Wild Imagination: Art and Animals in the Gilded Age

During the Gilded Age, approximately 1870 to 1914, millions of Americans moved from farms to cities. Popular animal-themed prints, statuettes and other decorative objects satisfied their nostalgia for the lost connections with nature. At the same time, a boom in foreign travel and the growth of zoos and circuses exposed Americans to new, “exotic” species. Interest grew in natural history pursuits like birdwatching. And while the fashion for furs and feathers flourished, activists launched the nation’s first animal-rights organizations.

All these trends are reflected in the exhibition’s more than 100 objects, which come from the Preservation Society’s collections and from 15 lending institutions.

Newporters played a vital, though often contradictory, part in these developments. They fought at the vanguard of the animal rights movement yet set the era’s fashion for furs and feathers as residents of its most stylish summer resort. Newporters pampered their pets but expanded industries like the railroads that ravaged wildlife habitats.

Wild Imagination brings together a menagerie of animal-themed artworks, from paintings, sculptures, photographs and fashions to fancy dog collars and sea creatures blown in glass. These pieces reflect profound and lasting changes in human-animal relations. They also reveal the individual stories of wondrous creatures that continue to capture our imagination.

Rosecliff opens daily starting on August 30, 2024. Entrance to the exhibit is included in the price of admission to the mansion. Tickets can be purchased on the Newport Mansions website.