Category: Q&A

Author & Historian

J. Dennis Robinson is a columnist, lecturer and public historian raised in the Granite State. He has written books and articles on local history and culture, including such topics as Jesse James, the Strawbery Banke Museum, Privateer Lynx, archaeology at the Isles of Shoals, the 1873 Smuttynose Island ax murders, the untold story of Portsmouth’s founding family, and much more. His books, articles and events can be found by visiting jdennisrobinson.com.

Explain your job and what it entails.

I write about history, focused mostly on the seacoast New Hampshire region. It’s not a lucrative career choice, but after a couple thousand published articles and 20 books, I feel I’ve finally scratched the surface.

How long have you had this job?

Been at it full-time for almost 30 years. Before that, I was a freelance writer and writing teacher.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I live in Portsmouth, the hub of New Hampshire history until the American Revolution. As the state’s only seaport, there are countless tales to tell, myths to debunk, historic houses to explore, and people to profile.

What kind of education or training did you need?

The only way to become a writer is to read a lot and write a lot more. The tricky part is to keep getting better and figure out how to get paid. I was inspired by my school teachers in Bedford, went to West High in Manchester, and got a degree in English Lit at UNH. I’ve had newspaper columns since I was in junior high.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

Except for the bell-bottom jeans, my attire is the same as when The Beatles broke up. I work from home and only come out when delivering a history talk …Then I put on my good shoes. I had a sports coat and a tie but misplaced them back in the 20th century.

What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?

Most challenging is paying my mortgage. I deal with that by working seven days a week. Second most challenging is convincing book readers that, if they like an author, they should spread the word, buy more books, and post reviews online. It’s how we keep going.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

Readers should know that the publishing business has turned upside down in recent years. More and more authors are publishing their own books using digital print-on-demand (POD) technology. Instead of earning 2 percent of the cover price of a book from a traditional publisher, the ‘indie’ author might earn as much as 50 percent of the cover price, even more with an ebook. Of course, we also have to design, edit, proof, and market our own books. It’s a game-changer, but a ton of work.

—Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: The Autobiography of Mark Twain
Favorite movie: The Day the Earth Stood Still
Favorite music: British Invasion
Favorite food: Chicken Tikka Masala
Favorite thing about NH: I can see the Piscataqua River from my kitchen window.

Featured photo: J. Dennis Robinson.

A look at the history of ski season in the Granite State

Professor Emeritus of History at Plymouth State University John Allen was awarded the International Skiing History Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. He serves as historian for the New England Ski Museum in Franconia and is the author of several books on the topic, including From Skisport to Skiing: One Hundred Years of an American Sport and The Culture and Sport of Skiing from Antiquity to World War II. He has been a consultant for films on skiing, and will be giving his presentation New Hampshire on Skis on Thursday, Nov. 21, at 6 p.m. at the Lane Memorial Library (2 Academy Avenue, Hampton). Visit newenglandskimuseum.org.

How did skiing start, and how did skiing start in New Hampshire?

Always very difficult to pin down because usually you find that when you find somebody who’s done something first, a year or so later you discover that they weren’t the first. But generally speaking, in the late 19th century there were odd people on skis in various places in New Hampshire. For example, in the New Hampshire Historical Society, there are some papers from a fellow who was a boy at school who made skis. I can’t remember the date exactly, but let’s say it’s in the 1870s, something like that. He went to the dentist on skis and he went to school on skis, and so on and so forth. And there were sort of odd people like that around, but there was nothing organized at all.

The skis themselves, like the equipment, have they evolved or changed much?

Oh, terrifically. For thousands of years wood was the ski of choice, was the [material] of choice. Then there were a variety of woods that were used. Ash was one of the only ones. Pine was another one. It certainly depends on what woods were around. And hickory only came into use … really late in the 19th century. That lasted pretty much as the wood of choice up through until the invention of metal skis. And metal skis have a long history too. You always think of Howard Head in the 1950s and ’60s experimenting with his cheetah skis, or what were called cheetah skis because they were easy to ski on, metal skis, and then it’s gone on to various other modes of using metal and so on, largely because they don’t break, whereas the others always do.

When did skiing become more of a sport?

Right, the great change between skiing for, as it were, some sort of utilitarian use … came when a student at Dartmouth by the name of Fred Harris started basically the Dartmouth Outing Club, [and] other colleges became involved. This was started in 1910, 1911, and then almost immediately, as I say, other colleges became involved. Middlebury, for example, UNH, UVM, Harvard, Yale, and then … up at McGill, who also were early skiers, and the Harvard and the McGill people used to come down to Hanover every once in a while for sporting skiing. Fred Harris was interested in getting the Dartmouth students, he graduated in 1911, but he was interested in skiing as a kind of, what shall we say, a healthy antidote to industrialization, urbanization, students sitting on their behinds on radiators and so on. …

Is there any interesting skiing history tidbit or facts you’d like to mention, something I haven’t asked you about?

