NH Public Television Home Knowledge Network: Instrucational Television
Our New Hampshire - Peortsmouth: Clues to the Past
Series InformationAcknowledgementsIntroducing New HampshirePeople of the DawnEarly SettlementsInland SettlementsWork in Colonial TimesEducation: Then and NowAmerican Revolution: LoyaltiesAmerican Revolution: ContrastsTransportation: Yesterday and TodayManchester and the AmoskeagMount WashingtonModern New Hampshire IndustryOur Renewable ResourceOur State Capital at WorkPorstmouth: Clues to the Past
Table of Contents
Summary
Objectives
Previewing Activities
Post-viewing Activities
Vocabulary
Places to Visit
People to Know
Organizations to Contact
Web Resources

SUMMARY
PortsmouthEverywhere in the present, there are always signs of the past. Nowhere is that truer in Our New Hampshire than in the city of Portsmouth.

This lesson uses photography, archaeological information, photos of the past, old prints, paintings and music to capture those signs and trace that history. Students are asked to look for clues to the past as the lesson shows street signs, an archaeological dig, fishing scenes, colonial homes, old forts and old pilings. As clues to past lifestyles, the lesson looks at architectural designs of the Jackson House, Macphaedris-Warner House, John Paul Jones House, Langdon House, Rockingham Hotel and Wentworth-By-the-Sea.

Portsmouth began in the 1600s as a small settlement in which fish and lumber were the chief source of the colonists' income. It grew from a tiny community, barely surviving colonial hardships, into a busy young seaport, getting rich on trade with the Indies, England and Europe. This booming 1700s ocean trade created a demand for more ships, and shipyards along the Piscataqua River were kept very busy.

Fires, war and population growth of the early 1800s began to turn the prosperity of Portsmouth around. Raw materials such as fish, lumber and furs--the chief sources of Portsmouth's early wealth--began to disappear. The city found itself off the mainstream of railroad traffic, and the Industrial Revolution turned the focus to the textile centers of New Hampshire.

The port city regained some of its importance in New England when the 1849 gold rush in California produced a need for sleek clipper ships to carry supplies out West. This gold rush boom was replaced some 11 years later by a demand for fiqhting ships to fight the Civil War.

During these late 1800s, Portsmouth produced a businessman and politician named Frank Jones. In the spirit of great men like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford, Jones undertook a variety of business ventures which brought many-faceted prosperity to the city. Through the efforts of Frank Jones, Portsmouth in the late 1800s was no longer a one-industry town.

The story of Portsmouth in the l900s is shaped largely by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and its contribution to two World Wars. The city's population experienced another growth spurt when, in 1957, Pease Air Force Base was built in neighboring Newington.

Growth, expansion of needs and modernization began to take a toll on the Portsmouth of the past, and the treasures and proud history of the old town by the sea were being bulldozed away.

In 1960, a group of concerned citizens worked hard to save Strawbery Banke, a piece of Portsmouth's past. Through their efforts the Banke has become a place where students of history, architecture and fine arts come to learn about America's past. The Strawbery Banke activity has made Portsmouth aware of the importance of its historical treasures, and has helped visitors and residents see Portsmouth as an "old town by the sea," were the past and present walk hand-in-hand.

OBJECTIVES

1. To help students understand the relationship of past history to the present.

2. To foster an interest and excitement in discovering history by making students more aware of the visual clues to the past that are all around them.

3. To familiarize students with the important role which Portsmouth played in New Hampshire history.

4. To help students understand the continual ebb and flow of a town's social, economic and political makeup and importance.

5. To help students appreciate the importance of preserving our heritage as we build our future.

PRE-VIEWING ACTIVITIES

1. Discuss with students their present knowledge of the city of Portsmouth (or of their own community's history).

2. Introduce the new vocabulary listed under Words to Know.

3. Discuss with students what clues they might look for in a modern town that would give them some hints about the town's past.

4. Have students debate the issue: It is important to preserve a town's past while building the future.

5. Have students locate Portsmouth on a map of New Hampshire, discuss its location, and brainstorm some of the industries in which the town may have engaged in the past.

