Did you know that the Society's library has more than 2 million manuscript pages in its collections? These pages are one-of-a-kind letters, diaries, and records donated by descendants and collectors, or purchased by the Society. When a researcher is working on a project, the sheer volume of material available in the collections can be daunting and leave one wondering, "Where do I start?"  

Society Posts Finding Aids Online

As part of the Society's work to increase access to the collections through digital technology and the internet, we are beginning to make our finding aids available online. A finding aid is a guide used to summarize a collection and describe what it contains. All 2 million of the Society's manuscript pages are contained within 3,200 collections. These collections are organized by subject (NH Militia Records, War of 1812); author (Daniel Webster Papers); or collector (Dorothy Vaughan Collection). The larger collections have finding aids to help researchers more easily find information. 

Currently, close to 100 finding aids are available online, with more being added each month. To access the finding aids, visit nhhistory.org, and navigate to the Library page on the left side. Then click Finding Aids and choose the collection you're interested in by either scrolling down and clicking the link, or the letter with which the collection name begins.

You may also visit the online catalog, which resides at the top of the list on the same page as the finding aids, nhhistory.library.net/. This catalog can help you, from the comfort of home or local coffee shop equipped with  internet access, to move forward in your research. Our Librarian, Bill Copeley, is available to help too, so please stop in at the library or contact him at 603-856-0641 or bcopeley@nhhistory.org. And check our website regularly to see the new finding aids we've added!

The Old House Speaks: Learning to Read the Physical Evidence 

Jim Garvin to speak February 16

   

Join the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance on February 16 at the Kimball Jenkins Carriage House, Concord, with Dr. James L. Garvin as he presents The Old House Speaks: Learning to Read the Physical Evidence.
 

A house will tell you much of its own story if you can understand its language. This lecture will explore physical clues that can help you to tell the approximate date at which your house was built, and the dates of later changes. 

Jim Garvin has been deeply involved with history and preservation in New Hampshire from his earlier years as the first curator of the fledgling Strawbery Banke Museum in the 1960s to his position as the State Architectural Historian with the NH Division of Historical Resources from 1987- 2011. Dr. Garvin's work experience has focused on an understanding of New England's material culture, historical methods and materials of fabrication, evolution of style, and the most effective means of preserving and interpreting the legacy of the past. Among his many publications is the award-winning resource book A Building History of Northern New England.

Message From the Executive Director: Grants to the Society Exceed $300,000

Executive Director Bill Dunlap

       

The Society has been the fortunate recipient of a number of grants in the latter part of 2012.  While news of grant awards has been shared periodically with trustees, members and others, it's impressive to see them listed together. Many of the awards will help us to move forward with our institutional transformation. Thanks to these grantors we will make progress on digitizing our collections and presenting them through a dynamic new web portal, ultimately enhancing our ability to better serve you and our other constituents, including the 18,000 school children served each year. A number of awards support current programs for education, exhibitions and collections. Collectively these grants total $305,300.

A large national funder (who wishes to remain anonymous) has given us and the Maine Historical Society $62,500 each to develop a comprehensive plan to replicate the highly successful Maine Memory Network in New Hampshire. Maine Memory is a statewide digital museum created by the Maine Historical Society that enables historical societies, museums, and libraries across the state to upload digital copies of historical collections into one centralized, web-accessible database. Then students, teachers, researchers, and the general public can access the information in a way that makes sense to them and keep the information in the way they want it -- for as long as they need it. This planning project will evaluate the issues related to "exporting" Maine Memory, and define a plan to successfully build and implement our own version, called New Hampshire History Online.

The Society has been very fortunate to get awards, each for $25,000, from the McIninch Foundation and the Madelaine G. Von Weber Trust to support the New Hampshire History Online initiative and help with its implementation.  

Director of Education Stephanie Skenyon works with students.

The Society's 30 Park Street building was lit in honor of its 100th anniversary, November 2011.

A $5,000 grant from the Robert and Dorothy Goldberg Charitable Foundation is providing underwriting for an upcoming exhibition of White Mountain art at the Society's museum. Called Mountain Scenery, it is an installation of 19th-century landscape paintings, featuring signature works as well as newly conserved paintings and recent additions to the collection. It will open in February 2013.

The museum collections will be better protected thanks to a grant from Arthur Getz Trust of $2,500 for environmental monitoring equipment.

The Society received $2,500 grants from the Ann De Nicola Trust and the Arthur Getz Trust to permit us to offer our outreach programs free-of-charge to schools having higher percentages of low and moderate income students. The New Hampshire Antique Dealers Association gave $3,000 to support grants to rural schools to augment transportation costs to visit the Society's museum. With a grant of $1,800, the Merrimack County Savings Bank Foundation is supporting Rundlett Middle School's spring visit to the Society for our colonial history program. The NHHEAF Network Organizations gave $500 to support our Advanced Placement History Course for the 12th year in a row.

On December 31st, we were thrilled to learn of a $25,000 grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation to sustain the education program as the Society implements its institutional transformation. This will support our educational infrastructure, providing operating funds for the program for fiscal year 2013.

Of course, a number of foundation and federal grant applications are still pending so we hope for more good news this year.

Best Wishes for 2013,

William H. Dunlap

Executive Director