These days when you go onto a ski slope, you will always see people who are skiing with two poles. … That was not normal a hundred years ago … a Dartmouth student was actually given two poles as a present, he tried them out at nighttime so that he wouldn’t be laughed at. One pole was the way to ski, that was the way Norwegians skied, and what Norwegians did and said and wrote about skiing was the sort of the word. … from about 1910, certainly from 1920 on, you get two poles being in use. Although I have seen pictures of people using one pole as late as 1931, but they were in Maine, they weren’t in action.

—Zachary Lewis

New Hampshire on Skis
Thursday, Nov. 21, 6 p.m.
Lane Memorial Library, 2 Academy Avenue, Hampton
nhhumanities.org

Featured image: John Allen. Courtesy photo.

Mosaic Art Collective holds a show focused on mini

Founder and Volunteer Executive Director of Mosaic Art Collective (66 Hanover St., Suite 201, Manchester) Liz Pieroni spoke to the Hippo about their “Small Wonders: Miniature Art Show,” which runs until Sunday, Dec. 22, and contains lots of nifty tiny gifts for the upcoming holidays, and how an exhibit comes together. Visit mosaicartcollective.com.

How do you and Mosaic come up with a theme for an exhibit?

At the beginning it was just really myself. Now we have a board of directors that we brainstorm ideas with. I think this year we’re going to cut back a little bit in 2025 and do a show pretty much every other month now. Just needing a little bit of a breather in between getting everything out there and making sure we’re advertising properly. But we come up with a big list of ideas and then from there narrow those down and we think about what we haven’t done in a while, what ideas are kind of trending. Sometimes it’s just an open concept and really open to any kind of medium or theme.

What is the ‘Small Wonders’ exhibit?

It’s an art exhibit that is taking to mind holiday gift buying, so keeping the prices on the lower side, small art for small budgets kind of a thing. We did this last year and the year before and both shows were pretty high-selling shows. I think the smaller size, most people don’t have huge walls to show art or showcase art, but also because the majority of our budgets are pretty pretty tight right now and we’re doing what we can to still get our artwork out there and be able to give gifts of art.

What’s considered miniature for the exhibit?

So for this show, everything is 12 by 12 [inches] or smaller. I think there’s like a 3 by 5. It’s pretty tiny. But for the most part things are around like 6 by 8-ish. It’s not super miniature, but small enough that you can find a little nook in your house to showcase. We do have a couple of sculptures. One of them is a bird made out of recycled materials that you could hang on a tree. So a little ornament. And then we also have a necklace created by Hannah Cole Dahar that I think is mother of pearl and another kind of teal stone.

How do you decide what gets in the exhibit?

All the calls are open calls. Some of the calls are more juried than others. For this show, we try to be as inclusive as possible, so this one has probably a wider range of experience levels and different styles and media. For the most part, this show we’ve just brought everyone in that we could just to bring a huge range.

What made you interested in starting an art gallery?

I moved back to New Hampshire after living away for almost 15 years. Got here, there was nowhere that really was showing contemporary art, and my art is all contemporary art. I don’t do super traditional work. My goal with opening Mosaic was really to make a place that anyone could come and show their work and have a platform to be showcased and be seen.

What does the gallery space look like?

The gallery is one room. We have five art studios off the main room. Those are rented to artists. And then one other gallerist, Amy Regan, who runs a small boutique gallery out of her studio called See Saw Art on Hanover. The gallery itself is one room, we have high ceilings, big windows, lots of natural light, and a kitchen where we have our opening reception food.

—Zachary Lewis

“Small Wonders: Miniature Art Show”
Mosaic Art Collective
66 Hanover St., Suite 201, Manchester
Runs until Sunday, Dec. 22
Wednesday from 2 to 6 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m.; closed Monday and Tuesday
mosaicartcollective.com

Featured image: “Moths and Mountains” by Mariah Sample.

Owner of Venuti Resin Design

Jeanne Venuti, owner of Venuti Resin Design, creates works of art using resin from the ocean. Recently she won a first-place blue ribbon for her work at the Deerfield Fair. Her art will be available at Bedford Handmade on Sunday, Nov. 10, and her work can be found at Manchester Craft Market (Mall of New Hampshire) and Bedford Furniture Consignment. Venuti Resin Design can be found on Facebook, Instagram and Etsy.

Explain your job and what it entails.

I am an ocean resin artist and I make functional art that looks like the ocean.

How long have you had this job?

