Over 50 members and guests attended a lecture on the Battle of RI by historian and author Christian McBurney. Watch the video below.

The Portsmouth Historical Society invites all its members and guests to the 5th Annual All Charity Day at Newport Polo on August 1st, 2021.  The 6-chukker match began at 5pm, and featured home team Newport against “Foxtrot”. The match ended in a 10-10 tie with Newport pulling out a win in a sudden death overtime.

The PHS Fundraising “An Evening on Blue Bill Cove” on July 15, 2021 was a great success. Over 60 supporters joined for great music, delicious lobster rolls and a silent auction of Portsmouth Arts Guild watercolors.

Lecture by Christian McBurney June 17, 2021 Rhode Island’s contribution to World War II vastly exceeded its small size. Narragansett Bay was dotted by some of the country’s most important army forts and navy facilities. Attendees learned fascinating details about Aquidneck Island’s wartime role, shared by Christian McBurney, a popular historian, speaker, and co-author of

Book Club “Rhode Island’s Civil War Hospital, Life and Death a Portsmouth Grove, 1862-1865” by Frank L. Grzyb  The book club reconvened with a discussion hosted by Portsmouth Historical Society corporate sponsor, Gulf Stream Bar & Grille, in the Melville Marina, where the Portsmouth Civil War hospital complex was located. Maps and artifacts from the

In the spring of 1842 RI had 2 governors. Thomas Wilson Dorr, the “People’s Governor”, forcibly tried to implement the People’s Constitution, which he believed had replaced the antiquated colonial Charter. The Dorr Rebellion raised profound questions of citizenship. Russ DeSimone, an accomplished author and historian, is a leading authority on this fascinating piece of

The Town of Portsmouth, in cooperation with the Portsmouth Tree Commission and the Portsmouth Historical Society and with the generous support of National Grid, honored Herbert Hall, long-time Portsmouth resident and Past President of the Historical Society. On April 24, 2021, a beautiful spring day, concurrent with Arbor Day, over 50 people gathered at the

On October 23, 2020, the Portsmouth Historical Society hosted the 37th annual ceremony honoring the Marines that lost their lives during the 1983 terrorist bombing of the American Embassy in Beirut Lebanon.

  Presentation set for October 14, 2020 at 6:30 PM at the Museum As the country celebrates the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and as we near election time, guest joined the Portsmouth Historical Society to hear how Portsmouth women fought for the vote, and the process

On Sept 24, 2020, the Portsmouth Historical Society is hosted a brand-new lecture, “Portsmouth in 1920: An Illustrated Look Back” by Town Historian Jim Garman replete with images depicting the town one hundred years ago. The photographs will enable us to look back at our town to a time when the population was 2,590 and