CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of Portsmouth Historical Society’s Membership Month raffle. Everyone who joined or renewed in the month of May was entered into a drawing for a private historical walking tour for up to eight people. Those who did so as monthly sustaining members, or at a higher membership level than before, were entered into an additional drawing for a $100 Gift Certificate to our amazing museum shop.
Congratulations to Gerald Beauregard of Stratham, NH for winning the private historical walking tour.
And an additional congratulations to Elisabeth Russell and Albert Hontoog of Portsmouth, NH for winning the Gift Certificate to our Portsmouth Historical Society museum shop.
Movie with Dad!
Father’s Day is right around the corner! Join us for a special FREE screening of the 1959 film John Paul Jones! Starring Robert Stack, Marisa Pavan, Bette Davis, Charles Coburn, and Peter Cushing, this star-studded swashbuckling adventure is the perfect activity to launch Father’s Day weekend.
Friday, June 18th at 6pm Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center, 10 Middle Street
Members Get Double-Discount on June 18
We’d like to say thank you to all our members! Get double your usual discount in the Museum Shop on Friday, June 18! We’ve got some great gifts for Father’s Day in stock!
“Twilight of American Impressionism: Alice Ruggles Sohier and Frederick A. Bosley”
“Twilight of American Impressionism” showcases the largely unsung talents of Alice Ruggles Sohier and Frederick A. Bosley, two American impressionists working at a time when realistic art was falling out of fashion and abstract art was in vogue. These two artists created works of profound quality and depth in the midst of the rapidly changing inter-war era. Their successes and failures offer insight into the difficulty of coping with rapid societal change, and their work, rarely seen in public since it was first painted, reminds us that great art, while not always trendy, stands the test of time. William Brewster, guest curator and descendant of both Sohier and Bosley, brings his unparalleled knowledge of the two artists to the project.
“Don Gorvett: Working Waterfronts”
“Don Gorvett: Working Waterfronts” presents over sixty works by this famed seacoast master printmaker highlighting the dynamic commercial harbors of the region. As with the artists in “Twilight,” Don Gorvett is a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Renowned for his imaginative seascapes and “boat portraits,” Gorvett’s work celebrates the mechanical and gritty alongside the serene and picturesque.
Recent Acquisition: Portrait of Sarah H. Drisco March by John S. Blunt
Until now, the Society did not own a painting by the important local artist J.S. Blunt. At a Skinner’s online auction last November, two friends of the Society stepped up to fill that gap and helped us acquire this example. Although it is unsigned, the research of Deborah M. Child (who gave a great lecture for our 2019 “NH Folk Art” exhibition and is a John S. Blunt expert) determined that it appears in Blunt’s manuscript account book as a purchase recorded on June 30, 1821, by Nathaniel Bowditch March (1782-1862), husband of the sitter (and the artist’s landlord on Daniel Street as well).
March, a Portsmouth saddler and merchant whose papers are at the Portsmouth Athenaeum, paid $12 for this image of his wife, Sarah Huntress Drisco March (1780-1844). Her identity is given in an old label on the back that reads in script: “Portrait of Mrs. Sarah H. March / of Portsmouth, New Hampshire / June 18 [illegible] when she was [illegible] years of age / H.P.” Sarah would have been about 41 in 1821. PHS also has a nice trunk with Nathaniel March’s label. Sarah sports a stylish Regency hairdo with ringlets fashionable at the time, and is wearing earrings and an amazing pseudo-Elizabethan, triple-ruffled collar.
Attributed to John S. Blunt (1798-1835), Portrait of Sarah H. Drisco March, 1821. Oil on canvas; unsigned; 30 x 24 in., modern frame. Portsmouth Historical Society; Museum purchase with funds donated anonymously, 2020.
Upcycled Military Tent Bags at the Museum Shop
The crossbody bag seen here is one of many styles and sizes of these upcycled bags available at our Museum Shop. Sturdy and stylish, these purses, totes, and overnight bags are made from durable re-milled and up-cycled military textiles used by the army, covering trucks as tarps or providing shelter as tents.
Based on careful research conducted over many years by Patricia Q. Wall, this book presents the first detailed look at the lives of more than four hundred black individuals who lived in Kittery and Berwick, Maine, from the seventeenth century until about 1820. Pat has patiently combed the available public and private documents to find whatever scraps of information had been recorded about these African Americans. Because most lived their lives in the shadows of historical record, much has been lost. As Pat reveals, however, in addition to the personal trajectories of their own lives, they also played important roles in the life of their towns. Thanks to her research, we have a much better understanding of the importance of the Black, Native American, and mixed-race populations in southern Maine, both in qualitative and quantitative terms.
New England eighteenth-century objects with a history of ownership by an enslaved person are very rare. A nineteenth-century inscription on the underside of this table’s top is one such object. The note reads: “This table came from / Sir William Pepperell. / He gave it to his slave / Molly Miles.” Research by Patricia Q. Wall, published in her Lives of Consequence (Portsmouth Marine Society Press, 2017), identifies Molly Miles (ca. 1718-1827) as an enslaved person owned by Sir William Pepperrell of Kittery Point, Maine, and later members of his family. Molly died in the Eliot almshouse at nearly 108 years of age. She “retained the faculties of her mind to the last, walking perfectly erect, with a firm step, and has not a wrinkle on her face, and could distinctly see to read her Bible without glasses.” We are fortunate to have this material reminder of her life.
Table (“Molly’s table”), Seacoast area, ca. 1750 with later additions. Maple; two replaced legs, oak; H. 27 in., Diam. top 27 in. Gift of Alan and Anne Cutter (2017.2).
Coming this April…
We’re working hard in preparation for our 2021 season.
Stay tuned
for sneak peeks of all the fabulous works of art that will be on display this spring and summer!
