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Abstract

Emily Parrow and Michael A. Davis, the authors of “‘Entertaining the President’: Chester Arthur and Newport, 1882-1885,” have created a meticulous account of Chester Arthur’s various visits to Aquidneck Island and its environs during the first half of the 1880s while he served as president of the United States. Drawing from copious documentary evidence including newspaper accounts, letters, diaries, published memoirs and secondary sources, the two authors have constructed a colorful narrative of Arthur’s visits when he mixed some official business with social engagements as wealthy summer residents vied for his presence at elaborate luncheons and soirees. The two authors also describe the sojourns when Arthur eschewed the intense social churn in Newport to pursue his love of fishing at the West Island Club, off Sakonnet Point in Little Compton. Despite his mingling with upper-class friends and acquaintances, while in Newport Arthur attended to naval business and once hosted a reception attended by hundreds of Newport residents from all walks of life. Emily Parrow serves on the Preservation Society of Newport County’s advancement team. She is a member of the Straw Dog Writers Guild’s advisory board and the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Her work has been published by Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History and Woodhall Press. Michael A. Davis is a Professor of History at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia. He is the author of Politics as Usual: Thomas Dewey, Franklin Roosevelt, and the Wartime Presidential Campaign of 1944, published by Northern Illinois University Press in 2014.

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