Book of the Week (3/13/2023)

A History of Portsmouth NH in 101 Objects by Steve Butzel, et al. (Portsmouth NH 400 Legacy Project, 2022)

As a memento of the 400th anniversary, this volume gives readers a sense of “who we are” and “where we are” as Portsmouth continues its journey from our past before 1623 to our future beyond 2023. Each object is depicted with a full-page photograph accompanied by an essay by a local author – 80 different writers who are the historians, experts, participants and observers of Portsmouth history best able to explain how each object’s story offers a path into our bigger 400+ year history. 

The idea of using "101 objects" to tell Portsmouth’s story, as America’s Smithsonian museums did using objects in their collections, intrigued the city’s historical institutions - Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth Athenaeum, Portsmouth Historical Society and Portsmouth Public Library. The Editorial Board, comprised of the directors of those organizations, asked a variety of people and institutions (and their own curators) to nominate the list of 101 objects from Portsmouth’s wide and diverse past.-- Publisher's blurb

Features include:

• The original 1923 City of the Open Door brochure and essay by Mayor Deaglan McEachern
• Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and its submarines by D. Allan Kerr
• The Goodwin Soldiers & Sailors Memorial by Mike Pride
• Gilley’s hot dog by Rachel Forrest and The Blue Strawbery Restaurant by Chef James Haller
• The African Burying Ground Memorial by Valerie Cunningham
• The Piscataqua watershed by Jeffrey Bolster and Piscataqua gundalow by Molly Bolster
• The Piscataqua region before settlement by Native American Studies professor Lisa Brooks