Join us in the garden of our John Paul Jones House for cake, lawn games, and live music from Jordan TW with Matt Jensen from 12-2 pm on Sunday, July 10. This event is free and open to the public.
The John Paul Jones House will be free and open to the public all day (11 am – 5 pm). Come celebrate with us!
Discover the allure of Twilight Tour!
Tour nine historic sites from 4-8 pm on Friday, August 5
Tickets: $20 adult/$10 children in advance; $25 adults/$10 children at the door
Tickets are valid for free or discounted admission all season long
Presented by Portsmouth Historic Sites Associates
For tickets and more information visit www.portsmouthhistoric.org/events
Sites include: Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire; Portsmouth Historical Society & John Paul Jones House; Goodwin House, Strawbery Banke Museum; Historic New England’s Governor Langdon House; Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden, Portsmouth Athenaeum; Warner House; Wentworth Coolidge Mansion; Wentworth Gardner House
In 2021, Dr. James C. Bradford and his wife, Judith, gave the Portsmouth Historical Society a collection of some three hundred “collectibles” of many diverse kinds related to John Paul Jones (1747–1792). Most of the objects, dating from the mid to late twentieth century, reflect years of collecting such material by the donors. Dr. Bradford, a distinguished naval historian who has edited the papers of Jones, collected these examples of modern popular culture as a sideline to his professional academic work on the eighteenth-century naval hero. Much of the Bradford Collection will be on view this summer at the John Paul Jones House, where (according to tradition) the naval hero rented a room during his visits to Portsmouth in 1777 and 1781.
Jones, an important ship captain in the American Revolution and considered to be the founder of the U.S. Navy, was largely overlooked in the nineteenth century until his reputation was revived (and his body literally disinterred from a Paris cemetery and moved to Annapolis) in 1905. In the plates, bowls, mugs, decanters, soda cans, medals, models, prints, posters, puzzles, and other types of memorabilia in the Bradford Collection, we can see Jones’s career recounted and his reputation perpetuated. These souvenirs reach a wider audience than academic textbooks and lengthy scholarly biographies and have help keep the memory of Jones (and some of the myths surrounding him) fresh in the collective public’s mind.
Show’n Tell Picturesound Program produced by General Electric in 1964, which retains its original record. GE produced several “Libraries” of programs featuring historical figures as well as children’s fairy tales, children’s classics, along with scientific and other subjects.
Is Jones as well known (outside of naval circles) in 2022 as he was in 1976? Does Old Spice feature his name on their cologne any longer, as they did fifty years ago? The Bradford Collection exhibition—displaying the kinds of everyday, decorative objects often seen by millions and collected by many—allows us to see the various ways Jones has been regarded in the popular eye for the past century.
Advertising sign (“Today’s Best Buy / Paul Jones / Blended Whiskey / You Just Can’t Buy a Better Drink” and thermometer)
New York, ca. 1940s–50s
Tin, mixed media
The Dr. James C. and Judith R. Bradford Collection
This small metal sign, made for Paul Jones and Frankfort Distillers, is marked on the back “Place and Place, New York.” As with the many objects in the case to the left also issued by Paul Jones Whiskey, it features an image of Jones.
The diverse materials represented in the Collection tell us a great deal about the colonial revival writ large, the American Bicentennial of the 1970s in particular, and American taste, as well as Jones’s place in the pantheon of key figures of the American Revolution in the American imagination. Like other important Revolutionary personages, such as George Washington, Paul Revere, and Thomas Jefferson, Jones’s reputation has waxed and waned over time and been subject to reassessment.
Old Spice Deluxe Cologne Commemorative Coin Decanter featuring Jones. Made ca. 1976 for Shulton, Inc., of Clifton, N.J., it remains unopened, with its contents of 6 fl. oz. of cologne intact and protected by its original shrink-wrapping. Old Spice issued similar packaging honoring George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.
Dr. James C. Bradford is professor emeritus of history at Texas A & M University, where he has taught since 1981. He grew up in northern Michigan and received degrees from Michigan State University (B.A., M.A.) and his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. He specializes in naval, maritime, and early American history. He has taught in Malaysia and been a visiting professor at the Air War College, in addition to teaching study-abroad courses in France, Germany, Italy, and England.
An award-winning scholar, Dr. Bradford is the editor of The Papers of John Paul Jones and several volumes of essays on maritime history. He co-edits the book series “Studies in Naval History and Sea Power” (Naval Institute Press) and was president of the North American Society for Ocean History. A founding member of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, he was executive director of the organization from 1995 to 2004. His most recent publications include A Companion to American Military History (2010), and America, Sea Power and the World (2016).
Modern reproduction of N.C. Wyeth (1862-1948), Captain John Paul Jones (1938). Portsmouth Historical Society; The James C. and Judith R. Bradford Collection.
We will celebrate how John Paul Jones as captain of the Ranger changed the course of the American Revolutionary War in April, 1778. New Hampshire has always been noted for building wonderful ships, including the USS Ranger, built in Portsmouth. John Paul Jones stayed in the house at 43 Middle Street while the Ranger was being built. In April 1778, Jones, in command of the Ranger, attacked Whitehaven, England; attempted to kidnap the Earl of Selkirk; and, on April 24, 1778, defeated HMS Drake off the western coast of Great Britain.
Attendees will include Rear Admiral Samuel J. Cox, USN (Ret.), Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern, members of City Council, and Dr. James Bliss, PhD, a noted expert on John Paul Jones.
Will and Alex from Spokeshave Design installing our sculptural mobile in the center of the Academy Gallery. The space is being truly transformed for our upcoming exhibition, Imagine That! The Power of Picture Books, opening May 6. Stay tuned for more!
Sketch by the late maritime scholar and artist William Gilkerson of the USS Ranger, built at Portsmouth Harbor in 1777. Used by permission.
By J. Dennis Robinson
With a crew including men from the Piscataqua region, John Paul Jones waged what amounted to a one-ship war along the coast of Great Britain during the American Revolution. Although his guerilla raids aboard Ranger in 1778 caused little damage, they had a chilling effect on the British population.
After capturing HMS Drake, Jones sent Ranger home. He resumed his war against England the following year aboard Bonhomme Richard.
Jones’ ferocious battle against HMS Serapis sealed his reputation as a naval hero. Honored by French King Louis XVI, Jones sailed again to the United States. Appointed commander of the 74-gun USS America in 1782, he was back in Portsmouth and, legend says, to his rented room in the home of Sarah Purcell.
America was only half finished, Jones discovered, with little funding left to equip, provision, and man the ship. Launching America, he reported, was “the most lingering and disagreeable service” he faced during the Revolution. Fearing the huge ship of the line (182 feet long by 50 feet wide) might be sabotaged by the enemy during construction in Kittery, Jones mounted artillery on board and posted guards at his own expense. He also staged a huge public celebration with flags, dancing, and fireworks–but all for nothing. Congress chose to give America to the French in 1782. John Paul Jones left the United States without fanfare, but the return of his remains in 1905 captured headlines around the world.
Remember our great exhibit last fall of 46 New Hampshire photographers who traveled the Granite State from 2018-2020 taking pictures of daily life and majestic scenes? Now you can own one of these beautiful prints. Some are available online, but most are displayed in our newly-renovated theater! Come in and have a peek!
Plus, we still have a few copies of the catalogue left!
