(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] There is a magnificent chariot here that may have been used to show George Washington around Providence.

We'll see how and why this old museum is being reinterpreted.

And later, tour a church turned art center that many people called The Sistine Chapel of the Americas.

This is "Treasures Inside the Museum."

(gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music continues) (soft upbeat music) John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary, "That this house was the most magnificent "and elegant private mansion that I have ever seen "on this continent."

The John Brown House was built for the prominent merchant, slave trader and politician in 1788 by his brother.

The Providence Home is considered one of the country's finest examples of Georgian architecture.

Since 1942, the house has been open to the public as a museum run by the Rhode Island Historical Society.

- So when we create exhibitions here at The John Brown House and also all our other museums, we like to bring out items that help us tell a story.

And that's one of the reasons why we have all of these collections, because you really don't understand the depth of those stories until you can see actual objects that relate to them and see how they were used every day.

And so even though we talk about treasures, they're not all necessarily treasures.

They are simply objects that were used every day.

- [Narrator] The house is filled with pieces from the 18th century, including original artwork and items John Brown and his family used.

Brown was involved in the sugar trade and owned several sugar plantations in the Caribbean.

- So in our efforts to show Rhode Island's place in the world and to talk about histories that are global, that Rhode Island fits right into, one commodity that we are tracing is sugar.

This is a glass bottle we call a demijohn or a demijohn.

And this was used throughout the 18th century to store and carry, transport rum and wine, anything liquid and alcoholic that they needed to transport.

And, of course, because it's glass, it's fragile.

So when it was shipped, these were usually wrapped in wicker or even sometimes they used sail rope or things to cushion the bottle, so that it wouldn't break in the hold.

That this is the basic form of transport for rum.

There are other forms, you know, barrels, et cetera.

But this particular bottle certainly had wine in it and is probably French and dates probably from the first half of the 18th century.

Other things that we have on display are more sort of day-to-day usage by the consumer.

So these are sugar nips is what they're called.

And, essentially, when sugar is actually made, the juice is put in small clay pots that are sort of an upside down funnel.

And so what drains out of that, basically, it's this brown sludge after you mill up the cane.

And what comes out of that is this brown viscous juice.

That is then put into these clay pots.

And what drains out of that is molasses, right?

So what's left is your sugar and there are other refining issues.

But, basically, at the end of maybe four months, you'll have a little clay pot of white sugar and that is what's taken out, wrapped and, basically, shipped and sold to consumers.

So what you have is a sugar cone, you know, sort of if you turn it up, then there's a base and there's this cone and these nips are to cut pieces of sugar off the cone and you put those into this sugar bowl.

And when you are ready, you use these little tongs to remove the pieces and put them in your coffee or tea or whatever it is you're putting them in.

And that's these little sugar tongs.

So these three items are, basically, sort of daily use items.

It's to give folks a flavor of the time.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] In addition to the small items used by various family members, there are also examples of some of the finest furniture of the period.

(gentle upbeat music) - This secretary, or what is called a bookcase on desk for pretty obvious reasons, is one of the most extraordinary pieces of furniture in the Rhode Island Historical Society's collections.

This piece was made sometime in the 1760s for Joseph Brown, one of John Brown's brothers.

So this piece did not come originally from this house.

(gentle upbeat music) So these pieces are extravagant, and while they are a desk and bookcase, in fact, they were show pieces for the people who were able to purchase them.

So this was not just for sitting around writing your notes and writing letters.

This is, again, a piece that communicates your position and wealth, as it's a fine piece of artistry.

This piece is made out of mahogany, which is also an important commodity in Rhode Island at this time.

And it shows the deep ties to the slave trade, to enslavement, to plantation economies of Central America and the Islands.

And it also allows us to tell stories of incredible furniture making that's happening in Rhode Island.

So the one that remains here in Rhode Island on display is Joseph Brown's desk.

And Joseph was an incredibly talented designer as well.

(gentle upbeat music) For many years, people thought this was a piece from Newport because Newport really was the seed of furniture making in Rhode Island.

But in fact, we know that this piece was made in Providence.

It was made by a man named John Carlile.

