Have you used your personalized mug yet? There’s one for everybody in the break room thanks to Katie’s hand-lettering skills. Each mug was baked in the oven to help set the paint before being washed and placed in Jones House for your use.

Can Museums be Neutral?

I know many of you were intrigued by the “Museums are Not Neutral” shirt worn by our consultant during our last day of training last week – to learn more about the museum neutrality question, you can read the below article from MuseumNext, an international coalition of museums, or visit the Museums are Not Neutral website.

Can museums be neutral or should they take a stance?

Reframing History

We highly recommend the Reframing History podcast from the American Association for State and Local History. Click here to learn more about AASLH and their Reframing History initiative.

When Portsmouth mourned President Abraham Lincoln

Thank you to Lou for sending along this article from Seacoastonline.com. An interesting piece of local history with brief mentions of Ichabod Goodwin.

The first U.S. president born west of the Appalachian Mountains came quietly into the world on Feb. 12, 1809, but Portsmouth and the rest of the world felt the shock of Abraham Lincoln’s 1865 assassination.

The Civil War had ended five days before Lincoln was shot April 14 by Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth at Ford Theatre in Washington, D.C. The president died early on the morning of April 15, and by that afternoon, a stunned nation began a prolonged period of mourning.

In Portsmouth, the city’s bells tolled the rest of that day; flags were dropped to half-staff. The Portsmouth Navy Yard was shut down for five days.

On Monday, April 17, citizens gathered around a stand erected on Market Square in front of the Athenaeum.

Newspaper accounts described it as “very tastefully draped with mourning emblems — black and white festoons below, with a portrait of Mr. Lincoln, surmounted by a shield above, and the mottoes, ‘The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away,’ and ‘We mourn our beloved and honored Chief Magistrate, Abraham Lincoln.'”

Former New Hampshire Gov. Ichabod Goodwin presided over the event, which included prayers, speeches by the mayor and various ministers and officials, and solemn music by the Portsmouth Cornet Band. The service ended with the singing of two verses of “America,” the Portsmouth Journal reported on its front page.

Pitt Tavern in 1907

Detroit Publishing Co., Publisher. William Pitt tavern, Portsmouth, N.H., probably erected in. United States Portsmouth New Hampshire, 1907. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016806326/.