A Convivial Social Feed
Today, we honor those heroes who sacrificed their lives while in service to our country. 🇺🇲
Thirty-four years ago, Portsmouth held this Memorial Day parade on May 29, 1989.
The bird`s eye view image appeared in the Portsmouth Press newspaper on June 2, 1989. No staff photographer was credited with the photo.
Established in 1987, the Portsmouth Press began as a morning edition, published twice a week. Its final edition was September 16, 1993.
[Portsmouth Press Collection, P0031_0335]
#MemorialDay #marketsquare #portsmouthpress #collectpreserveshare #localhistory #portsmouthnh #seacoast❤
Portsmouth loves a parade! On Saturday, June 3, 2023, the city will celebrate the Portsmouth NH 400 Grand Parade starting at 11 a.m.🥰
Have you picked out your perfect spot to watch? 🪑🔭👀
In August 1973, family and friends of the Shanley family found theirs! Folks lined up in front of (and on top of!) the Shanley residence at 381 Middle Street to watch Portsmouth`s 350th parade. Those are some good seats!🤌
📝For the 400th, the parade route is different, starting on Islington and heading into Market Square. You can learn more about the parade @portsmouthnh400.
While Portsmouth makes history on Saturday, this is a friendly reminder that the non-profit Portsmouth Athenaeum retains history, making our archive accessible to all. We have photographs, manuscripts, ephemera, maps, objects, and books available to those interested in learning about our local past. The Shaw Research Library is open from 1 to 4 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, no appointment necessary, and our online catalog is 24/7. Find out more at www.portsmouthathenaeum.org
If you have images related to the Portsmouth 350th events, we`d love to add them to the archive. You can either donate the original photo or allow us to create a digital copy (like this one!) for the archive, and we will return the original. For more information, please contact our photographic collections manager, James, at jsmith@portsmouthathenaeum.org.
Note, we used #pannify to zoom in to see the parade revelers.
[Digital file. Photographer unknown. In Memory of James A. Shanley, PS3507.]
#portsmouth350 #parades #middlestreet #shanleyfamily #portsmouth400 #staycool #collectpreserveshare📖 #localhistory #portsmouthnh #nh #Maine #seacoast❤
It`s lilac season on the seacoast!☺️🥰
Here, a young woman wears a hat of lilacs while holding a bouquet of lilacs in this undated advertisement poster for the Portsmouth Brewing Company, makers of Ales, Porter, and Portsburger lager. 💐
Portsburger lager? The beer was unique to the brewery.🍻
Located on Bow Street, Portsmouth Brewing Co. was originally the Harris & Mathes Company in 1871. Three years later, it was Arthur Harris & Company. Finally, in 1875, it became the Portsmouth Brewing Company, the smallest of three breweries in the city. In 1878, Portsmouth Brewing Co. sold over 15,000 barrels, which was about 25,000 barrels fewer than the Eldredge Brewing Company, and over 40,000 barrels fewer than Frank Jones, according to "Beer, Its History and Its Economic Value as a National Beverage" published in 1880.
With Prohibition looming, the brewery went out of business about 1918. Briefly, the building was the home of the Portsmouth Cold Storage Company before the property was purchased in 1923 by the Rockingham Power and Light Company.
In 1979, after renovating the space and adding the glass atrium, Theatre by the Sea moved here from Ceres Street, and the Bow Street Inn opened. Today, the building is home to Seacoast Repertory Theatre and the Ale House Inn.
[E 1070]
#lilacs #spring #portsmouthbrewingcompany #bowstreet #ephemera
#collectpreserveshare📖
#localhistory #portsmouthnh #nh #Maine #seacoast❤
Happy Mother`s Day! 🫶🤱💐
Shoutout to all the moms wrangling their kids to sit still for a photo. For. One. Decent. Photo.🙏🥴
Of course, over 160 years ago, Victorians dealt with a camera exposure of up to 30 seconds.😳 Mothers and other caregivers were tasked to keep the children still. These were known as "hidden mother" portraits where you`d often see an adult arm or hand appearing from the folds of the blankets or sheets that surrounded the child. #youwillsitstill🖐
Here are some cartes de visite of Mary Barrett Wendell (1832-1912) with her son Evert Jansen Wendell (1860-1917), including one with only Evert at five months old and what appears to be Mary`s hand coming up from the bottom left side. #hiddenmother🕵♂️🕵♀️
Evert was the youngest of four boys to Jacob and Mary Wendell, so it`s safe to say she had experience in getting her children to sit still.
