New Hampshire History Week

New Hampshire History Week

You are invited... In Celebration of the Second Annual New Hampshire History Week

You are invited to come help us celebrate New Hampshire History Week! On October 23, from 4:00-5:00 p.m., the New Hampshire Historical Society will host a celebration, press conference, and reception to highlight the goals of New Hampshire History Week. Our theme this year is "Building Community Through Your History and Heritage."

Distinguished (and exciting!) historians and educators from around the state will speak briefly about their work. We will hear:

• Wendy Bergeron, a dedicated social studies teacher in Hampton, N.H., who leads her students in developing museum exhibits. She has written educational programs used by the American Independence Museum in Exeter and mentors high school students such as Emily Belanger from Exeter who serves as a guide at the Independence Museum.
• Valerie Cunningham, ground-breaking and game-changing historian, who is working to include more historical sites on Portsmouth’s Black Heritage Trail. She is also partnering with Milford historian JerriAnne Boggis and the U.N.H. Department of Humanities to produce a documentary about the omission of African Americans from New Hampshire's history.
• Kathie Northrup, indefatigable preservationist and leader of the Hookset Heritage Commission. Recent Heritage Commission successes include a neighborhood heritage district planning tool, town adoption of a scenic road designation, historic mural conservation, and restoration of a nineteenth-century Hooksett school building now serving as a chapel.
• Rebecca Rule, oral historian and preeminent humorist, who has gathered, preserved, and published memories and anecdotes from communities in northern New Hampshire. She tours widely, entertaining and informing audiences with her stories and historical findings. Her books include Live Free and Eat Pie and Moved and Seconded: Town Meeting in New Hampshire.
• Carolyn Russell, community organizer and Washington (N.H.). Town Welfare Officer. Carolyn admits to loving to organize events. This time she organized the 225th anniversary of the Washington Town Meetinghouse. Out of that came a documentary film, guided by town historian Ron Jager, with the meetinghouse as the star in Meetinghouse: The Heart of Washington, New Hampshire.
• Robert Goodby, one-of-a-kind archeologist from Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, who in 2009 discovered an ancient Paleoindian site at the proposed site of the new Keene Middle School. The site had lain remarkably intact and undisturbed since its occupation at the end of the last ice age. Robert's discoveries bring us new understandings (and questions) about pre-colonial Native Americans in this land we now call New Hampshire.
• Steve Taylor, who is a well-known Meriden dairy farmer, former N.H. Commissioner of Agriculture, long-time town moderator, and seasoned historian. Using historical research as well as his own vast New Hampshire experience, Steve now travels under the auspices of the N.H. Humanities Council (of which he was founding executive director) and regales enthusiastic audiences about old-time N.H. farming, the N.H. Grange, and N.H. one room schools.

A coalition of groups devoted to New Hampshire History preservation, interpretation, and education join in this celebration. These include The New Hampshire Historical Society, The New Hampshire Humanities Council, The New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources, the New Hampshire Department of Cultural Resources, The New Hampshire Department of Education, and the Association of Historical Societies of New Hampshire.

In 2011 N.H. Representative David Watters of Dover sponsored House Bill 585 and Governor Lynch signed a proclamation declaring the third week in October New Hampshire History Week. This is our chance to celebrate and recognize efforts to preserve, interpret, and educate in New Hampshire history!