Material-culture historian John Fitzhugh Millar (b. 1945 New York City; Harvard AB ’66; William & Mary MA History ’81) served on the Rhode Island Bicentennial Commission 1970-6, where he conceived the Bicentennial Council of the Thirteen Original States (the Rockefeller Fund called that “the most important achievement of the Bicentennial”). He built full-sized, operational copies of two Revolutionary War ships for the Bicentennial, the 24-gun frigate Rose in 1970 (now in San Diego), and the 12-gun sloop Providence in 1976 (the first vessel of the Continental Navy in 1775). He has written numerous published historical books, with many more pending. His latest two books are about Rhode Island architect Peter Harrison, arguably the greatest architect who ever worked in America: The Buildings of Peter Harrison: Cataloguing the Work of the First Global Architect, published by McFarland & Company, Inc. 2014, is mostly text with few illustrations, while Peter Harrison (1716-1775) Drawings, published by Thirteen Colonies Press 2015, is mostly illustrations with limited text. He runs historic Newport House Bed & Breakfast in Williamsburg, Virginia, a museum-like reproduction of the 1756 Banister House that use to stand in Newport RI (www.newporthousebb.com).
