The exhibition will open 15 September and extend through 15 November.

The 15-minute 1950 Gorham film 'Gracious Heritage' will be shown on a monitor throughout the exhibition.

The CD-ROMs of the Gorham catalogs will be on display.

The Archives of the Gorham Manufacturing Company-- a leading American maker of silver wares, bronze statuary, and other products, with its factory in Providence, Rhode Island-- were given to Brown University by Textron in 1988. This archive is one of the largest surviving industrial archives and reflects the firm's rich artistic heritage. The Gorham Archive at Brown University is complemented by the excellent collection of Gorham wares in the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design just one block away.

Th exhibition 'The Gorham Archives' is intended to reveal the enormous resource that lies in these records. The conference 'The Gorham Archives and the Study of Nineteenth Century Silver' is intended to draw a wide audience to explore how the Gorham Archives make possible the study of American silver in a scholarly, documented manner.

The event's moderator will be Samuel J. Hough of Cranston. Formerly Assistant Librarian at the John Carter Brown Library, he now runs a book and research service called The Owl at the Bridge. He organized the Gorham Archives, and he has published many articles and co-authored a book on Gorham silver.

D. Albert Soeffing, of Manhattan and Philadelphia, teaches a course on silver at New York University. He has published a book, Silver Medallion Flatware, and numerous articles on 19th-century American silver companies.

Larry Pristo has a doctorate in psychology and an active practice in Arizona. He has spent many days, weeks, months conducting the research for his book, Martele: Gorham's Nouveau Art Silver.

Peter DiCristofaro, founder of the Providence Jewelry Museum, has collected machinery and artifacts of jewelry and silver manufacturers. When Gorham closed its Elmwood factory, Di Cristofaro was able to obtain hundreds of rolls, dies, and other objects-- beautiful works of art in themselves, and distinctive for silver manufacturers because the skill and cost required to make such objects was beyond the possibilities of any small shop.

Ubaldo Vitali's roots are in Rome, where five generations of his family have been silversmiths. Now working in the United States, Vitali brings consummate skill as a craftsman, extensive knowledge of the history of science, how that applies to the history of technology, and how that, in turn, influenced silver making. He has used the Gorham Archives while seeking answers to the question, How did America's silversmiths transform from marginal, provincial, not important players in 1850 to become the most advanced silver industry in the world by 1880?