In the second and third photos, Mary is featured with Evert, smartly propping him along the backdrop of the Whipple Studio in Boston. Hat on. Hat off. 😍
The fourth photo appears to be more like "exasperated mother" as Mary is clearly not hidden. Evert, now a toddler, sits on a chair with Mary behind him, out-of-focus and holding onto him from the back. You can also see Evert is sitting on a large book. (The title is obscured, but the top words appear to be Bigelow`s Illustrated.)🥰
The Wendells split their time in Boston and the ancestral family home at 222 Pleasant Street in Portsmouth. The Athenaeum archive holds an extensive Wendell family manuscript and photograph collection.
[Wendell Photograph Collection, P0003_158 to P0003_160]
#happymothersday #wendellfamily #MaryBarrettWendell #EvertJansenWendell #cartedevisite #pleasantstreet #whipplestudio #boston #collectpreserveshare📖 #localhistory #PortsmouthNH #nh #Maine #seacoast❤
With the coronation of King Charles last weekend, we look back to His Majesty`s visit to the seacoast when he was HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales, in 1973. #fiftyyearsago 🤴
Prince Charles was an officer aboard the HMS Minerva, docked at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard from August 13-19. He attended several Portsmouth 350th anniversary events.
Mayor Arthur F. Brady hosted a reception for Prince Charles at the Gov. Goodwin Mansion in Strawberry Banke Museum on August 16, 1973. According to newspaper reports, he shook hands with nearly 300 people who attended the event.🤝
This photograph shows the press documenting his every move at the reception as he chats with locals on the museum grounds.
The image comes from "They Came To Fish" by historian and Portsmouth Herald newspaper columnist Ray Brighton. The book was first published in 1973 for the 350th anniversary and revised in 1979 and 1994.
In the 1979 edition, Brighton wrote the following caption:
"Prince Charles, Son of Britain`s ruling monarch, Elizabeth II, had a bit of a chuckle in chatting with a local resident during a reception at the Goodwin House during Portsmouth 350 Week."😊
This weekend, let`s hope we all have a "bit of a chuckle" as we rule our own personal kingdoms.👑
[Photographer unattributed but possibly John Whiteman of the Herald or Brighton himself, Ray Brighton Photographs, P0012_0070.]
#PrinceCharles #KingCharles #350thanniversary #50yearsago #Portsmouth400 #thisyearinhistory #RayBrighton #GoodwinMansion #strawberybanke #collectpreserveshare
#localhistory #PortsmouthNH #nh #Maine #seacoast❤
Hard to believe yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of when the Old Man of the Mountain fell. 🏔👴🏔 #twentyyearslater
In 1880, photographer Benjamin West Kilburn (1827-1909), of Littleton, NH, published this stunning view of the Old Man.😍
The stereograph was titled "Enthroned among the clouds, White Mts., N. H." 👑☁️
On back, Kilburn described the Old Man of the Mountain:
"The most attractive point of interest is this Great Stone Face, which hangs upon one of highest cliffs, 1200 feet above Profile Lake, a piece of sculpture older than the Sphinx. This strange apparition, so admirably counterfeiting the human face, is eighty feet long from the chin to the top of the forehead, and is formed of three distinct masses of rock, one making the forehead, another the nose and upper lip, and the third the chin. It is within one hundred rods of the Profile House, and is unquestionably the most remarkable natural curiosity in this country, if not in the world. —Among the Clouds."
Kilburn and his brother, Edward, were well-known for both photographing and publishing stereoscopic views of the White Mountains and beyond, capitalizing on the Victorian tourism boom. According to Wikipedia, the Kilburn Brothers (later B. W. Kilburn Co.) became "the world`s most extensive manufacturer of stereoscopic views."
The Kilburns` former stereoscopic view factory still stands today in Littleton and is NH Historical Marker #71.
👉If you are interested in learning more about the Kilburn Brothers, Cow Hampshire wrote an extensive article online about the family business.
[Gift of Henry B. Margeson, PS0105]
#thisweekinhistory #oldmanofthemountain #FranconiaNH #stereographs #bwkilburn #kilburnbrothers #LittletonNH #collectpreserveshare📖 #localhistory #portsmouthnh #nhtourism
Spring is here, and you can bank. on. it.🌱🌷🌼🌿🌸😊
(That and our weakness for bad puns...hey, we`re not perfect. 🤷♂️🤷♀️)
On April 11, 1959, the First National of Bank of Portsmouth hosted an open house for its brand new bank building at 325 State on the corner of Fleet Street.🏦💵 #onthisdate
Pictured are a few earlier photos of the 325 State Street bank by commercial photographer Douglas Armsden (1918-2009) of Kittery Point, Maine.
