Reel History

The Henney History Room of the Conway Public Library has an interesting and important collection of films related to area history.

Often while watching a film, I tend to look in the background at the historical details of the settings, costumes and accessories. Once, during an especially romantic scene in the “Last of the Mohicans” the raking light hit the wooden beams in the background just right and I proclaimed “circular saw marks” during the main characters’ first kiss.

This manufacturing tool mark indicates a technique not common, especially in the frontier areas, of the supposed time and place. It was clearly a significant discovery of an important historical anachronism.

My wife was not as impressed as she should have been with my Sherlock style sleuthing. She felt it somehow spoiled the moment. Go figure!

By using a combination of sources as evidence, such as newspapers, photographs and other archival materials, one can use these accidentally and unintentionally captured film clips as primary evidence and clues to further piece together and explore various puzzles of otherwise undocumented history.

For example, while there are a number of photos of the front (south side) of the Kennett Barn that once occupied the site of the current Salyards Museum on Main Street in Conway Village, the only images I know of the back (north side) were accidentally recorded in the film “Conway Boy.”

As Pee Wee French is rounding first base the camera shows us the back of the barn and we can see how the builders built into the bank and used the elevation change there so they could drive directly into either level of the barn. It also shows the workings of the hay equipment.

Other rare archival highlights in the film include Stone the Druggist , Conway Village’s war memorial and train station and the Tydol gas station on Main Street. Especially interesting are scenes showing the interiors and working views of the lumber mill, grocery store, barber shop, Kennett gymnasium and the self-service popcorn machine at the Majestic Theater.

One can also study the people in the film, their clothing and hair styles. Even the way they walked in tight groups reflecting shifting social norms documented in the book, “Bowling Alone.” I have noticed high school kids don’t walk that way anymore.

Details in the film help date it. In an earlier post I talked about how the movie posters in a photograph of the Majestic Theater could be used to date that photo. When Pee Wee French takes a girl to the movies, the poster for “South of St. Louis” can be seen dating this scene to 1949.

That film was set in Texas during the Civil War. The heroes are Confederates or Rebel sympathizers. The bad guy was a Yankee named Luke Cottrell who led a band of Union Soldiers who burned farms to put down the South.

I guess there are other folks like me who watch films in this funny way. According to one website, a goof in the film is the use of a certain pistol. “A revolver commonly seen in the film is the famous Colt Single Action Army Revolver. This design did not appear until 1873, much too late for use in the American Civil War.”

Other audio and visual materials in the Henney History Room collection include the Conway Girl, Ice Harvesting, Sherman Adams, David Baker, Darby Field, Frankenstein, White Mountain Art, an oral history with World War 2 veteran, Luther “Smitty” Smith, and the not-to-be missed Rebecca Rule and David Emerson “Full of Moxie.”

So on we go … lights, camera, action!

Celebrating Celebrity Superheroes

Years ago, when I first visited the Henney History Room, I browsed the shelves and wondered why did they have so many books on Helen Keller?

The answer is that our region has been home to many famous celebrities including Helen Keller who summered here and who was great friends with Nella Braddy and Keith Henney, the founders of the Henney History Room at the Conway Public Library.

Using the Dewey Decimal system as a guide, one can search the 920 section for many interesting biographies. These folks are only the “tip of the iceberg” of famous people with connections to the area: Rachel Adams, Josiah Bartlett, Admiral Richard Byrd, Benjamin Champney, E.E. Cummings, Joe Dodge, Mary Baker Eddy, Robert Frost, Harvey Dow Gibson, William Glackens, Samuel Hale, the Hutchinson Family (Singing Yankees), Henry and William James, Rudyard Kipling, Lucy Larcom, Lady Blanche Murphy, Otto Ninow, Franklin Pierce, Babe Ruth, Hannes Schneider, Arthur Walden, Daniel Webster and Jim Welch, the famous High Sheriff of Carroll County.  

