NRF promotes and invests in the architectural heritage of the Newport community, the traditional building trades, and Doris Duke’s fine and decorative arts collections, for the enjoyment, education and inspiration of all.
As a leader in the preservation of early American architecture, NRF supports research and education in areas directly related to its collections and issues of critical concern to the field of historic preservation.
Visit Doris Duke’s art-filled mansion and enjoy panoramic ocean views from the extensive grounds. Open late March to November.
The Vernon House is a site for expansive story-telling, contemporary dialogue, and preservation trades skill-building.
Newport Restoration Foundation holds one of the largest collections of period architecture owned by a single organization anywhere in the United States.
Celebrate excellence in historic preservation efforts within the City of Newport, Rhode Island.
Live amidst history by renting one of our many historic properties.
Rough Point Museum was the Newport home of heiress, collector, and philanthropist Doris Duke (1912-1993). Experience Doris Duke’s life and legacy through the house, the fine and decorative arts and fashion collections, and a historic landscape with panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean.
We look forward to welcoming you safely onsite for a self-guided experience at Rough Point.
During Your Visit:
For inquiries about private tours, please contact visit@newportrestoration.org
Visit our online museum store!
The products of the Newport Restoration Foundation Store celebrate the life and passions of our founder, Doris Duke. We invite you to explore our curated collections—including unique, one-of-a-kind pieces inspired by our museums’ design, collections, and stories— exclusively available here.
Click here to start shopping from home or visit shopnewportrestoration.org.
2024 Operating Schedule:
Tuesday-Friday, 10am-4pm
Saturday-Sunday, 10am – 5pm
Closed Mondays
BUY TICKETS
Museum Tickets General Admission: $20.00 Students with ID: $10.00 Children 12 & under: Free
Newport County Residents: Free (general admission)
Rough Point is a Blue Star Museum.
680 Bellevue Avenue Newport, RI 401–847–8344 visit@newportrestoration.org
Parking is available onsite. The house is air-conditioned and wheelchair accessible.
12 armchairs and a settee with tapestry seats featuring Fables of La Fontaine
Portrait of Nanaline Holt Inman Duke
The Visit of the Stadtholder Prince Frederik to the Fleet of the States General at Dordrecht, 1646
Large Cizhou baluster jar
Cigar storage case
Portrait of Thomas Freeman, Jr., Esq. by Hoare
This suite of Louis XVI tapestry upholstered furniture featured prominently in the Drawing Room of the New York City house of the Duke family at 1 East 78th Street. It was purchased for that house from the renowned Duveen Brothers. On each of the seats and backs is a scene from the Fables collected by Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695) in the late 17th century, including the familiar characters of the Fox and the Crane, the Lion and the Mouse, the Hawk and the Nightingale, the Dog and his Shadow, and the Bat, the Bush, and the Duck.
From 1912 to 1957, this grand portrait of Doris Duke's mother, Nanaline Holt Inman Duke (1871-1962), hung in the library of the Duke family's residence in New York City at 1 East 78th Street. It was moved to Newport in the late 1950s when Doris Duke gave the New York house to New York University.
The portrait was made in 1907 around the time that Nanaline, the widow of wealthy Atlanta-based cotton merchant, William Inman, married tobacco and energy tycoon James Buchanan Duke.
This marine scene from the Golden Age of Dutch painting was among the last works of art that Doris Duke added to the collection at Rough Point. She purchased it at auction in New York in 1985.
When Doris Duke bought this early Chinese jar in 1955, she expressed a shared passion with her parents for Asian ceramics, but at the same time signaled a departure from their narrowly focused interest in later eighteenth-century export ware. As a result, Rough Point is filled with a wonderful range of Chinese pottery from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries.
The Wilke Manufacturing Company also made refrigerators around the turn of the twentieth century that were covered in porcelain tiles, just as on this freestanding cigar case, which was installed in the kitchen by James Buchanan Duke when renovating Rough Point in 1922.
This portrait was a purchase of Doris Duke's father from the dealer Knoedler & Co. in New York in November 1924.