Photograph of Eleanor Winthrop Vinton, taken at the time of her being named Poet Laureate of New Hampshire. Property of Janice W. Brown at blog: Cow Hampshire.
At the age of eight years, Eleanor Winthrop Vinton moved with her family from her birthplace of Stoneham, Massachusetts to Concord, New Hampshire. Her father was an upholsterer by profession. She was a direct descendant of John Vinton of Lynn MA as shown in the genealogy below.
On her 73rd birthday (August 1972), by then a sixty-five year resident of Concord, she was appointed the second New Hampshire Poet Laureate, the first women to be awarded this honor. Then-Governor Walter Peterson telephoned her on July 25th to notify her of her appointment.
Gov. Walter Peterson of NH who appointed Eleanor Vinton as poet laureate, from Manual for the General Court 1969.
The no-salaried position of poet laureate had been established in 1967, as a life-time appointment. After Eleanor’s appointment, it was determined that future poet laureates would serve in five year terms. A 1973 Telegraph newspaper (Nashua NH) article by Brenda W. Rotzoll quotes Eleanor: “I promised them I’d try to die within five years…” The article also mentions that she was “whitehaired, delicate, soft-spoken and possessed of a wicked wit.”
