😲 Look! Real people, out and about! So glad to be getting back into the swing of things!
History, Arts, and Culture Are Open for the Season!
We are back for 2021! We’ve got some AMAZING exhibitions, a wonderful gift shop, and our friendly staff and volunteers can’t wait to see you! We’re still being careful―everybody’s masked and keeping a safe distance―but we’re ready to welcome you once again to Portsmouth Historical Society!
Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center Open now, 7 days/week, 10am-5pm
Historical Walking Tours begin May 1
John Paul Jones House opens May 28
Our Gratitude to the Wyeth Foundation for American Art
Portsmouth Historical Society is pleased to announce the award of a $15,000 grant in support of our upcoming 2022 exhibition, Imagine That! The Power of Picture Books, featuring the work of more than twenty nationally-recognized author illustrators from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. With this exhibition, the Society aims to reassess the region’s heritage of illustration with fresh eyes and advance public understanding of the potential of picture books to connect and inspire us.
The primary mission of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art is to encourage the study, appreciation, and recognition of excellence in American art. The Foundation supports selected programs of scholarship, research, conservation, and exhibitions with institutions and other non-profit organizations that are consistent with this mission.
Call for Volunteers!
Portsmouth Historical Society wants YOU!
We’re looking for volunteers to help out a few hours a week. Know everything about downtown Portsmouth? Come lend a hand in the Welcome Center! Want to spend an afternoon in thoughtful discussion about historical and contemporary art? You can be a gallery docent!
If you’re interested, please email Jess Kliskey, our volunteer coordinator at Jessica@portsmouthhistory.org, or click here to fill out a quick online form.
We’re a fun bunch to work with!
Keepin’ it Classy in the Museum Shop
Frederick A. Bosley, The Family, 1930. Oil on canvas; 41 x 48 in. Private collection. Photo, courtesy of Jeremy Fogg, Anthony Moore Painting Conservation.
The Museum Shop has beautiful note cards featuring the art of Alice Ruggles Sohier and Frederick A. Bosley. Perfect for that classy thank you card or that letter you’ve been meaning to write to your mother (she loves snail mail so much more than email). Online or in person!
The witch hazel is blooming outside the Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center! Spring has definitely arrived!
The Welcome Center is open 10 am to 5 pm Seven days a week!
Please note that we are still following health and safety protocols, asking all visitors to wear masks and follow a one-way route through the gallery, with a maximum number of people allowed in the building. We are making great progress on vaccinations, but we want stay smart and safe!
We look forward to seeing you all!
Art ‘Round Town Friday, April 2
Twilight, Portsmouth’s Finest Hour, 1994. Reduction woodcut. Collection of Joanne Holman & Lance Hellman. Photo, courtesy of the artist.
We’ve got some wonderful artists who will be in the gallery Friday evening, April 2, between 5pm and 8pm. Among those planning on being here are Don Gorvett, whose lifetime of marvelous reduction woodcuts is on display on the second floor, as well as Betsey Wish, whose work is for sale in the shop. Her whimsical lobstermen are inspired by the real fishermen working the waters off Kittery.
From my vantage point on the water in Kittery photographing lobstermen at work, I discovered that while lobstering is difficult, it can be experienced as a particular art form. Each lobsterman has honed his skills with an individual style and technique. Bringing my homemade cookies in a dry sack while kayaking and offering them to the lobstermen I learned that each one of them has his own unique story, representing his own way of life. The real story of Kittery’s local lobstermen is one to be shared with our community.
Call for Volunteers!
Looking to spend a few hours outside the house? Like people? Interested in art? We’ve got a spot for you!
We’re looking for Welcome Center greeters and gallery docents for the sprint and summer. If you’re interested, click here, or email our volunteer coordinator Jessica Kliskey.
Above: Don Gorvett, Bend in the River, Bow and Ceres, 2016. Reduction woodcut; 21 x 40 in. Collection of Nancy and Brian Pearson.
“Don Gorvett: Working Waterfronts”
April 2, 20201–September 12, 2021
at the Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center 10 Middle Street, Portsmouth, NH
Open 7 days, 10 am–5 pm
starting April 1st
“Don Gorvett: Working Waterfronts” presents over sixty works by this famed seacoast master printmaker highlighting the dynamic commercial harbors of the region. Renowned for his imaginative seascapes and “boat portraits,” Gorvett’s work celebrates the mechanical and gritty alongside the serene and picturesque.
