Great news — The Gilbert Stuart Birthplace and Museum (the monument to the amiable artist who was born in RI and came to be regarded as the leading portraitist in the Unites States, from the late 1790’s thru the early 1800’s) is back open on the weekend!

With that in mind, thought I’d talk about the “forgotten” man behind that Museum.

Maybe you visited the GS Museum, situated on 23 acres in Saunderstown and featuring the 1750 house where Stuart (born Stewart…if anyone can explain the spelling change, I’m all ears) lived with his family until he was 7 and they moved to Newport, a working grist mill, a mill pond and streams, nature trails, an herb garden, a coloinial burial ground, a boat dock that overlooks Carr Pond, an art gallery and a welcome center, on a school field trip?

The intriguing thing you might NOT know about the Museum is that the man responsible for spearheading the restoration of the home and the grounds to its Colonial era glory, in 1930, was a Rhody transplant who graduated from Brown University in 1890 with an A.M. in Architecture and went on to chair RISD’s department of architecture, consult on the building of the American Wing of MOMA (Metropolitan Museum of Art) in NYC, and ultimately become one of the leading figures in the historic preservation movement in Rhode Island until his death in 1943.

In addition to the Gilbert Stuart Museum (which opened to the public in 1931), Norman Isham also worked tirelessly to help save other historic sites that we hold so dear today including: Smith’s Castle in Wickford, Old City Hall and Trinity Church in Newport, and the General Nathanael Greene Homestead in Coventry.

So, next time you marvel at the work of Gilbert Stuart (including his famous unfinished portrait of George Washington that became the model for the image of GW that we see on our one dollar bill), don’t forget the efforts of one Mr. Norman Isham who understood how important it is to honor our past — and preserve parts of it — as we move into the future.