Celebrating the Fall!

Celebrating the Fall!

So Many Local Artists Will Be Here for Exhibition Opening Reception!

Join us 5:30–8:00 pm on Friday, October 1, to open our fall exhibitions!

Kenneth R. Goldman. White Island Lighthouse, Isles of Shoals, Rye, at sunset on the summer solstice. June 21, 2019

We’ll have no fewer than SIX photographers in house, whose work is featured in the “New Hampshire Now” exhibition:

Dan Gingras
David Murray
Effie Malley
Ken Goldman
Peter E. Randall
Michael Sterling

Plus, our five local painters for “Abstracting the Seacoast”

Dustan Knight
Brian Chu
Barbara Adams
Peter Cady
Tom Glover

Tom Glover. Gear in the Port. Acrylic, charcoal, collage, 30 x 40 inches.

A brief note about health and safety:

For large events such as this, all guests are requested to wear masks, and we are requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test from the past 48 hours upon entry.

We will be serving food and drink in a socially distant manner.


Portsmouth Advocates Awards for 2021

Portsmouth Advocates, a key program of the Portsmouth Historical Society, is joining in on awards season! Since 1989, Portsmouth Advocates has honored individuals and projects that enhance the city’s unique historic character and make Portsmouth a better place to live and work. This year we are delighted to have responsibly resumed our awards ceremony in-person at GoodWork’s Carey Cottage at Creek Farm, a 2020 Advocates award recipient.

Portsmouth Advocates is pleased to announce the following award winners: For “Restoring the Integrity of a Resource,” Stephen Foster and the Tobias Lear House, 49 Hunking Street. For the “Continued and Sensitive Maintenance of a Historic Property,” South Church at 292 State Street, Harry Furman and Kathleen Straube for the Ebenezer Hanes House at 557 State Street, Keith and Christina Wilkinson at 62 Winter Street. The recipient of the Arthur J. Gerrier Memorial Award, given to an individual of long demonstrated commitment to preserving and enhancing the unique historical character of this city, is Vincent Lombardi. The John Grossman Memorial Award, which recognizes an individual who makes a reality of an organization’s mission by bridging the theoretical and practical, is Barbara McLean Ward.

We’ll be highlighting each of the winners in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!


October is the Last Month for Walking Tours This Year!

October is the last month to get a walking tour before it get’s too cold! Book your tickets today. Portsmouth is beautiful in the fall!

If you can’t make one of our regularly scheduled tours, book a private tour! Just contact walking tour manager Robin Lurie-Meyerkopf!


History. Arts. Culture.


THREADS: A Community Quilt for 2020

THREADS: A Community Quilt for 2020

Quilt Square Instructions: PDF Document Download


Make your own square to show what you love about your community and mail it to the Portsmouth Historical Society by June 15th!

DEADLINE EXTENDED! Please get your squares in the mail by

JULY 13!

Download the guidelines PDF for full details!

While nothing like the current pandemic has happened in living memory, it is not completely unprecedented. The 1918 influenza epidemic also quarantined Seacoast residents for extended periods indoors, as have many New England snowstorms during long winters on isolated homesteads. While sheltering in place, we have found solace with our families and with our community, thanks to the benefits of the internet.

Quilts have always been creative works of art and skill that tell stories and bring people together, reminding us of those who made them and used them. In previous dark times, community quilts have been created to bring people together in spirit, even while they have been physically separated.

This community’s Portsmouth Historical Society believes that now is a time when we again need to come together, to create symbolic expressions of the spirit that connect us, and to affirm a community spirit that will endure long into the future. Let’s all make a square to tell our story, why we love this part of the world, our families, friends, and neighbors, so that we may come together and celebrate our community once the crisis has passed.

We are separated, but all in this together. Like individual, unique squares of a quilt, we each have our own story, but together we make a beautiful blanket to offer comfort to all.


Not crafty? Not a problem!

