Seacoast History Blog #14
November 24, 2008

The last seven loyal members of the Dover Historical Society met for the last time last week. It was an inauspicious occasion. Following a lecture and refreshments, the group accepted its own recommendation to disband forever – and then did so. That makes Dover one of the only towns in the Seacoast with no historical society. Was this the beginning of a trend or just the end of an era? (Continued)

Another One Bites the Dust

I’m not one who cries at the death of nonprofit agencies. A good nonprofit group is created to achieve a purpose and, like the rest of us, should be allowed to expire when its work is done. Too often we keep historical groups on life support.


Many towns, Portsmouth and New Castle included, formed their historical societies largely around the salvation of an old building. Keeping that building standing and open to the public often becomes the primary focus of the group. Other town societies, like Exeter and Stratham, for example, take up residence in an old library, or in a church as in Wells, Maine, or an old school like in Newmarket.

The Dover Historical Society never had a building of its own. It began, instead, as a lineage organization, patterned after groups like the Colonial Dames or the Mayflower Association. To get in, one had to prove a genealogical tie to the founding families of Dover. The group was originally called the Northam Colonists, after the original name of Dover. Members did private research and read their papers aloud at meetings held in the homes of members. Another similar group, The Piscataqua Pioneers, started much the same way.

Times change. Genealogy is still a huge national craze, especially since the rise of the Internet on web sites like Ancestry.com. Americans of all races and origins  are interested in their roots. But as we become a multicultural nation, we no longer see anything special about lineage groups focused on white Anglo-Saxon roots. As Barack Obama noted as he accepted his role as president – we are all immigrants here (with the exception of our Native Americans) and our families are all equally part of the American story.

Certainly the DHS abandoned its exclusivity long ago. And the records they created are valuable since they tell the founding story of Dover, one of the oldest European settlements in the nation. And it is certainly sad that literally no one in the new flood of Dover residents cares enough about that founding story to support or join this century old organization. And so, last Thursday, it breathed its last.

The good news is that, although Dover has bulldozed a great many of its historic houses, it retains one of the best little museums in the state, some say the nation. The campus of the Woodman Institute, created a few years after the DHS, now includes four historic buildings. Among them is one of the last 17th century garrison houses still standing. The museum has a superb collection of artifacts and a new research area. It costs only a few dollars to visit. The Dover Public Library is also aware of the city’s history and is a great place to get genealogical information. The Dover Main Street program, although more promotional than historical, has offered a number of living history events. The Children’s Museum, now moved to Dover, is likely to get on the history wagon too – hitting young kids while they still care.

Yes, kids care less today about history than they did in the 1950s. Or better said, kids are less willing to be bored about history than we were. They want to be entertained as they are taught. And yes, most of the Seacoast’s historical societies are supported and operated by seniors and Baby Boomers. Some are showing dwindling numbers, but most have been operating on fumes since they began. A lecture on Ruth Blay at the Portsmouth Athenaeum last week – presented just as the Dover group lay dying – filled the main room to bursting. That’s because the talk was exciting (about the last woman hanged in New Hampshire) and original and fresh. The Old Berwick Historical Society, among the most lively in the region, had to move to a larger lecture hall to accommodate its growing audiences. There, as in every successful town, the history revival depends on a few energetic optimistic program directors. Groups that are passive, impoverished, outmoded and depopulated are ready for the last rites. And it does no good to blame “the public” or to wail over the coffin. We are the public and we are very busy. To survived today, historic groups need to show us why we should care about history, not lean back on the crutches of patriotism and preservation. Historic groups that cannot raise money and produce programs that are worthwhile cannot compete with life-sized walking dinosaurs and exciting theme parks. 

For what it’s worth, there will still be multiple Dover Historical Societies. There is one in Dover, PA and Dover, OH, and Dover Foxcroft, ME. And if my research is correct, one in New London, Iowa and one each in West Dover and East Dover, VT. Coincidentally it was the DHS in Dover, Massachusetts that helped save the Paul Wentworth House in Rollinsford, next door to Dover, NH. The 18th century colonial, oldest house in the little factory town, was deconstructed and moved from Rollinsford to Dover, MA in the 1930s. Within the last few years the same house was disassembled again, moved BACK to Rollinsofrd, and reconstructed as an historic house there.

So the history movement is not dying out. Far from it. What we lost in Dover this week was an ancient idea whose time has come. Let’s honor it and move on.

© 2008 by J. Denis Robinson on SeacaostNH.com. All rights reserved.