SeacoastNH.com Presents
Historic Portsmouth #324  

In a recent “History Matters” article we focused on the four large murals that once hung in the auditorium of the Portsmouth Middle School. Painted on canvas by Gladys Brannigan as a WPA federal art project in 1936, the murals were later rolled up and removed. They are, at this writing, missing and considered lost. (Continued below) 

Portsmouth Herald readers have suggested this week that the murals were stored in the New Franklin School and later burned in a fire. Two readers, however, say that the late florist and collector Leslie Clough somehow obtained the murals. Witnesses say Clough showed them large painted murals depicting George Washington and an Indian raid. Those two images were included in Monday’s Herald article. Here are the other two murals. The first is Brannigan’s vision of John Paul Jones launching the sloop of war Ranger in 1777. The second shows Lafayette in Market Square in 1824. Have you seen these pictures recently? The full article is also available online. (Courtesy of Portsmouth Public Library) 

Read the complete MURALS ARTICLE