And we can see, that this elegant and extravagant nine shell desk, the shells are, in fact, carved into the wood rather than the applique process that was used at this time in Newport and by most furniture makers.

So what did people do with something like this in their house?

Did they, in fact, use it as a desk and as a bookcase?

Sometimes, but what we also know is that they were used as display pieces.

And so these shelves within the bookcase can be reconfigured to different sizes.

And what would often happen is that people would open the doors and use this to display their treasures from all over the world, and they would display them in these beautiful fall front desks and secretaries for all of their visitors to see.

And to see that a place like Providence is not just a city in Rhode Island, it is a city of the world.

(gentle upbeat music) (paper rustling) (gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] Museums like The Brown House are constantly evolving.

Exhibits change to reflect a more current interpretation of their history.

The experienced staff here handles each item with delicate care as they move pieces in and out of storage.

- The first round of interpretation of this house was really focused on decorative arts and that was the case for maybe a decade or so.

Then to, basically, keep relevant with what audiences wanted to see, we translated that interpretation into more social history, still using the Brown family and still using their lives and even later families that lived in the house as the lens, but expanding the stories to include the enslaved, servants, other workers in the house.

Well, we are moving away from that interpretation and toward a re-envisioning of The John Brown House as a series of galleries relating to Rhode Island's position in the world.

And so each gallery or each room will be turned into a small subject-focused gallery.

The reason that we've emptied the sick room is so that we can use it as a little laboratory as we set up other rooms because we need to measure out all of the items that we're thinking about placing in that room and before we actually install the exhibitions.

(gentle upbeat music) It just doesn't do to keep moving museum objects up and down the stairs and around while you are concepting, while you are, you know, having these ideas.

And the Rhode Island Historical Society has something like 20 or 25,000 museum objects.

And so when we tell a story, we have to be very selective because we have a limited amount of space as to how many of those objects we show.

So the amount of planning that goes into these rooms is quite extensive and takes months and months.

So that's the purpose of this room will be as this laboratory.

Working out things on paper, for instance, is limited.

I mean, it's only a two dimensional space and we are dealing in three dimensional objects, not to mention in a 1788 mansion, power needs.

There's not a whole lot of outlets, lighting, air quality, et cetera.

We have to think about all of these things when we set up an exhibition, and not to mention, you know, ADA compliance and also how many people can fit in the house.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] The largest treasure in the collection has a rich history of its own.

John Brown wanted to travel in style, so he had this elaborate carriage built.

- This is actually John Brown's chariot.

Now, John Brown would've had a number of means of conveyance.

He would've had a large carriage that could carry six or eight people.

He would've had sledges and sleighs for the winter.

But this was one of his prized possessions.

And this is what we call a chariot.

And that means, basically, a small carriage that is built for one or two people to ride in.

Given John Brown's stature, one may have been more comfortable.

People are gobsmacked.

It is this gorgeous piece, beautifully decorated, gold designed.

And so they are quite taken with this chariot that is John Brown feels the fitting a man of his station and stature.

What you can see though is an extraordinary chariot.

And to give you a sense of the scale, these wheels, the back wheels are about five-foot six inches high with studs on them that make them appear a little higher, so that they can go over the rough terrain of this period.

You can also see that people would've entered these carriages with a set of steps that fold up, rest against the door.

When you open the door, you unfold the steps and you're able to access this chariot, usually with the help of a coachman.

In this case, John Brown had a Coachman named Jonathan.

Jonathan was a man of African heritage who we are still unsure if he was, at some point of his life, enslaved.

We know that he was freed by the end of his life, but we're not sure of Jonathan's beginnings.

But Jonathan would have been accompanying John Brown when he would travel between Providence and Philadelphia in 1799, when he would go out to that Adirondack tract out in New York.

So you can imagine the kind of terrain that this elegant chariot would've traveled over.

You might also notice that this seat where the coachman would've sat has no back.

So as we think his feet would've been supported, but just think about the kind of stress and strain that was on the man who was directing this, the horses and this beautiful chariot.

You'll also notice that there's these wonderful leather straps that are, basically, the struts and the support of this chariot.

