by Portsmouth Athenaeum | Jun 17, 2025 | Announcements, Exhibits
By Sherry Wood Soon after George Washington was named commander of the Continental Army in 1775, Portsmouth’s Jonathan Mitchel Sewall wrote the words to a song that would be sung in taverns and on battlegrounds during the Revolutionary War. Sewall, the subject...
by Portsmouth Athenaeum | Jun 5, 2025 | Announcements, Library
By Research Librarian Jessica Zaricki National Oceans Month is a time to highlight the importance of the world’s oceans. In Portsmouth, our history is inextricably linked to the sea. Please join us in taking the opportunity to appreciate, study, and protect this...
by Portsmouth Athenaeum | May 10, 2025 | Announcements, Library
A budding reading habit this spring? We can help. Proprietors and Subscribers, click on the link below to discover the new books now available in the library. May New Books Not a Proprietor or a Subscriber? Find out how you can become a member and support the...
by Portsmouth Athenaeum | May 8, 2025 | Announcements, Library
By Research Librarian Jessica McClain This oft-quoted proverb dates back to a 16th century work by English poet and Farmer Thomas Tusser. The lines appear in a sonnet included in the piece “A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie” as “And Aprill his stormes, to be good...
by Portsmouth Athenaeum | Apr 9, 2025 | Announcements, Library
By Research Librarian Jessica McClain The American Library Association sponsored the first National Library Week in 1958, and we continue to recognize and celebrate the role of libraries and librarians in our communities during the first full week of April each year....
by Portsmouth Athenaeum | Mar 28, 2025 | Announcements
By Keeper and Executive Director Tom Hardiman Last week we said goodbye to winter (at least according to the calendar). All-in-all, it was a winter to forget. The recent months have been sad for our Athenæum family. Just as we are planning our Memorial Concert on May...
by Portsmouth Athenaeum | Mar 27, 2025 | Announcements
By Keeper and Executive Director Tom Hardiman I am a life-long library lover and have now reached an age when I think I have literally spent half my life in a library of some kind. A few years ago, my lovely wife bought me a new wallet for Christmas. As I was cleaning...
by Portsmouth Athenaeum | Mar 23, 2025 | Announcements, Library
It’s spring! Time for your reading lists to bloom with the new books now available in the library. Proprietors and Subscribers, click on the link below to discover the new books now available in the library. March New Books Not a Proprietor or a Subscriber? Find...
by Portsmouth Athenaeum | Mar 21, 2025 | Announcements
Happening at the Athenaeum The spring Athenæum newsletter is chock full — from a nibble of our newest exhibit, “The Lunch Hour: Portsmouth,” to a look at the “Beauty on the Seacoast and Beyond” lecture series. Meet our 31 newest members...
by Portsmouth Athenaeum | Mar 13, 2025 | Announcements, Library
By Research Librarian Jessica McClain In February of 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued a Presidential Proclamation declaring the week of March 8 as the first national observance of Women’s History Week with the following statement: From the first settlers who came...
