Sometimes solving a mystery is as simple as seeing what's in front of you. Other times it requires sleuthing. Elizabeth R. Aykroyd discovered this when she was assembling the latest exhibit at the Portsmouth Athenaeum, "A Family Portrait Gallery: The Cushings of Little Harbor." (Continued with photos below)

Aykroyd was cataloging the paintings in the first floor Reading Room of the Athenaeum on Market Square when she noticed something odd. The same family had donated many of the items.

That family owned what is now known as the Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion in Little Harbor between 1816 and 1886. The rambling 18^th century mansion was prevviously home to NH royal governor Benning Wentworth. Wentworth created a storm of gossip when the elderly governor married his young housekeeper Martha Hilton in 1760. Boston artist John Templeman Coolidge later owned the house in the late 19th century and early 20th century.

But the Cushing-Sheafe family also owned the house for 70 years and their era is less well known. "It's a long time and a lot of history," Akroyd says. Now that story is being told starting June 4 in a new Athenaeum exhibit.

Reconstructing that history would have been far more difficult if not for the stereopticon views taken of the home by the Davis brothers in the 1870s. "With a little detective work, we could what's in the Athenaeum's collection in these photographs," Aykroyd said.  

Also helpful were the descriptions of journalist Charles Brewster, who visited the house in the late 1840s and early 1850s. He described its paintings in his "Brewster's Rambles." Other 19th-century visitors also published descriptions of the house and its paintings.

The Cushings opened three rooms of the historic home to the public, at a time when "appreciation of our ancestors and their houses was just beginning to inspire historical tourism," Aykroyd says.

"John Albee's 1884 history of New Castle talks about the house," she said. "It cost 25 cents to visit."

The 40-room mansion was given to the state of New Hampshire in 1954. State Architectural historian James L. Garvin, who will give a guided tour of the house as part of the exhibit, describes it as "a rambling, somewhat incoherent mass of architecture."

"Apparently, Benning Wentworth moved a bunch of buildings to the site and put them together," Aykroyd said. "It's a very odd house."

Garvin's tour and history discussion will be July 27 at 4:30 p.m. Participants must call the Athenaeum to reserve a spot (603-431-2538) and are asked to meet at the house on Little Harbor Road.

Curator Aykroyd will give a guided gallery talk in the Athenaeum's Randall Room on June 26 at 11 a.m. Reservations are recommended. The free exhibit's 5 to 8 p.m. opening on June 4 coincides with Art Round Town. The exhibit is open Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 1 to 4 p.m.

For more information, call 603-431-2538 or visit the official web site.