Newport Historical Society - Center for Black History

On Juneteenth 2026, the Newport Historical Society opened the Edward W. Kane and Martha J. Wallace Center for Black History inside the Wanton-Lyman-Hazard House, Newport, Rhode Island’s oldest surviving home, built around 1697. The Center explores Newport’s Black history across three exhibition rooms, from the uncomfortable truths of slavery to the resilience and ongoing contributions of the city’s Black community.

Knabe Labs was contracted by SmokeSygnals, the Native-owned creative agency that ran and installed the entire project, to handle all of the technology in the space. Our work started with projection studies and projector sourcing for many of the exhibits, along with custom gobos that put light exactly where the storytelling needed it.

We also programmed several touchscreen interactives paired with custom audio equipment. Several of the exhibits are built on RFID technology: a map table that teaches visitors about Newport’s own history, a world map tracing the transatlantic slave routes that connected the city to a much larger story, and a rum barrel interactive that confronts guests with the dark history of enslaved people being valued and traded in rum.

Exhibits like these are exactly where we want technology to sit: invisible in a 300-year-old building, dependable for daily museum operation, and entirely in service of a story that deserves to be told well.