It keeps the chariot very stable.

And so as you ride over this rough terrain, it fits almost stable within this very forgiving set of leather straps and springs that support it.

So we know from expert paint analysis of this period that the chariot was, in fact, this almost robin's egg blue with gold leaf on the chariot.

And, in fact, in 1790 when George Washington is making a visit to Providence, the legend says that he was looking for a way to travel through the city.

And John Brown said, "There's, basically, no better way "to travel around Providence than in my chariot."

And George Washington, who, of course, was a hero to John Brown, it is said, used this to travel.

And that is why from that point on, this chariot is used in patriotic celebrations.

And that is why people come and see what they often call the Washington chariot, when, in fact, it's John Brown's.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] The walls of The John Brown House are home to many significant portraits and paintings.

Perhaps none more important than this image of a defining chapter in Rhode Island history.

- This piece is a rendition, a very famous rendition of the Gaspee, the ship Gaspee.

It's a British ship that was detailed to patrol the Narragansett Bay, and it's a forgotten or, I'd say, a lesser known event outside of Rhode Island.

Inside of Rhode Island, this, of course, is a very famous defining event for the state as the first, I would say, our Boston Tea Party.

This painting was painted in 1892 by an artist named Brownell.

It is one of many paintings of the Gaspee, but it is the most famous.

The relation of the Gaspee to sugar is quite close.

In fact, the whole reason that the Gaspee was patrolling the seacoast was because of the Sugar Act of 1764.

In 1763, the British Government commissioned the Navy to enforce customs, basically, the customs tax that was placed on sugar.

And so they sent something like 20 ships of war to the coast of the British colonies in 1763 to patrol up and down and to, essentially, seize cargoes that had not been declared.

Now at this point, Rhode Island's economy depends on the rum trade.

And rum, of course, is a distilled product of molasses, which is a byproduct of sugar refining.

So lots of Rhode Island captains were running rum and it was the basis of the Rhode Island economy in the mid 18th century, more than any other colony on the Eastern seaboard.

And so one of the things that those British captains really were looking for was to make money because a captain who seized illicit cargo would profit from that.

So when we have Captain Duddingston of the Gaspee patrolling Narragansett Bay, he was looking to enforce law, like a good British soldier or British Navy person, but he was also looking to line his pockets as much as possible.

So what you have then is, essentially, someone who, you know, is making problems for Rhode Islanders and Rhode Islanders didn't like it.

(gentle upbeat music) As with many objects in The John Brown House Museum and our other collections, this painting was a gift from a private individual to the Rhode Island Historical Society.

That is really how we collect for the most part.

We do buy, occasionally, items, but in our 200 years of history, most of our collections have come to us by gift from private individuals.

- [Narrator] The collections at The John Brown House allow us to reflect on a period that, today, is being reimagined to engage a diverse audience.

It's a challenge that all museums face, as they exhibit their treasures and endeavor to remain relevant.

(gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music) In the heart of one of New England's working class cities is a building overflowing with inspiring art.

The St Ann Arts & Cultural Center in Woonsocket, Rhode Island is home to the largest collection of fresco paintings in North America.

(gentle upbeat music) This church that once served as a working class French Canadian community is now a center for arts and culture.

And while the fresco paintings may define this building, surprisingly, they were not part of the original plan when the church was built in 1914.

- Running up to 1940, the pastor of the time, Father Morin, decided to look for an artist who could do a couple of paintings for them.

They didn't know what, just something to break up the monotony of the gray stucco cement that covered the walls and the ceilings in here.

And so he visited different churches and buildings all across New England at the time that he knew were being decorated.

But he ended up in Central Falls, Rhode Island at St. Matthew's Church, where he came across the Italian artist Guido Nincheri.

- [Narrator] When Guido, a native of Florence, Italy set eyes on the walls, he saw that they had never been plastered.

- When they constructed the building originally, they ran out of money, so they just left it as gray stucco cement.

This gave him a very rare opportunity to paint in the fresco style, the same style as the Sistine Chapel in Rome, which is painting on a wet plaster surface, so that the colors and the pigments combine with the plaster and stay bright and vibrant for centuries.