One of our most famous local heroes was a dog, the great Chinook. Descended from one of the lead dogs on Peary’s North Pole expeditions, Chinook himself was destined to lead Byrd’s teams at the South Pole. He even has his own set of action figures made by the famous Steiff Company. He is honored by statues, bronze plaques, a road named after him, clubs, and oh yes, he founded New Hampshire’s state dog breed.

In addition to the books, we have vertical files on many other local celebrities as well as many diaries and journals that can help one explore their lives. We also have selected works in other sections, such as the novel Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott, sheet music from Englishman Thomas Murphy, engineering books by Keith Henney, a book on business etiquette by Nella Braddy Henney, and stories of polar expeditions by Admiral Byrd, etc.

Perhaps we will collect a biography on you when you become famous for your contributions.  

Now who is the guy in the tree? It is our own Keith Henney. The Conway Public Library’s Henney History Room was established in 1976 by Keith Henney in memory of his wife Nella Braddy Henney. The Henneys were real history super heroes. Through hard, dirty and sometimes dangerous work, they saved fragile historical records, researched many subjects ranging from Civil War soldiers to lost poets to ocean-going sea elephants and shared their findings through articles, books and lectures.  

A Novel Approach to History

Recently the Henney History Room of the Conway Public Library assisted a patron who visited us from Hollywood, California. She was looking for background information for a story she was writing set in the White Mountains during the Grand Hotel era around the end of the 19th century. She hopes to have it made into a book and a movie. She was interested in both the life of the hotel guests as well as the “downstairs” and behind the scenes life of the bellboys, waiters, maids, butlers, chauffeurs and other support staff for these well-heeled tourists during that extravagant and elegant time period.

Over the years we have helped a number of writers and directors set the scene for their books and films. We have a special section in our fiction collection for their works and of earlier works that have a connection to the geographical scope and focus of the Henney History Room.

Some of the titles include The Appomattox Cat, Catamount, Eight Cousins, Hopalong Cassidy, Look to the Mountain, The Nancy Flyer, Fryeburg Chronicles, and The Story of a Bad Boy.

If you would like to immerse yourself into these imaginative versions of our area’s history, visit the Henney History Room and experience all of thise danger, romance, and adventure for yourself.

It certainly is a “novel” approach to history. Get it?

A swarm of locusts

Bike Week starts this weekend, but my reference to a swarm of locusts is not what you are thinking. I associate large black jacketed Harley riders with pretty fragrant flowers.

This past week patrons visiting the Conway Public Library were treated to a unique sweet aroma from a palisade of trees to the west of the main entrance with cascading showers of small cream colored flowers hanging like grapes from a handful of very crooked trees with deeply furrowed bark that resembles a gator's back. Each year the flowering of these trees heralds the beginning of motorcycle week in New Hampshire. 

The blooms and smell make the trees easy to identify. If you were an early settler to Conway, some 250 years ago, you might want to mark those trees and make a note of their location for they have hidden secrets and serve special functions. 

These secrets are revealed in volume 3 of Jeremy Belknap’s The History of New-Hampshire first published in 1792. A key section of his book, titled modestly “Forest trees and other vegetable productions” is like a “how to” manual for pioneers.

Belknap reports that “Locust (rabinia pseudo-acacia) is excellent fuel. Its trunk serves for durable posts set in the ground, and may be split into trunnels for ships, which are equal to any wood for that purpose. It thrives on sandy and gravelly soils, and its leaves enrich them. For these reasons, the cultivation of the locust has been thought an object worthy of attention, especially as it is a tree of quick growth." 

Fuel: Black locust is highly valued as firewood. It burns slowly, with little visible flame or smoke, and has a higher heat content than any other species that grows widely in the Eastern United States, comparable to the heat content of anthracite coal. It is also popular because of its ability to burn even when wet.

Fence posts: Flavonoids in the heartwood allow the wood to last over 100 years in soil.

Trunnels: The Summer 2013 edition of Northern Woodlands magazine explains that as early as the 1630s, New England shipbuilders used dowels, or treenails, made of Locust trees, that hold a ship’s planks to the frames. The metal fasteners available back then corroded when exposed to salt, and black locust was soon found to be superior to the traditional oak treenails as it is harder and even more decay resistant than oak.