6. A modern community is very different from a community of the past. Discuss some of those differences and how those differences might affect how a town looks.

7. Have each student choose a partner and observe that partner very carefully. Next have one partner secretly change three things on them and have the other member see if s/he can discover what is different. Reverse the task. Tell students this activity is designed to increase their powers of observation so that in this lesson they can look for clues about the history of Portsmouth.

POST-VIEWING ACTIVITIES

1. Discuss the following:

    How was Portsmouth different from other New Hampshire towns in the early 1700s?
    What contributed to Portsmouth's wealth?
    What were some of the reasons for the decline of Portsmouth's prosperity in the early 1800s?
    What are some of the visual clues left in Portsmouth today that give us a hint to its past?
    How did inland settlements affect the prosperity of Portsmouth in the early 1700s? early 1800S?
    What happened in 1849 that brought new life to the old town of Portsmouth.
    What role did Portsmouth shipbuilders play in the Civil War?
    What effect did the Industrial Revolution have on the city of Portsmouth?
    How was modern city life beginning to effect the remnants of Portsmouth history?
2. Do a class report on one of the following:
    Investigate some of the merchants, politicians, and shipbuilders important to Portsmouth history. Be sure to know their contributions.
    Discover what the following houses tell us about Portsmouth's past:
      Jackson House
      Macphaedris-Warner House
      John Paul Jones House
      Langdon House
    Research the history of your town: i.e., how people lived, earned a living, who was important in the town.
    Learn about the fishing industry and lobstering in coastal New England towns like Portsmouth.
    Investigate shipbuilding in New England.
    Trace the history of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard or Pease Air Force Base to the present time.
    Study some of Portsmouth's architecture and some of the structures which tell its history (widow's walk, casement windows, sloping roofs, spiral staircases, pitched gables, narrow brick chimneys, fireplaces). Design your own home using the structural details you find appealing.
    Compare the seaport life of Portsmouth with another New England port such as New Bedford, Mass., Mystic Seaport, Conn.
3. Do one of the following:
    Make a model of a gundalow, Clipper Ship (like the Typhoon, Nightingale, or Witch of the Water), battleship (like the Kearsarge, U.S.S. Ranger), or submarine. Be sure to know their purpose.
    Begin a collection of photographs, prints or sketches of fire-fighting equipment from past to present (fire destroyed many small towns).
    Begin a collection of photographs, prints or sketches of ships similar to those sailing to and from Portsmouth.
    Create a diorama of an old fort similar to Ft. McClary or Ft. Constitution. Be sure to know their purpose.
4. Interview some of the older people of your town and have them describe what life was like in your town's past. Record what they say on paper or audiotape.

5. Keep a log in which you jot down:

    Some of the street signs in your town which give you some idea of what may have happened there or who may have been famous there in the past.
    Some of the remnants of the past left in your town (i.e., old hitching post, gasoline pump).
    Some of the oldest buildings in your town, their beginnings and purpose.
6. Dramatize one of the following:
    After investigating who is responsible for Strawbery Banke and why it is important to New Hampshire, decide in small groups what is important for you to preserve in your town, what repairs need to be done, how to protect those landmarks for future generations.
    After researching "privateering," re-enact what it might have been like in a high seas raid.
    After investigating some of the main points of an archaeological "dig," act out what it might be like if people thousands of years from now were to discover our garbage and remains. What would those discovered items tell them about our civilization?
7. Find out where in your town people used to deposit their "throw-aways." With any necessary permission granted, go on a "bottle dig" to discover life in the past. (Cellar holes are generally a good place to begin. Items were thrown away from the house toward the back of the house, often over a small knoll.) VOCABULARY
  • gundalow
  • merchant
  • mansion
  • privateering
  • fortifications
  • shipwright
  • clipper ships
  • architecture
  • water wagons
  • cargo
  • wharves
  • prospectors
  • brewery
  • preservation
PLACES TO VISIT PEOPLE TO KNOW
ORGANIZATIONS TO CONTACT
WEB RESOURCES
© 2002 New Hampshire PBS