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

During this 400th anniversary year of the arrival of the Mayflower in Plymouth harbor, the Portsmouth Historical Society Book Club, on Oct 5, 2020, discussed “Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War” by Nathaniel Philbrick, a fascinating and insightful book that chronicles the people, politics and religion from the establishment of Plymouth Colony through King Philip’s

The Portsmouth Historical Society held its Annual Meeting on Monday September 14, 2020 at the museum building Anne Northup Burns, President, presented the Society’s Annual Report, highlights of the recently-adopted 5 Year Strategic Plan, and share the many initiatives the Society has recently undertaken. Nathan Minese unveiled four Town of Portsmouth historical signs created as

In August 1778, the Revolutionary War Battle of Rhode Island was fought at Butts Hill Fort.  Butts Hill Fort is the largest remaining Revolutionary War fortification in southeastern New England. After the Revolutionary War, most earthen forts were destroyed by farming, but the Fort Butts area was much too rocky to be farmed.  By 1934,

PHS will be out on the road,visiting places of historic significance around town.  Tune to “PHS On-the-Road” at our Web Video Theater.

June 9, 1772 colonist in Rhode Island burn revenue cutter HMS Gaspee in Narragansett Bay. This would be one of the first acts of open defiance leading up to the American Revolution. In 1764 Rhode Island’s Newport Artillery Company opened fire with their cannon on HMS St. John and four years later Rhode Island colonist burned

Born on this date in 1819, Julia Ward Howe is best known today for writing the words of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” (“Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord …”), but in her day she was a prominent opponent of slavery and an activist for women’s right to