Learn by doing and experience traditional crafts at Strawbery Banke.

The Museum’s traditional craftspeople help bring history to life through hands-on demonstrations. Learn about boat making, coopering, hearth cooking, weaving and more.

  • Coopering

    Learn about the traditional craft of coopering at the Dinsmore Shop, which holds the workshop of Ron Raiselis, Master Cooper. Portsmouth’s coopers produced vast quantities of barrel staves for export, particularly to the West Indies where they were finished and shipped out filled with sugar, molasses, rum, and other products.

  • Hearth Cooking

    Learn from the Museum’s culinary historians in the Wheelwright House at Strawbery Banke. Explore hearth-cooking techniques using traditional methods and recipes that would have been familiar in the 1800s households of Puddle Dock.

  • Weaving

    Learn how to weave and how cloth was made by hand in the Cotton Tenant South House. Try several looms under the direction of one of the Museum’s professional weavers.

  • Boat Building

    The Boatshop at Strawbery Banke explores and celebrates maritime skills, experiences, and traditions through hands-on boat building workshops and summer camps. Launched in 2016, the Boatshop is a partnership between Piper Boatworks and the Museum. Note that the Boatshop at Strawbery Banke is open for special programs or by appointment only.