Join Rich and Audrain CEO Donald Osborne as Rich tells us about the plates and registration systems developed out of necessity during the first four decades of the 20th century and see examples of plates from Rhode Island and elsewhere that might have graced the vehicles in the current exhibition “Early Landmarks in Automotive Engineering”.

As a special bonus, if you or someone you know have a low Rhode Island plate number you might learn when and to whom it was assigned! We’ll also have a glimpse into who Newport’s earliest motorists were and their registrations.

Richard E. Dragon of Warwick, Rhode Island, has been collecting license plates for 50 years and researching and writing about their history for more than four decades. The author of Registered In R.I.: Motor Vehicle License Plates and the Registration of Motor Vehicles in Rhode Island Since 1904, as well as numerous articles on the topic, he has served in a variety of leadership roles in the Automobile License Plate Collectors Association (ALPCA), including editor of its publication, The ALPCA Register. He is a graduate of the auto restoration program at McPherson College, and has worked in the restoration field.