The website features information about the research archives assembled and acquired by the Gallery’s curators of American decorative arts over the past 80 years. This currently includes an overview of the origins and development of the Rhode Island Furniture Archive and the Israel Sack, Inc., Archive.

American Decorative Arts Digital Resources
American Decorative Arts Digital Resources
Archives on JSTOR
Rhode Island Furniture Archive (RIFA)
The Rhode Island Furniture Archive documents furniture and furniture making in Rhode Island from the first European colonization in 1636 through the early 19th century. It brings together records of surviving furniture, the individuals who owned it, and known furniture makers.

Attributed to John Townsend, Bureau Table, Newport, 1775–90. Mahogany, yellow poplar, chestnut, eastern white pine. Yale University Art Gallery, Mabel Brady Garvan Collection
Israel Sack, Inc., Archive
The archive holds records of objects sold by the firm of Israel Sack, Inc., during its nearly 100 years of operation. Its detail images and bibliographic information are drawn from the original photographs and materials that the Sack firm produced for its books and to advertise its furniture.

From left: Harold, Robert, Donald, and Albert Sack in the Israel Sack, Inc., showroom, 15 East 57th Street, New York, New York, 1983.
Related Content
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Publication
Art and Industry in Early America: Rhode Island Furniture, 1650–1830
Patricia E. Kane With Dennis Carr, Nancy Goyne Evans, Jennifer N. Johnson, and Gary R. Sullivan
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Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Sack Family Archive
A collection of comparative material for the study of American furniture from the business records of Israel Sack, Inc.
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Leslie P. and George H. Hume American Furniture Study Center
A working library of over 1,300 examples of furniture, clocks, and wooden objects dating from 1650 to the present.