Category: Q&A

Mystery Stone and more at the NH Historical Society

Elizabeth Dubrulle is the Director of Education and Public Programs at the New Hampshire Historical Society as well as the editor of their publication, Historical New Hampshire. She talked about the importance of New Hampshire history and its mysteries that have yet to be uncracked. Visit nhhistory.org.

What does the Historical Society do?

We have a library and archive, which is probably one of the best, if not the best, collection of material related to the state of New Hampshire and its history. We have a museum with exhibits about different aspects of New Hampshire history, and we have a collection of over 35,000 objects related to New Hampshire and its past…. We are also the Presidential Library for Franklin Pierce. We hold manuscript collections for many well-known New Hampshire people, like David Souter and Daniel Webster. We offer field trips for kids — about 10,000 school kids a year come to the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord. … We offer the statewide social studies curriculum called “Moose on the Loose,” … We support local historical societies and their work. We offer public programs, lectures, tours, workshops on how to do genealogy…. We do a lot of different things.

What is ‘Moose on the Loose’?

It’s an online resource and curriculum about state history, civics, geography and economics. It was created for kids, originally in grades 3 to 6, but we’re expanding it to encompass kindergarten all the way up through 8th grade. It’s a free resource and it’s an open access website. …. It has a lot of content and information but it also has all these images and videos and audio clips and activities and games and things that people can do to learn about New Hampshire history. It’s got lesson plans for educators, virtual field trips and projects…. The URL is moose.nhhistory.org.

What exactly is a presidential library?

We’re kind of the de facto presidential library. Franklin Pierce doesn’t have an official presidential library; modern presidents really have those. Essentially, we hold a huge collection of Franklin Pierce material documenting his political life, his personal life, his family life, his legal practice, all the activities he was involved in, so we have a lot of his possessions. He was a very active member here in the 19th century and he donated objects from his family like his father’s uniform from the American Revolution. We have Franklin Pierce’s sword from the Mexican American war, we have the pen with which he signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act…. His books from his personal library… .

Do you have a favorite historical fact about the Granite State?

Since we’re coming up on the anniversary of the American Revolution, I’ll throw this one out: New Hampshire, they wrote their own state constitution in January of 1776. … What was unique about their Constitution was that they didn’t mention any royal authority, so in a sense they were essentially the first state to declare independence six months before the rest of the colonies issued the Declaration of Independence.

Why is it important for people to learn the history of New Hampshire?

One is just there’s an awful lot to be interested in about New Hampshire and its history and to be proud of its history. It’s done a lot of great things … I also think in general people need to know history because it gives them a sense of perspective. .

What’s another fascinating or fun aspect of New Hampshire history?

One of the items we have in our collection is this thing called the Mystery Stone. It’s like an egg-shaped stone with carvings in it. It’s made out of a kind of rock that doesn’t exist in New Hampshire but it was found in New Hampshire. Nobody knows how it got here. The carvings look like they might be Native American, but they’re not, really. … It’s an out of place object that nobody can figure out how it got here and it was found in 1872 … We have it on display here. It’s been featured in documentaries and people come from all over the country to see the mystery stone. There are all sorts of wild theories about what it is, if it was made by aliens or if it got spewed out of a volcano somewhere else in the world and dropped here in New Hampshire or if it’s a hoax. … The Smithsonian tried to buy it and we refused. We kept it for ourselves. There’s just all sorts of fun and quirky things that you can always find in history. —Zachary Lewis

Featured image: Mystery Stone. Photo courtesy of the NH Historical Society.

Find antique books, out-of-print gems and more

The 47th Northern New England Book Fair will be held at the Everett Arena in Concord on Sunday, June 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Collections of books include fantasy and science fiction, classic fiction, modern novels, historical books, leather-bound books and ephemera from the 1600s to the 21st century. Organizer Richard Mori discusses the fair. See moribooks.com.

What led you to believe that young people are still into books?

Kids are 60 percent of my business today. Under 30, 60 percent of my business. I’m constantly being told by old people, which I’m one of, that kids don’t read anymore, kids don’t like books, and I’ve always said that that’s not true. Young people are into books…. Not so much a discovery, it’s an observation. I do 40 shows a year around the country. …Kids are buying books. When I say kids, I mean under 30.

Where do you find all of your books?

My general answer to that is I find books wherever I go. I’ve been buying books since I was 12. The obvious places are library sales, at bookstores, flea markets. They’re everyplace. Certainly you’ll find books at thrift stores, yard sales. I’ve found books in restaurants, to be honest. There are restaurants with book themes or library themes. Every once in a while in those kinds of places you can find a good book that’s accidentally been put in the collection. But I don’t buy just any book. I’m looking for books of interest, books that people want for their collection.

What makes a book technically an antique?

In general, an antique is something that’s 100 years old. In the book world, it’s not so much about age as subject matter and collectability. To give you the very obvious example: Harry Potter. Harry Potter was first published in 1997 or 1998, so that’s a fairly recent phenomenon. I would love to find the very first printing of the London edition of the first book because there are only 500 copies and that book today is worth over $50,000.

What is the oldest book you have to sell?

I have books from the 1600s. Generally those tend to be religious in nature. But actually there are many books published in the 1600s that were not religious in nature. The earliest books often are religious in nature and I have probably one or two of those sitting around. It’s very common to find books from the 1700s, 1800s, early 1800s. I bought in Akron, Ohio, Thomas Jefferson’s book published in 1813 … Parliamentary Procedure for the United States Senate. … I bought it in Akron in April and just sold it in May.

Why do older books get that special, unique smell that only older books have?

It’s the paper. What most people don’t understand, early paper, and that’s where people have this love for the odor of books, is handmade. Paper before 1830, for the most part, is made from old rag, actually. Rag was pulverized and liquified and then made into paper. That, I think, is where that odor comes from.

Is there a book that you’ve been looking for that you have not come across yet?

Actually, there is. I’ve been a collector of Boy Scout history, specifically books, since I was 12 years old. I actually sold my Boy Scout handbook collection to a gentleman in California and I was missing one key element to that collection which was called the ‘fortnightlies.’ Those are the original six-part pamphlets that were … by Baden-Powell in England back in 1907. Two years after I sold that collection, I found the ‘fortnightlies,’ the originals, but I had only found five. So I’m still looking for the sixth issue, or one of the six issues … to complete that collection. It’s not so rare that I’ll never find it, but they were published in England so very few of them came to the United States, so they’re very very hard to find here in this country.

What drives you to hold all these different book fairs and events?

Part of it is the love of books. Two, is to continue the opportunity for the public and people to find the books they’re looking for. The nice thing about a book show is that booksellers from all over come together to show what they have and to offer it for sale to the public. In the book community, we have this wonderful social activity. Books bring people together from all different walks of life. — Zachary Lewis

Featured image: Courtesy photo.