Ralph Emerson Carpenter, Jr.

Ralph Emerson Carpenter, Jr., born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, on October 6, 1909, died February 2, 2009,^[1] was a noted expert on Colonial American furniture and decorative art and a published author. A descendant of the noted Carpenter founding family of colonial Rhode Island,^[2] for more than a half century, he was actively involved in the restoration of some of Newport, Rhode Island's defining structures. Two of his books, The Arts and Crafts of Newport, Rhode Island, 1640-1820,^[3] published in 1954, and The Fifty Best Historic American Houses, Colonial and Federal,^[4] published in 1955, are credited with bringing American colonial design international recognition.

He graduated from Cornell University in 1931 with a degree in mechanical engineering, but became an insurance and investment banking executive in New York City, retiring as senior vice president of a securities firm in 1978. In retirement, he used his expertise in and encyclopedic knowledge of the decorative arts and antiques to become a senior American decorative arts consultant, a position he held for 30 years.^[5] In 1999, his accomplishments were honored with the Henry Francis du Pont Award for the Decorative Arts.^[6]

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