New Hampshire’s "Live Free and Bobble"

Posted on 9 May, 2006 by Janice Brown

You can now have John Stark and Daniel Webster in your own home….

with oversized nodding heads, and their famous quotations printed on the pedestal at their feet.

Of course, what you are purchasing are “bobbleheads“. These types of dolls, also called “nodders” have been around since the 1920s. They had some popularity in the 1960s and 70s, but most recently became sports team memorabilia favorites in 1999.

Today’s bobbleheads mimic more than sports champions.  The famous, the infamous, the beautiful, the scary, and the common-everyday-in-between are becoming bobble objects.

From President Bush to Saddam Hussein, from a soldier or astronaut, to your mother-in-law, these always agreeable objects are gaining in popularity.

If you can’t locate a bobblehead that interests you, you can have one created for you.  There are several companies that will create a customized bobble head doll. All you have to do is select the body type, and provide a photograph of a person’s face.  They do the rest.

The New Hampshire Historical Society Store currently offers a Daniel Webster bobblehead doll, and will re-order John Stark (of “Live Free or Die” fame) if there are enough requests. They are considering making additional “characters” but they aren’t sure who those should be.

These are New Hampshire bobbleheads characters I would like to see….

– Molly Stark (Quote could be “Wife of the guy who said ‘Live Free or Die'”)
– Sylvester Roper (inventor of the motorcycle)
– Grace Metalious (Peyton Place author)
– Eleanor Hodgman Porter (Pollyanna author)
– “Doc” Daniel Lucius Adams (“Father of Baseball”)

Is there a New Hampshire bobblehead you’d like to see, and why?

Are there any famous or infamous New Hampshire people who should be “off limits” to becoming bobble-head dolls? Please let me know.

July 2008 Update: Additional bobbleheads added to the NH Historical Society offerings.

Janice

Additional Interesting Reading:
How Bobblheads are Made –
Origin of Bobbleheads –

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John Stark Bobblehead Doll

Posted on 9 May, 2006 by Janice Brown

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Francestown New Hampshire Motorcycle Inventor: Sylvester H. Roper (1823-1896)

Posted on 8 May, 2006 by Janice Brown

Sylvester Roper and his "steam carriage" made sometime before 1870. From The Smithsonian Institution [found at Wikipedia]

Sylvester Roper and his “steam carriage” made
sometime before 1870. From The Smithsonian
Institution [Photograph from Wikipedia, and
noted to be in the public domain]

The Smithsonian Museum defines a motorcycle as, “a self-propelled, engine-powered, two-wheeled vehicle.” That time-honored institution gives Sylvester H. Roper credit for creating the earliest known example. I believe them.

The first motorcycle was steam-driven (the “Roper Steam Velocipede“). Invented in 1867 by Francestown New Hampshire native, Sylvester Howard Roper, it was powered by coal.  The gas-propelled version, usually credited as being the first, was not invented until 1885 by Gottlieb Daimler. In 1902 the Indian Motorcycle Company began mass-producing vehicles in Springfield MA. A year later, William Harley and Arthur and Walter Davidson founded the Harley-Davidson. Continue reading →

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Motorcycle Invented in New Hampshire

Posted on 8 May, 2006 by Janice Brown

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New Hampshire Slanguage: Bulkie

Posted on 7 May, 2006 by Janice Brown

No, I’m not describing your ski sweater or jacket….

nor the oversized muscles of certain weight lifters.

A “bulkie” is a large, thick sandwich bun, commonly found in New England, that has a distinctive five-petaled, rose shape design.

Folks living outside of the New England area might call it a bread roll, dinner roll, kaiser roll (which is not the same thing), or hamburger bun.  But in New Hampshire we call it a “bulkie.” [Some would state that calling it a “bulkie roll” is redundant, similiar to saying, “I’m wearing a blouse shirt.”]

Wikipedia denies that the origin of this food stuff is known, however the source was easy to track down.  The term’s origin is the same as that of the Polish breadstuff called a “bulki.”

The people of Poland had been immigrating to the United States prior to the early 1900’s. However by the early twentieth century, textile mills in New Hampshire were booming, and more workers were needed.  The new arrivals to the United States brought with them a thick sandwich bun, known as a “bulki” in their native land.

Back then lunch pails or buckets (the precursor of the lunch box) were as common as computers are today. In New Hampshire, as all over the country, factory workers carried buckets with their day’s worth of nourishment. Bulkies made it through the long, sometimes overheated day without becoming too soggy or unappetizing.

Although already being sold by local bakeries by the 1930s, by the 1950s “Bulkie rolls” were prominently advertised in New Hampshire newspapers.

Nowadays even the famous Fanny Farmer knows that  bulkies make the best hamburgers… The Revised Fanny Farmer Cookbook” recipe, entitled, The Perfect Hamburger lists “bulkie” rolls in the receipe, as its crowning glory.

For those who would like to bake their own, I found two different recipes for traditional Polish “bulki.” [See Recipe 1 – See Recipe 2]

Janice

Interesting Reading: the Story of Polish Americans (by the New Hampshire Historical Society-PDF)

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