SEACOAST EXHIBITS

Anyone in the Seacoast who has missed the Woodman Institute is in for a treat. It’s our favorite, covering everything from geology, archeology, and history to a stuffed bobcat, a giant lobster, and the oldest surviving garrison in the region. This season the Woodman has a new exhibit on local collector Henry Clinton Fall. We can’t wait to see it. (Continued below)   

Now in its 95^th season, the Woodman Institute Museum is recognized as a traditional turn of century natural science, local history and art museum. The Woodman opened to the public in July 1916 and today is often referred to as a “museum’s museum.”  Displaying collections in old-fashioned cabinets throughout four historic homes…..a new adventure awaits around ever corner as visitors move from room to room. 

This season the museum opens with a special exhibit…”TOYMAKER-COLLECTOR-NATURALIST” Henry Clinton Fall (1862-1939). 

Born in Farmington, NH, Henry attended the Belknap Grammar School in Dover. As a young school boy he was a builder of model boats and trains. He was influenced by vessels sailing into Dover on the Cochecho River and by steam trains passing through town several times a day. Henry was also a collector of stamps/postmarks, and had a fascination with butterflies and beetles. He would graduate from Dover High School in 1880 and from Dartmouth College in 1884 with a Bachelor of Science degree. While teaching at Pomona and Pasadena, California, Henry studied the beetles of Southern California and New Mexico. In 1917 he returned to Tyngsboro, MA where he continued to collect, curate, and write 133 scientific articles on beetles. At the time of his death in 1939, Henry would have collected over 200,000 species of beetles, one of the largest private collections in North America, making him one of country’s leading naturalist.  

Now on display are some of the original model boats and several steam engine trains that have survived all these years and were recently returned to Dover for young and old to enjoy. The exhibit features an 1876 Belknap Grammar School spelling exam book where Henry misspelled just seven words out of a list of 1,161, an original hand bell and photos of the school located on the corner of Belknap and Silver Streets. 

Visitors can also see Henry’s recently restored and framed original DHS 1880 diploma, the original hand school bell, front door key, 1880 graduation program, and photographs of the first high school that was located at the end of First Street and now Chestnut intersection.  Graduation exercises were held at Dover’s second city hall building that was located in Central Square at the intersection of Central and Washington Streets.  That building was destroyed by fire in 1889.  The old high school was torn down when a new high school was built on Locust Street in 1904.  

Museum visitors can view photographs, original period business advertising trade cards, invoices and items related to early Dover children’s clothing stores… soda and tonic bottling companies, the Middlebrook Dairy Farm and the B&M railroad, on display in the Woodman House gallery throughout the 2011 season.  

Special thanks for making this exhibit possible goes to Lawrence David, Dover High Class of 1971, who contacted members of the Cate and Fall families and was responsible for acquiring most of the models, letters, photographs, and facilitated the restoration of the 1880 diploma.  Also thanks to Art Evans, entomologist/naturalist, who is connected with the Smithsonian Institute, for the background information on Henry’s professional career. The exhibit underwriter/sponsor is Center for Assessment at One Washington Center in Dover. 

The Woodman Institute Museum, located at 182 central Avenue in Dover, is open Wednesday-Sunday 12:30-4:30. Group tours welcome by reservation. Call 742-1038 or visit the official Web site HERE.