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See Colonial Wooden Bathtub and More for 25 Cents

Wooden_Colonial_BathrubMARK YOUR CALENDAR

On 1920 both the Portsmouth Herald and the Portsmouth Times announced the public opening of the John Paul Jones House as a museum belonging to the Portsmouth Historical Society. The Heralds’s headline for the day— “For all the people—an institution of learning.”  On July 2 1 you can tour the house for the 1920 fee of just two bits – that’s 25 cents. (Continued below)

While not the first historic house museum to open in Portsmouth, it was the first (and still the only) of Portsmouth sites to include the entire history of the city and the first to be run by local people. From the beginning, the focus has been on collecting local objects and telling local stories. Ninety-one years later we have expanded into the Discover Portsmouth Center, and our focus on the history of Portsmouth and its’ many stories remains as strong as ever.

On Thursday July 21, you can tour the John Paul Jones House, located at 43 Middle Street, Portsmouth, for the same amount charged in 1920—25 cents. Hours are 11AM to 5 PM and tours are self-guided. Special exhibits this season include “John Paul Jones, American Naval Hero: Real and Imagined,” “Portsmouth Silhouettes” and “An Uncommon Commitment to Peace: the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905.”

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You can also view a wonderful sampler collection now housed in new “visible storage.” Our extensive ceramics collection has been reorganized and more attractively displayed. Even if you have visited recently, you will find many changes this season; and if you have not been here since you were in the fourth grade, you will find a very different museum. However, old favorites are still on display. The 18th century wooden bathtub, loaned in 1920 by Woodbury Langdon, has returned. The opening day article in the Herald described this as “in the house in Revolutionary times.” You can also view the “oldest piano in America,” a piano said to have come from the Longfellow House in Portland, and an 1820’s Babcock piano—all three arrived in our first week of collecting objects of interest for Portsmouth history! And, of course, the famous collection of canes is on view.

The Discover Portsmouth Center, featuring “Maritime Portsmouth: the Sawtelle Collection,” is open daily from 10-5 and the John Paul Jones House daily from 11-5 through October 31. For more information call 603 436-8420.

Image caption: It may look like a big salad bowl, but it is an 18th century bathtub, one of the most “remembered” objects in the John Paul Jones House. Lent by Woodbury Langdon for our 1920 opening, it has been the subject of several stories—visit your historical society and learn more! Photo by Alan Haesche.

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