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The independent nonprofit that saves, preserves, and shares New Hampshire history.
July 2011 |
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Museum exhibition presents New Hampshire icons |
What comes to mind when you think of New Hampshire? What best symbolizes the state and its people? The New Hampshire Historical Society offers up more than 100 possible answers in the new exhibition Icons of History: Objects that Define New Hampshire, on view at the Society's museum, through December 31, 2011.
Here are some of our favorites:
Concord coach, No. 65
J. S. and E. A. Abbot, later the Abbot-Downing Company
Concord, New Hampshire
c. 1855
Gift of the Boston & Maine Railroad
During the 19th century, the Abbot-Downing Company developed a world-wide reputation for its wagons, carriages, and stagecoaches. Between 1827 and 1899 the company produced approximately 3,000 Concord coaches. |
Pitcher
Attributed to the Herculaneum Pottery
Liverpool, England
Transfer-printed earthenware, 1800-1805
Gift of Frances McNeil Corse
Manufactured in England, this pitcher belonged to the Solomon McNeil family of Hillsborough. It was sold to Americans mourning the loss of George Washington, the first president of the young United States of America. It depicts George Washington rising to heaven on his death, December 14, 1799. A plan for the new city of Washington decorates the opposite side. |
Margaret T. Mitchell of Peterborough was one of hundreds of young women who attended Mrs. Susanna Rowson's Academy in Boston during the early 19th century. Mitchell learned manners and morals as well as reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, music, dancing, needlework, painting, and drawing. This education prepared her for adulthood and motherhood in the new republic. Mitchell chose a popular subject when she copied David Edwin's 1800 engraving after Edward Savage's painting, The Landing of Christopher Columbus, in making her needlework picture.
The Landing of Columbus
Margaret Mitchell (1784-1867)
Boston, Massachusetts
Silk and watercolor on paper, 1800-1809
Gift of Mattie Estella Bean Gilchrist,
in memory of Harry Wilbur Gilchrist |
Cradle
Unidentified maker
Walnut, 1840-50
Bequest of Frances McNeil Potter
Franklin and Jane Pierce probably used this cradle for their sons, Frank, Robert and Benjamin.
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Russell Cheney (1881-1945)
c. 1930
Oil on canvas
Bequest of Dorothy Mansfield Vaughan
Artist Russell Cheney made several trips to Europe during the 1920s where he studied scenery and the work of popular Impressionist painters. Cheney returned to America where he earned a living painting portraits and cityscapes. Hoping to gain inspiration from the New England landscape, Cheney settled at Kittery Point, Maine, painting scenes of coastal New England during the summer and fall of 1927.
Referring to this Portsmouth street scene, on October 3, 1927, Russell Cheney wrote in his diary, "This has been a good day. First off the portrait went fine. Painted off and on all morning,... After lunch I lay out a while and read Mont St. Michael and Chartres, then packed over to Portsmouth and started a good sized one I've had in mind of the street past the Langdon house. Autumn color. I'll wait till daylight before I'm sure, but here in the electric light it looks first rate. Very finished looking somehow."
Thanks to our sponsors
Icons of History: Objects that Define New Hampshire is funded by the New Hampshire Antiques Dealers Association, with additional support from the Robert O. Wilson Historical Research Fund, the Una Mason Collins Fund, and the McIninch Foundation.
"We are grateful to the New Hampshire Antique Dealers Association for its generous sponsorship of this exhibition, and for all it does to preserve and promote New Hampshire's history," said the Society's Executive Director Bill Dunlap. "We are delighted to partner with them in sharing these iconic treasures with the public."
For more information about this exhibition, visit our website, at http://www.nhhistory.org/museumexhibits/Icons/Icons.html
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Society featured in "Generations" TV show |
In the January issue of the Society's e-news, we told you about the 40-foot Durgin scroll, a family history documented in pages glued together and rolled up. It was recently featured in The Generations Project, a reality television series produced by Brigham Young University. The latest episode features Sean, a young author and mountaineer who "investigates the lives of his ancestors in hopes of gaining courage to pursue his life's calling." Sean's search brought him to the New Hampshire Historical Society's library and the Woodman Institute in Dover.
During his visit to the Society, he learned that his ancestors were the Durgins who kept their family genealogy in a very unique way -- on a 40-foot scroll.
The show is available to view at www.byutv.org/show/1791.
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Refurbished General Store now ready for a "hands-on" learning experience |
The Society's General Store got a face lift thanks to the Society's museum teachers. Portions of the popular exhibition had become "shop-worn," and the teachers took the initiative to refurbish it.
Over the last few months they brainstormed, researched, and shopped for items to expand the store's "inventory" of artifacts, contributing their own time and money to the project. They rearranged, relabeled and added items including: a washboard, lanterns, Brownie camera, aprons, old pharmacy bottles, buttons, marbles, cash box, fashion pictures, tins, old tools, a rug beater, storybooks, children's building blocks - just to name some of the new items.
All of the items are from the early 1900s and are meant to be touched.
Once the General Store was updated, the museum teachers designed a new educational activity. Young visitors or students groups can see pictures of familiar modern objects and are challenged to find the "equivalent" object in the General Store. Children often express amazement at the inventive ways people accomplished tasks 100 years ago.
Some items are still sought for the General Store. They include:
- Bib overalls
- Metal wash tub
- Razor (no blade), brush, mug, strop
- Wooden checkers
- New Hampshire-made baseball
If you are willing to donate any of the items on the "wish list," please contact the education department at 603-856-0611, or sskenyon@nhhistory.org.
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Can you help us solve a mystery?
There are a number of images in our collection that we know very little about.
Do you know anything about this photograph? If so, e-mail us at
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Make a difference: Leave a Legacy |
In 1908 longstanding member William C. Todd left the New Hampshire Historical Society a $15,000 bequest. With prudent investment and the discipline of trustees to only spend a portion of the income, his gift has grown to more than $260,000. Thanks to Mr. Todd, the Society each year acquires New Hampshire town histories, genealogy books and other works on history, furthering our mission and fulfilling his passion -- forever.
For more information or confidential inquiries, contact Anne L. Hamilton, Director of Development, by phone at
603-856-0608 or via email at ahamilton@nhhistory.org.
William C. Todd (1823-1903)
Painted by Marion Powers (1880-1963)
Original by Robert Gordon Hardie (1854-1904)
Oil on canvas, 1907
Gift of Samuel C. Eastman |
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