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New Hampshire Then & Now
Stark Village, photographed by Guy L. Shorey, c. 1900. Mount Washington Observatory collection. |
Stark Village, 2003. Photographed by Peter E. Randall. |
Exhibition Compares New Hampshire Past & Present
Nineteenth-century stagecoaches and twenty-first century Segways
came together in the New Hampshire Historical Society's exhibition New Hampshire Then & Now, on view
at the Society's library from October 14, 2006, through March 31, 2007.
Thanks to Our Sponsor
New Hampshire Then & Now was sponsored by Northeast
Delta Dental and Lincoln Financial Group.
About the Exhibition
The exhibition featured 40 pairs of photographs of unique places,
people, and events that depict the character and culture of New Hampshire, past and present. Based on the book
of the same title by photographer, author, and publisher Peter E. Randall, the exhibition provided visitors with
a diverse visual overview of New Hampshire, comparing sites and people across the state, between the late 19th
century and today.
Randall started this project by searching through the photograph
collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society and those of other organizations, choosing images that were
most interesting to him. He then set out to find the modern sites.
The exhibition, like the book, used the powerful medium of photography
to help visitors explore changes that have occurred in New Hampshire over the past century. For example, until
1883, a huge boulder was lodged between the narrow walls of the Flume in Franconia Notch, when it was washed away
by a flood in a heavy storm. A circa 1880 view of the Flume with the boulder was paired with a photo of how the
Flume looks today.
Other "then and now" images included the town common
in Hampton Falls circa 1905 and in 2003; Cornish town meetings in 1947 and 2004; New Castle's Hotel Wentworth in
1880 and the Wentworth by the Sea Hotel in 2005; Haverhill Corner in the 1890s and in 2004; Post Office Square
in North Sutton around 1900 and in 2003; the view from Mill No. 2 in Keene in 1927 and in 2005; and tourists looking
at the Old Man of the Mountain in 1978 contrasted with today's faceless Cannon Mountain.
"The exhibition showed how some New Hampshire places and
ways of life have radically changed," said Wes Balla, the New Hampshire Historical Society's director of collections
and exhibitions. "And, at the same time, illustrated the reverence people in New Hampshire have for history,
historic places, and tradition."
After its introduction at the New Hampshire Historical Society the exhibition traveled to museums and galleries
around New Hampshire including the Historical Society of Cheshire County, Keene;
the Mt. Washington Hotel and Resort, Bretton Woods; and The Fells, Newbury.
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