Keep an eye on our website and social media accounts for no-sew ideas and pointers. Look for #ThreadsQuilt2020


Got questions? Send an email to threads@portsmouthhistory.org


Quilt Square Instructions: PDF Document Download


This exhibition is made possible, in part, by the generous support of private donors, and these corporate sponsors: Hoefle, Phoenix, Gormley & Roberts, PLLC and Performance Business Solutions, with additional support from Charles Schwab/Charles B Riopel, Piscataqua Savings Bank, and DTC Lawyers.

Our 2020 Schedule & COVID-19 Response

Despite challenging times, Portsmouth Historical Society has exciting plans for this summer!

Although we have rescheduled “Twilight of American Impressionism,” and “Don Gorvett: Working Waterfronts” for the 2021 summer season, please check back soon for details about some alternative virtual programs and a major community-wide project that will help see us through the unusual days ahead.

We hope to open our doors by early July, but due to our concern for the health and safety of our guests, we are delaying our planned spring opening of the John Paul Jones House, Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center, and Portsmouth Academy Gallery until a date that will be determined later.

Seacoast Arts Organizations’ Call to Action

Seacoast Arts Organizations’ Call to Action

In times of crisis we come together. Current safety measures now prevent us from doing so in person. This new reality is leaning in on us; its shadow leaving area arts and cultural organizations, and many others around the world, dark.

In the spirit of collaboration, we, the Portsmouth area arts nonprofits, make this united call to action to ensure that our community’s cherished cultural organizations survive the impact of COVID-19.

We are in immediate financial danger. Every sale and contribution matters. Even a three-month closure is devastating for individual artists, staff, and the local businesses that benefit from their audiences – like restaurants, hotels and shops. Some of our venues could be forced to close their doors forever. We are coming together now to ask you, our community, to support us at this critical time.

We are, as Roald Dahl says, the music-makers and we are the dreamers of dreams – artists, event organizers, fans, supporters and students. We share a deep philosophical belief in the communal power of art and the overall power of community and reach out today to channel that power.

The arts and culture of this region are more than a pastime. They are a powerful economic force. In the three-month timeframe ahead of us, the signers below estimate this collective impact: $700,000 reaching individual artists, 200,000 audience members served, and 250 local individuals employed, 85 at full-time levels.

As important as economic impact, if not more, the Seacoast’s arts community is part and parcel of who we are. It helps define us and unite us. The arts bring priceless beauty, wonder, inspiration and insight to our neighborhoods and into the minds and hearts of their patrons. They spark the flames countless community members rally around for warmth and company.

We all know the mantra, “The show must go on.” In the arts world, that’s equally true on both sides of the curtain. It will take the entire community – from both sides of the curtain – to ensure our lush and robust culture, an emblem of our region, continues on.

We recognize that this is a challenging time for everyone. Like other community businesses, area arts and cultural organizations face an existential crisis posed by indeterminate closures, the length of which will be decided by the fortitude of a virus. The threat we face stems not only from the loss of ticket, concession, merchandise, membership and season pass revenue, but from an almost-certain impending pull-back on philanthropy. Generosity from you, as members of the business community and as individuals, is what keeps the arts accessible. Advocates, enthusiasts and philanthropists are invited to please join us, share this message, and contribute as you can.

Things are moving quickly. Please know we acknowledge the efforts and contributions of all area arts nonprofits and invite them to join us and share this message, too.

We already profoundly miss the opportunity to gather together and connect over art, and we are dedicated to ensuring that opportunity awaits us on the other side of COVID-19.

May music and art bring you peace of mind at this challenging moment in time.

Wishing all in our community good health,

3S Artspace, The Dance Hall, Kittery, Maine, New Hampshire Theatre Project, Players’ Ring Theatre, Prescott Park Arts Festival, Pontine Theatre, Portsmouth Historical Society, Portsmouth Music and Arts Center, Seacoast Rep, Strawbery Banke Museum, The Music Hall, WSCA Radio

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