And here it is.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] The church agreed to pay $25,000 and work began on these paintings in May of 1941.

It would eventually take eight years to finish and in the process, the people of the parish would be immortalized.

- So what we have on the ceiling are scenes, biblical scenes, so we have scenes from the life of Jesus.

We have a lot of Old Testament prophets.

Actually, a lot of the paintings in here are of the Old Testament.

But what makes these paintings so important are all the faces.

The faces are of the people of the parish and the local Woonsocket community of the 1940s.

The artist didn't make up faces.

He looked around.

If he was working on a particular subject, he would look for somebody whose face he thought would fit that subject matter.

- So when you're looking at the images, you're looking at the 475 faces up there, you're saying, "Oh, okay, there are Old Testament prophets "and there are saints."

However, all the models for those were people, residents or people who lived in Woonsocket, parishioners at the time, that were used for the models.

- And so he began in the sanctuary and the very first painting he worked on was the painting of the young Virgin Mary in the fountain, in the central panel of the sanctuary dome.

Her name is Millie Savoie Tellier.

She used to attend many of the events here at the Cultural Center.

To the right of Mary in red robes is St. Joachim, Mary's father, his name is Victor Vekeman.

He was a immigrant from Belgium, and he's the grandfather to one of our board of directors here.

(gentle upbeat music) - [Narrator] While the frescoes are an everlasting connection to the city's past, there are other parts of this building that are also treasures.

The stained glass windows are as much a work of art as they are stories from the Bible.

- This is our Crucifixion window and they try to build in some depth into it.

So if you look behind Jesus, you can see how they set back the trees, the wall city, the mountains and, ultimately, you see the orange horizon.

So they tried to build in some depth into the stained glass.

- [Narrator] It's a piece that easily rivals what you would see in the finest churches in Europe.

Its size alone can leave visitors breathless.

- The window's almost 600-square feet, which means that if you laid it down, it'd be the size of a small ranch house.

Opposite it is a window just as large, the Resurrection window, which with the sun coming in in the morning, it's absolutely beautiful.

- [Narrator] Another large stained glass window is located in the rear of the church above the organ that once filled these walls with hymns and other liturgical music.

- So this organ is from 1916.

It is a Moøller Pipe-Organ, tubular-pneumatic.

It contains about 1,700 pipes.

The largest pipe is about 16-feet tall and it sits snugly right here in the back of the church in the choir loft.

There's a popular old phrase called, "Pulling out the stops," which means when someone's pulling out the stops, they're going full force, full throttle.

They're doing everything they possibly can.

That phrase comes from the pipe-organ because on a pipe-organ, there's something called a stop.

What a stop is, it turns on and off a set of pipes, what's called a rank of pipes.

So, for example, on this organ, these front facade pipes would be considered one rank of pipes, so there's one stop, you open it and you can start playing those pipes.

When you pull out all the stops of the organ, that means the organ is going full throttle.

Every single rank of pipes is playing.

And that's the organ at its grandest and loudest and most magnificent.

The stained glass window behind it opens up.

And in the summertime, people used to say that you could hear the pipe-organ being played all throughout the downtown area of Woonsocket.

(gentle upbeat orchestral music) - [Narrator] Today, this is once again a place where the community comes together.

The Rhode Island Wind Ensemble is just one example of visitors being welcomed for different events, like concerts and art exhibits.

They can sit in the pews and enjoy a Sunday afternoon all while under the familiar gaze of generations who came before them.

- We formed it into a arts and cultural center.

So we've done art exhibits, we still have weddings, we still do funerals, we do receptions.

We do all sorts of things here.

So the sky's the limit.

We've turned it into a venue really for the community.

- And I love watching people come in.

They'll come in for the concert or the exhibit and you just see their eyes go up, mesmerized by looking at all the frescos themselves and the colors.

It's wonderful to see that time and again.

- [Narrator] The St Ann Arts & Cultural Center remains a place built by the community for the community.

(gentle upbeat music) (audience applauding) (gentle upbeat music) (gentle upbeat music continues) (gentle upbeat music)