[P15.366 & P0061_00241]
Incorporated in 1824, first as the Piscataqua Bank, the bank shared the same treasurer, Samuel Lord, as the Portsmouth Savings Bank, which was located on the upper floor of the New Hampshire Bank at 22-26 Market Square. With one too many banks, Piscataqua Bank moved to an upper room at the corner of State and Pleasant streets.
In 1844, the Market Square building was purchased by both Piscataqua Bank and Portsmouth Savings Bank. Piscataqua Bank changed its name to Piscataqua Exchange Bank.
While independent of Portsmouth Savings Bank, both held the same building, officers, and directors (and Mr. Lord).
In 1863, Piscataqua Exchange changed its name to First National Bank of Portsmouth.
In 1869, the two banks separated completely after its shared treasurer retired. A partition was constructed between the two banks with Portsmouth Savings Bank on the north side and First National Bank on the south side.
(Oh, we can talk more about the Market Square building another time.🍵⏱️)
In 1957, Portsmouth Savings began construction on a new bank at 333 State on the corner of Fleet Street. Of course, a few years later, First National followed, opening this bank directly across the street. #banktwins
In 1996, First National merged with Bank of New Hampshire. Later, it was People`s United. Today, it`s M & T Bank.
But can we talk about the bank`s spaceship, er, annex building? 👽
In 2003-2004, the bank remodeled the mid-century modern exterior and demolished the annex, returning it to the mothership of Lost Portsmouth architectural history.😔
#otd #firstnationalbank #midcenturymodern #statestreet #douglasarmsden #collectpreserveshare📖
#localhistory #portsmouthnh #nh #seacoast❤
Postmarked from Portsmouth on March 25, 1910, this Easter postcard included a simple message "With love and best wishes for a peaceful and happy Easter" from Ella.
Like Ella, we wish you all a peaceful and happy Easter.🐣 🐰💐
The recipient was Charles L. Rollins, of 88 Race Street, Haverhill, MA.
Charles L. Rollins (1838-1919) was born in Tuftonboro before his parents settled in Dover. A veteran of the Civil War, Charles moved to Haverhill, MA, to work in a shoe factory. In 1868, he married Laura R. Tarlton of Kittery, Maine. The couple resided in Haverhill until their deaths; however, his obituary referred to him as a former resident of Portsmouth. The couple was buried in the Tarlton family plot in Harmony Grove Cemetery in Portsmouth.
[Postcard printed in Germany. PC1508]
#happyeaster #postcards #collectpreserveshare📖
#localhistory #portsmouthnh #nh #Maine #seacoast❤
Baseball is back, so we stepped up to the plate and batted about the archives.⚾️🧢
Here are two unidentified baseball players from the Haven School, the former South End elementary school at 50 South School Street in Portsmouth. Undated.
The photograph comes from the Haven Athletic Committee scrap album owned by Arthur C. Clough Sr. (1913-2001), beloved coach and custodian for the school.
The second photo is the Atlantic Gypsum Company Rockwalls baseball team after they blanked the Knights of Columbus with a score of 7 to 0 to win the Sunset League championship on September 12, 1934. The six-inning game lasted just over an hour. Brothers Jeremiah "Jere" and Malcolm "Mal" Chase contributed to the victory. In the back row, far right, shortstop Jere Chase stole a base and scored two runs. Also, in the back row, third from right, Mal Chase played second base, going 2 for 3 with a triple and scoring two runs. Athenaeum Proprietor Bob Chase donated this photo of his father, Jere, and uncle.
While all others are unidentified, we do know from the game`s 1934 box score the surname of other teammates: Mitchell (pitcher who struck out five), Bridges (catcher), Collins (first base), Horsfall (third base), Culliane (right field), Hughes (center field), and Reardon (left field).
If you happen to recognize any of the ballplayers in either photo, please let us know in the comments.🧐
In fact, we have many unidentified photos of students and some teachers in our Haven School Project photograph collection, and maybe you can help. You can search our online catalog with "Haven School Project" in the search bar to view the collection. For additional information, please email James at jsmith@portsmouthathenaeum.org.
[1.Haven School Project, Gift of the Clough Family, P0062_044; 2. Gift of Robert Chase, PS2771.]
#baseball #havenschool #southend #sunsetleague #americaspastime #spring #collectpreserveshare📖 #localhistory #portsmouthnh #nh #seacoast❤
