Library: A History Of Portsmouth NH In 101 Objects, Coming December 2022

Press release from the Portsmouth Public Library:

Portsmouth Public Library is thrilled to have collaborated on a new book in honor of Portsmouth's 400th anniversary: A History of Portsmouth NH in 101 Objects.

This keepsake, 224-page, softbound book - with 101 color photographs of objects whose stories are important to Portsmouth - will be available in December 2022. special pre-publication discount of $25! (In advance of the anticipated cover price of $29.99). The volume gives readers a sense of “who we are” and “where we are” as Portsmouth continues its journey from before 1623 to 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 those observers of Portsmouth history best able to explain how each object’s story offers a path into the city’s 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. Over the past six months, the project team has assembled photographs of the objects and invited local authors to write about those objects for the book and website. Features include: A History of Portsmouth NH in 101 Objects book and website are intended as a record of what this community values in 2023 on the 400th anniversary of Portsmouth’s settlement, a resource for historians and future generations, and an illuminating tour of the City’s past for the general reader. For more information, visit 101objectsportsmouthnh.org. Image: cover of A History of Portsmouth NH in 101 Objects photo credit: Debbra Obertanne

This press release was produced by the Portsmouth Public Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.