Celebrating Women’s History Month in New Hampshire 2014

March is Women’s History Month–when we have thirty-one days to celebrate women’s contributions to history.  In the case of this blog, it is the stories of New Hampshire women that I mostly share.

Mattie (Kilborn) Webster, Merrimack's first historian, and my grandmother.

Mattie (Kilborn) Webster (1885-1964).  Merrimack, New Hampshire’s first historian, my grandmother and inspiration for much of my research of women’s history.

Why is women’s history important? Because women have been, and still are equal contributors to every historical event in our world history.  No noted military officer could have gone off to war without someone (usually his wife, mother or sister) at home to look after his children, farm his land or otherwise tend his property.  No writer or inventor could have dedicated the time he did without someone to make his meals, tend to his household, and often act as sounding board and inspiration for him.  No noted businessman could have built his empire alone.

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Wilfred Ernest Burpee (1860-1948) and Other Early Opticians of New Hampshire

Office of Brown & Burpee, Optometrists, 940 Elm Street, Manchester NH

Office of Brown & Burpee, Optometrists, 940 Elm Street, Manchester NH

Many of my blog stories are generated based on the view of a curious, old postcard.

Reception Room, Brown & Burpee” was inscribed on the front of this particular postcard.  Three men are present–one sitting.  There are display cases in a room that did not seem typical to me of one belonging to merchants. The sign over the fireplace states “Our work is not done, until you are satisfied.”

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New Hampshire Missing Places: State Theatre of Manchester

Manchester's State Theatre being built. Photograph copyright by Dan LaRochelle, used here with his permission.

Manchester’s State Theatre being built. Photograph property of Dan LaRochelle, used here with his permission.

Manchester New Hampshire’s State Theatre was built on the then most important street in the city, at 1118 Elm Street on the corner of Baldwin or Washington (now called Wall Street).  It reportedly opened to a sizable crowd on Thanksgiving Eve, 27 November 1929. [However the Manchester City Directory for 1930 showed only the Palace and Park Theatres as being active in the city].  At the State Theatre’s introduction, reportedly movies with sound were first brought to the city. The State Theater’s art deco facade was considered one of the loveliest in New England. What we do know for certain is that by 1931, evidenced by the photograph directly below, the State Theatre was a well known and popular landmark of Manchester.

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Four More Manchester (NH) High School Graduates of 1888

In November of last year, I wrote about four graduates of Manchester (NH) High School of the class of 1888.  So that I do not repeat myself, please see this link for the history and a photograph of that high school. For now I will focus on revealing only what happened to these four female graduates–Maude G. Fifield, Ethel G. Lamprey, Sarah G. Sawyer, and Alice M. Stuart.
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Valentine’s Day in New Hampshire, 1872

Farmer’s Cabinet (Amherst NH) Vol 70, Issue 31, Page 2; Wednesday, February 14, 1872

To day, (the 14th) is known in the calendar as St. Valentine’s Day. Many believe valentineantiqueSt. Valentine a myth like Santa Claus; but this is an error. St. Valentine had a history, although historical authorities differ. According to some ecclesiastical writers he was a bishop, by others a prebyter, who was beheaded in Rome in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, A.D. 270–Wheatleigh says that St. Valentine “was a man of most admirable parts, and so famous for his love and charity that the custom of choosing valentines upon his festival took its rise from thence.” Others derive the custom from birds supposed to select their mates on the 14th of February; others again from a practice prevalent at ancient Rome at the festival of the Lupercalis, being during the month of February, when, among other ceremonies, the names of young women were placed in a box, from where they were taken by young men, according as chance directed. There are frequent references to St. Valentine’s Day in Shakespeare. In this country the day is observed by sending ornamental, illustrative or comic missives to friends and foes alike.

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