exhibition aims to reveal a more personal and lesser-known dimension of the famed architect’s life — as a collector and cultural visionary.
Opening May 30 at Rosecliff, “Richard Morris Hunt: In a New Light” will explore how Hunt’s passion for collecting helped shape America’s cultural identity. The exhibition, presented by The Preservation Society of Newport County, runs through November 2.
“As caretakers of Marble House, The Breakers and Chateau-sur-Mer, we are reminded every day of the impact Richard Morris Hunt made on American architecture,” said Preservation Society CEO Trudy Coxe. “But this exhibition promises to reveal another side of this complex man.”
The show features rare materials from the Library of Congress, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Vermont Historical Society, Bennington Museum, and the Preservation Society’s own archives. Among the highlights: Hunt’s personal sketchbooks, architectural drawings, family mementos, and a 55-inch plaster cast of his likeness, originally created by his workers as a tribute.
An 1874 sketchbook chronicling Hunt’s observations in Cologne, Germany, will be on public view for the first time, providing insights into his creative mind and global influences.
Born in Vermont in 1827 and educated at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Hunt returned to the U.S. to redefine architecture with European sophistication. But his ambitions went beyond blueprints. Hunt believed in cultivating American culture through both public institutions and private collections — even playing a key role in founding the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“This exhibition shows him not just as an architect, but as a man shaping a nation’s cultural foundation,” said Chief Curator Leslie Jones. “We’re inviting visitors to see the ideals and inspiration that drove him.”
For more, visit newportmansions.org/events/richard-morris-hunt-in-a-new-light.
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