Earle Newton

[2] After graduating from Columbia, Newton was the Director of Historical Research for Webster Publishing Company in St. Louis, Missouri.

[8] He also became the director-general of the National Quadricentennial Commission, a committee appointed by President John F. Kennedy to plan St. Augustine's 400th anniversary celebration.

[10] The fact that the St. Augustine program was all-white in its conception and implemention brought it into conflict with the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and resulted in widely publicized demonstrations in the Ancient City, led by Dr. Robert Hayling and Dr. Martin Luther King.

Newton, along with St. Augustine Mayor Joseph Shelley went on the "Today Show" on national television to criticize the civil rights movement in 1964--a story told in Pulitzer-prizewinning author Taylor Branch's "Pillar of Fire" (Simon & Schuster, 1998).

[12] This museum, which was housed in an old church, was visited by art dealer Philip Mould and found to contain over three hundred works by artists such as William Hogarth and Joseph Wright of Derby, as well as American painters such as Gilbert Stuart and Robert Feke.

[15] Newton was the recipient of many awards and honors throughout his life, including Knight Commander of the Order of Isabella la Catolica from Spain in 1965 and Officer of the British Empire from England in 2003.