SeacoastNH.com Presents
Historic Portsmouth #340

We know him best as the man who saved the USS Albacore, revived the Portsmouth Athenaeum and the John Paul Jones House, created the Futures Fund, helped launch the Greater Piscataqua Community Foundation and Crossroads House, and more. But developer and philanthropist Joseph G. Sawtelle, Jr. also had a passion for maritime art. (Continued below)

He collected paintings and artifacts with links to the Piscataqua region. He hoped to build a maritime museum to display this rare collection, but that dream was cut short by his sudden death in 2000 at age 71. Efforts are currently underway through the Portsmouth Historical Society to create and fund an exhibit of those unseen paintings at the Discover Center this summer and to publish a book-length catalog. The photo shows a young Joe who was born in Lynn, MA in 1928 and grew up in Melrose. He arrived in the NH seacoast in the mid-1960s and immediately fell in love with Portsmouth and its history of shipbuilding. (Photo courtesy of the Sawtelle family)  

Readers who have anecdotes about Mr. Sawtelle or want to support this unique and important project please contact this Web site by January 30, 2011.

READ ;Thank you, Joe Sawtelle

SEE ALSO: Hauling Out USS Albacore