Don Gorvett, Woodbury Studio from Marginal Way, 1995. Reduction woodcut; 24 x 17.25 in. Private collection.
Don Gorvett, Twilight, Portsmouth’s Finest Hour, 1994. Reduction woodcut; 29 x 44 in. Collection of Joanne Holman & Lance Hellman.
Don Gorvett, Tug, John Wanamaker, 1998. Reduction woodcut; 30 x 32 inches. Collection of Michael & Jasmine Tullis.
Don Gorvett, Life Boat, Merchant’s Row, 2018. Reduction woodcut; 29 x 20 in. Collection of Don Gorvett Gallery.
Thank you to the lenders and donors who made this exhibition possible
Martha Fuller Clark and Geoffrey E. Clark • Pauline C. Metcalf / The Felicia Fund, Inc. ☙❧ William & Arlene Brewster • Joseph MacDonald Family • New Hampshire State Council on the Arts ☙❧ Anthony Moore Painting Conservation • Jameson & Priscilla French ☙❧ Piscataqua Savings Bank • Cambridge Trust
Women in Portsmouth History!
Plate, probably Dover, New Hampshire, 1995. Salt-glazed stoneware with cobalt-blue decoration; diam. 11 in. Gift of Eileen Foley (2015.011).
As the inscription reads, this charming plate commemorates the selection of Eileen Foley as Portsmouth’s Citizen of the Year on Market Square Day in 1995. Helen (“Eileen”) Dondero Foley (1916-2016) was one of the most remarkable women in Portsmouth’s long history. She served as mayor for a total of sixteen years between 1968 and 1997, following in the footsteps of her mother, Mary Carey Dondero, who was elected as Portsmouth’s first female mayor in 1945. She also served seven terms in the New Hampshire Senate and was involved in a multitude of civic activities. In the words of Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Eileen Foley “was not only an incredible advocate for the Seacoast Region in New Hampshire, but also around the globe by helping to establish sister cities and international trade. So much of the local progress made in e-commerce, tourism and historic preservation, can be traced back to Eileen’s leadership and foresight.”
A Small Treasure; Great Women
We’ve got some fun things in our online shop to celebrate Women’s History Month!
“Twilight of American Impressionism: Alice Ruggles Sohier & Frederick A. Bosley”
Opening to the public on April 2 is our long-awaited exhibition on two unsung artists of the Boston School of painting. Alice Ruggles Sohier and Frederick A. Bosley were talented students of Edmund Tarbell (Bosley even took over Tarbell’s job after his retirement). While exceptional artists, these two painters faded into relative obscurity because their representational style was seen as passé with the advent of modernism. With the benefit of hindsight, we can now appreciate their talents fully, acknowledging that, while they may have been painting at the end of an era, great art is truly timeless.
Alice Ruggles Sohier, Portfolio, 1924. Oil on canvas; 30¼ x 25¼ in. Private collection.
Alice Ruggles Sohier, Spruce in Snow, ca. 1912. Oil on canvas; 8 x 10 in. Private collection.Frederick A. Bosley, The Gold Screen (or Lady in Black), 1924. Oil on canvas; 40¼ x 34¼ in. Private collection.Frederick A. Bosley, The Red Tree, 1927. Oil on canvas; 30 x 25 in., framed. Private collection.
Thank you to the lenders and donors who made this exhibition possible
Martha Fuller Clark and Geoffrey E. Clark • Pauline C. Metcalf / The Felicia Fund, Inc. ☙❧ William & Arlene Brewster • Joseph MacDonald Family New Hampshire State Council on the Arts ☙❧ Anthony Moore Painting Conservation • Jameson & Priscilla French ☙❧ Piscataqua Savings Bank • Cambridge Trust
Opening April 1st
The Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center will open to the public for the season on Thursday, April 1 at 10 am.
Please note that our Exhibitions will open the following day, Friday, April 2
March is Women’s History Month!
elebrate Women’s History Month with some inspirational women!
Featured this week is the late, great Ruth Bader Ginsburg! Available at our online shop:
