In celebration of the City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire's 400th anniversary, Strawbery Banke presents "Portsmouth Possessions: Objects that Shaped the City," a new exhibit for the 2023 season. Collections on view include objects featured in the book "A History of Portsmouth NH in 101 Objects," as well as textiles, furniture, portraits, samplers, and objects relating to local industries.

Strawbery Banke Museum and its historic houses – some of Portsmouth’s most valuable and irreplaceable heritage — are being damaged by the impact of Sea Level Rise. Right now. The exhibit, in partnership with the City of Portsmouth, is a model to tell the story of sea-level rise and teaches the public about the number of factors contributing to increased flooding events from surface water and groundwater. The City of Portsmouth is a key partner for both the exhibit and as Strawbery Banke continues to research and discuss solutions to protect the Museum’s historic houses.

The Wendell Family, of Portsmouth demonstrated their veneration of family, and dedicated their family ties to help to shape a community. Like most Americans, the family experienced ups and downs. What remained was pride of family and that led to a unique time capsule. First financial restraints, and then family pride ensured that the furniture, ephemera and personal items of one family remain for 21st century examination. Thanks to the work of the leadership at Strawbery Banke Museum in the 1980s, Chase House is largely furnished with Wendell furniture and other domestic objects. These objects and Wendell family heirlooms from private collections were included in the exhibit.

For nearly the entire 300 year span of life on the Portsmouth waterfront, one's first stop, from either docks, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, or the merchant vessel ports of call was a neighborhood bound to offer `a vice or two. Vice explored customs of the past and present. As tragic tales of overdose and accidents fills contemporary news reports, this reflection of vices from the past allows perspective into the lives of Puddle Dockers. The conclusion must be that vices, harmful and benign, have been a part of life in every century.

Strawbery Banke has collected objects since the early 1960s and has often had to keep them safely stored because their story was not yet ready to be told. As paint can be applied to nearly any surface — furniture, architectural elements, ceramics and other artworks — there are many painted items from the past, some rarely or never seen, in the museum collection. The Painted Past exhibition put some of the best examples of those items on display in the Strawbery Banke Rowland Gallery.

“Game On!” showcased games and game artifacts – including an ivory scrimshaw cribbage board – from the Strawbery Banke and other museum collections. Oral histories, photos and diaries give depth to the exhibit’s examination of the games played, specific sites used and the personalities who created distinctive elements of common play. Game On! explored the lighter side of life in the Puddle Dock neighborhood, from a model eighteenth century gameroom set for whist, to electronic Wii representative of 21st century past-times.

This “Finding Home” exhibit focused on the so-called Great Wave of immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It included maps, personal items of immigrants to Portsmouth, archaeological artifacts that help characterize life on Puddle Dock and an opportunity for visitors to record their own personal family stories from neighborhoods of newcomers across New Hampshire and beyond. The Rowland Gallery exhibit held a recording booth, based on the concept of Story Corps, for visitors to record their own family’s immigration history. These oral histories are archived at Strawbery Banke Museum and the Portsmouth Athenaeum, becoming tools for future research and preserving chapters of personalized American history.

“Tapping Portsmouth: How the Brewing Industry Shaped the City offered a “pub crawl through 300 years of history” as brewers and tavern keepers kept “something brewing” in Portsmouth. Brewing helped shape Portsmouth’s history from the beginning, when beer and hard cider were the healthier alternative to water and European settlers frequented four taverns in nearby New Castle and three more in Portsmouth. During the American Revolution, Pitt and Stoodley’s taverns (both now part of Strawbery Banke) rang with the impassioned voices of loyalists and patriots, including Paul Revere.

Strawbery Banke Museum’s 2012 exhibit, Thread: Stories of Fashion at Strawbery Banke, 1740-2012 depicted the people who lived in the Puddle Dock neighborhood of Portsmouth through costumes and textiles associated with their nearly 300 years of history. In addition to items from Strawbery Banke Museum’s extensive collection, Thread also showcased new fashion designs -- inspired by the Collection – created by some of the most dynamic designers, both established names and up-and-coming ingénues.