Editor\u27s Note

In February of 1783, an infuriated prisoner in Newport Jail furiously wrote in his diary his unmitigated contempt for that Miserable impertinent Rascally Ignorant Mule headed puppy ... who put me to jail. In her article, A Rhode Island Patriot in Newport Jail, Virginia Steele Wood assumes the role of a detective, sifting through scores of contemporary records to discover the identity of the unknown diarist and learn his fate. Since the advent of photography in newspaper journalism, the Newport Daily News has kept the community apprized of progress, difficulties, and activities at the many Newport city schools through the use of pictures. In this issue of Newport History are thirteen photographs from the Newport Historical Society\u27s recent exhibit, Newport Schools in the News, selected by the exhibit\u27s curator, M. Joan Youngken. They document the daily lives of teachers and students in Newport\u27s schools from 1906 to 1965

Editor\u27s Note

The first article in this issue by Bradford A. Becken and Ruth Kennedy Myers looks at the important role Newport played during Parliament\u27s attempt to impose a Stamp Act on the colonies in 1765, and who discovered the mystery upon which their article, Who was John Webber? is based. Also in this issue, in their article, A Pre-Columbian Origin for the Newport Tower Can (Still) Almost Certainly be Excluded: A Reply to Professor Andre J. de Bethune, Jan Heinemeier and Rogne Jungner respond to a critique of their dating of mortar samples from the Old Stone Mill. Finally, I would like to announce the release of a new type of publication by the Newport Historical Society and its Publications Committee: the official Newport Historical Society Internet website. The site can be found at www.newporthistorical.org

Editor\u27s Notes

John M. Carpenter writes about Arthur Leslie Green, who, from about the turn of the century until his death in 1945, purchased, traded, and scrounged for historic relics and architectural artifacts, many from Newport buildings that were in imminent danger of destruction. This was the age of the artifact and the curio, when parts were often considered more important than the whole. Green assembled his collection of relics and architectural fragments on and into the Weaver-Franklin House, which he moved from the Point to Training Station Road in Newport. Also in this issue are the annual reports of the President, Executive Director, and staff of the Newport Historical Society. These seem to grow in length each year, a testament to the ever-expanding role the Newport Historical Society takes in the preservation of the history of Newport County

Editor’s Note

In this issue of Newport History, Gary Scharnhorst examines Bret Harte, an elusive literary figure who made a brief but lasting impact on Newport society and letters. Harte established his reputation as a writer in California with western tales like The Luck of Roaring Camp and The Heathen Chinee. He moved to Newport in 1871 in an attempt to remake himself into a respectable author and poet on the East Coast. One notable, though criticized, poem emerged from his tenure here: A Newport Romance. In On the Carbon-14 Analyses of Mortar from the Newport Tower: Theoretical Considerations, Andre J. De Bethune claims that the process of dating mortar through carbon-14 testing has inherent flaws. Until these questions can be resolved, according to Bethune, a pre-Columbian origin for the Newport Tower cannot be excluded. Finally, From the Collections examines the use of family history newsletters in genealogical research