Library
Introduction
The Athenæum reflects the broad range of interests of educated nineteenth century Portsmouth citizens, including science and technology, history and exploration, theology, biography, navigation and maritime history, law, and arts and architecture. The personal libraries of two men, Benjamin Tredick (1802-77) and Charles Levi Woodbury (1820-98), are maintained intact in special alcoves in the third floor Library Room and several other early bequests of rare books are preserved in the collection. The library continues to acquire both new and old books in a wide variety of subjects of interest to its members. A special emphasis is made on collecting Portsmouth imprints and works relevant to the study of the region’s history.
The Athenæum houses an outstanding collection of documents and artifacts relating to local history. It also preserves what is undoubtedly the finest collection in the state of materials relating to the history of New Hampshire’s only major seaport. The Sawtelle Reading Room serves as a gallery to display highlights of the maritime collection, including paintings of local ships, a series of portraits of ship captains, merchants, and naval officers, and the gilt figurehead from the schooner Alcea. A jewel of the collection is the plank-on-frame model of the ship America, built in Portsmouth for the Royal Navy in 1749. It is the oldest surviving model of an American-built ship. The Athenæum displays more than forty half-hull builder’s models of Piscataqua-built vessels, and the oldest surviving measured drawing of an American ship, the Elizabeth , launched from a tributary of the Piscataqua in 1752.
Of even greater importance than the impressive visual collections are the superb archival collections. These include the Customs House records for the port of Portsmouth during the American Revolution and the extraordinarily detailed records of the New Hampshire Fire & Marine Insurance Company, which insured hundreds of voyages during its twenty years of operation between 1803 and 1823.
Book Collections in the Portsmouth Athenaeum Library By Richard M. Candee
Painted signs that once hung above the library bookcases help us understand the earliest subject organization of the Athenæum collections. “Periodicals, Science, Arts” were shelved together, as were “Irish, Scottish, English, French” histories. Two signs reflect belle lettres: “The Drama, Poetry, Classics” occupied one set of shelves, “Novels, Tales & Romances” another. In May 1853 Norton’s Literary Gazette described Portsmouth’s Athenæum as quite full of English and American history. “It has also a fine collection of Voyages and Travels, and of works of Natural History, besides many valuable works on Architecture and Ship Building.” With the Athenæum’s relatively high rate of book retention, this is still a fairly accurate summary of the nineteenth-century core library and makes the Athenæum book collections an important document of Portsmouth reading habits. Read More
![On Nov. 1, 1972, crowds gathered to attend the deducation ceremony for the multi-million dollar Piscataqua River Bridge linking New Hampshire and Maine. #onthisday #otd
Gov. Walter R. Peterson Jr. (1922-2011) of New Hampshire and Gov. Kenneth M. Curtis of Maine were in attendance for the ribbon-cutting. The toll-free bridge replaced the 10-cent toll on the Sarah Mildred Long Bridge, and it eliminated what was described as "one of New England's worst bottlenecks on the Interstate 95 system" when it bypassed the Portsmouth Traffic Circle. Over 1,000 cars were waiting to cross the bridge following the brief ceremony.
The ceremony setup was on the southbound lanes with high school bands like Portsmouth High School performing. Locals were also able to walk across and inspect the high-rise bridge.
Retired Portsmouth Naval Shipyard worker Napoleon Rousseau (1901-1975) of River Road in Eliot, Maine, documented the construction progress from 1968 to 1972. In the 1990s, Rousseau's widow, Dorothy, donated the 100+ slide collection to the Athenaeum. Included here are two of Rousseau's slides, one showing the dedication ceremony in November 1972 and the other of a nearly connected bridge in October 1971.
In 2021, Athenaeum Proprietor Sherry Wood wrote an "At the Athenaeum" column about the history of the Piscataqua River Bridge featuring more of Rousseau's slides and the tragic accident during construction. You can read Sherry's article by clicking the link in bio.
If you have any photos of either the bridge construction or opening ceremony, let us know. We'd love to add it or a copy scan to our accessible-to-all online collection. If you were there, feel free to let us know in the comments. #letspreservelocalhistorytogether
[E 1360, PS1485_096, and PS1485_109]
#onthisdate #PiscataquaRiver #PiscataquaRiverBridge #interstate95 #ephemera #slides #NapoleonRousseau ##collectpreserveshare #localhistory #portsmouthnh ##kitterymaine](https://portsmouthathenaeum.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed-pro/img/placeholder.png)