I actually started making things in 2021 and then started the company in 2022.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

This is actually my second job. My first job is with the Governor’s Recovery Friendly Workplace Initiative. This started out as a hobby, and the story’s kind of funny, but I like to tell it in full because it’s so amusing. I saw it on an ocean resin charcuterie board on Pinterest and I’m like, ‘Oh, I wonder if I could make that?’ I think that’s how most artists start out with an idea. So I bought all the supplies and for some reason I could not make it work; it was runny, the waves weren’t coming out. Two months later I got so frustrated I did what a lot of people do and I started watching YouTube videos, just slowing them down and stopping them every second because I knew I was missing something. Two weeks after I got back from my trip, I was actually able to master the waves and the colors and my friends started buying my art and they’re the ones that told me, they said, ‘Hey, you need to start selling this. People are going to buy it.’

What kind of education or training did you need?

I’m self-taught.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

Anything comfortable with an apron. I have ruined many an outfit with resin and also for some reason I always get it in my ear.

What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?

Time management, because I do have a full-time job as well. So, fitting my art into my regular work day and weekends.

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

I wish I had known ahead of time exactly what products to use because I had to test a lot of them before I got the right combination.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

My art takes longer than people think.

What was your first job?

I was a dishwasher at the Roadrunner in Epping.

What is the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

The only person getting in your way is yourself. —Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: The DSM V. I was a Psychology major.
Favorite movie: Dirty Dancing
Favorite music: ’80s music.
Favorite food: I’m half Korean, half Italian, so Italian and Korean food are my favorites.
Favorite thing about NH: The seasons.

Featured photo: Jeanne Venuti. Courtesy photo.

A look at New Hampshire 12,000 years ago

Dr. Robert Goodby is a Professor of Anthropology at Franklin Pierce University. He earned a Ph.D. in anthropology from Brown University and will be presenting his program “12,000 Years Ago in the Granite State” on Thursday, Nov. 7, at 6:30 p.m. at Peterborough Town Library, about an archaeological survey for the new Keene Middle School that brought to light one of the oldest Native American sites in New England. Goodby’s book A Deep Presence: 13,000 Years of Native American History is available from the Harris Center for Conservation Education (harriscenter.org).

How far back do human settlements go in New England?

The site I’m going to be talking about is the oldest dated site in New England. The date we have, it’s a radiocarbon date, is 12,600 years ago. The sites from this time period are relatively rare. We call this time period the Paleo-Indian period; it basically means old Indian period, and it’s the first period of human occupation here. … Of all the sites that we know about in all of New England, there are maybe one or two sites that are as old as the one in Keene that I’ll be talking about, but none that are older.

Are there any sort of indications that would lead you to think that a spot possibly contains an older human settlement?

You have to sort of work with geologists and recreate what the landscape was like at the end of the Ice Age and sort of understand it from that perspective. In Keene what we had was a nice high, dry, sandy terrace overlooking a river that would have given people a really good view to the south where they would have been able to watch the movement of game animals, particularly caribou, who were here at that time. There are some basics. All people need water, so the sites are close to water. Nobody likes to live on wet ground, and so you’re looking for nice dry sandy soil. Nobody likes to live on a slope or on land covered with boulders. So you look for the level dry, more or less rock-free areas that are close to water, and that’s where the sites tend to be.

What artifacts can be found at a site?

…We have stone tools, and we have over 200 of them. We also have burned pieces of animal bones, some of which have been identified as caribou. … [W]e think this was a wintertime occupation, and the winters back then were brutal, so people would have been hunkering down in their tents, eating food that they had stored up during the fall and just waiting for spring to come.

Is there anything that you’re still looking for? Something you hope to find?

That’s one of the things I love about archaeology is every time you’re looking at a site and starting to do excavation you really have no idea what might turn up. It’s really sort of the surprises that make it special and the idea that you don’t always know what you’re going to find. …

Anything else you’d like to mention about the talk or ancient sites in New Hampshire?

Just that we have a very long Native American history in the state and it hasn’t ended yet. We still have people here who are descended from the original inhabitants. And so it’s a very interesting story that’s still unfolding. The people who were here when the Europeans arrived, and the people who are still here, are the Abenaki. … [T]here is no evidence in that more than 12,000 years that the Native Americans here ever abandoned this area or that they were ever pushed out by someone who came from somewhere else until the Europeans arrived. So the more archaeology we do, the more we see that we just have continuous Native American presence here from, you know, almost 13,000 years ago all the way up to today. …

—Zachary Lewis

“12,000 Years Ago in the Granite State”
Hosted by Friends of the Peterborough Library
When: Thursday, Nov. 7, at 6:30 p.m.
Where: Peterborough Town Library, 2 Concord St., Peterborough
Info: Contact Rebecca Enman, 924-8040. Visit nhhumanities.org/programs.

Featured image: Dr. Robert Goodby. Courtesy photo.