Soil enrichment: Locust trees have nitrogen fixing bacteria on their root systems and as a result, can grow on poor soils and is an early colonizer of disturbed areas.

Belknap's book continues with practical advice for pioneers on the nature of many trees and plants. Drop by the Henney History Room next time you are planning a homesteading type project. 

Majestic Conway

Graduation season is here. It is an important time to take stock of the past, present and future. We recently received a donation of a 1939 graduation notice. It reads “The Senior Class of Kennett High School announces its Graduation Exercises on Tuesday the twentieth of June nineteen hundred thirty-nine at two-thirty o’clock Majestic Theatre Conway, New Hampshire.”

Also included in the donation were six photographs documenting both the inside and outside of the theater. We hope to learn a lot about the Majestic by carefully studying the signs, old cars, landscape features and people in the pictures. We would love you to comment and help us identify some of the details.

For example, you can see a couple different movie posters in the scenes. In one photo they were showing the film, “Bring on the Girls” starring Veronica Lake dating that picture no earlier than 1945. The Majestic Theater also plays a starring role in the film “Conway Boy” which was featured at the recent history fair at Pine Tree School.

To learn more, all these items can be explored at the Henney History Room of the Conway Public Library.

White Mountain Virtual Reality

One of the biggest hits with elementary school kids at the recent history fair in Conway was the Henney History Room’s stereo viewer which creates a 19th century version of 3-dimensional virtual reality. Marketed for its educational value and purchased primarily for its entertainment value, the stereoview was like television and the world book encyclopedia put together, bringing the world and current events into Victorian parlors even in the most rural of areas.

Printed on specially curved cardboard, a pair of photographs were set apart just wide enough to give the illusion of depth and allow a remarkable immersion into the scene. Subjects ranged far and wide, from common to exotic, and covered subjects like the San Francisco earthquake, St. Louis World’s Fair, castles in Ireland and ancient buildings in Italy.

Views of White Mountain tourist attractions were sold as popular souvenirs. One of the world’s largest producers of stereoviews were the Kliburn Brothers of Littleton, NH. From from 1867 to 1909, they manufactured over 600,000 cards. Their views became the most widely distributed in the United States.

The view pictured here was number 25 of N.W. Pease’s series of American Scenery. Pease ran his studio and gift shop out of the building that is now Zeb’s Country Store in North Conway.

Titled “View on Road from Artists’ Falls, North Conway, N.H.” it depicts a shady dirt road crossing a bridge leading the viewer through the woods to an open field. While on the surface the scene appears generic without any clear distinctive landmarks, mountains or buildings one must consider the historical context. In fact, the artist brook area of North Conway was once a famous and popular key destination and promoted in a large number of paintings, prints, and guidebooks.

Why would this be such a popular spot? Again consider the historical context. If you look at numerous other photos, paintings, prints, you can easily get the sense that most of the New England landscape was cleared for farming during the time these views were being published.

Historians estimate that 80% of New England was cleared for farming then, leaving only 20% forested and much of that used for logging and firewood. Today that ratio is almost reversed. Forested areas are much more common to us now. Also remember that the city folks who rode the trains to Conway had no air conditioning and streets often filled with horse manure, then you can begin to see how the cool shady spot depicted in the stereoview along with the fresh mountain air, smaller population, and clean water from our mineral springs could be so appealing. In fact, it still is today.

Remembering Memorial Day

The Henney History Room of the Conway Public Library has a number of resources for those interested in honoring veterans. We have a collection of books and archives that cover all eras for American military service. Especially interesting for locals is the record book for the Custer post number 47 of the GAR listing the names of 71 members along with information of their age, birthplace, occupation, service records, nature of wounds received and so on. The library also has the original silk flag from the Custer post and memorabilia and stories of cannonballs and parrot shells.

Of a more dramatic nature is this book, Sparks for the Camp Fire. Lusciously illustrated, the subtitle lists its contents as "Heroic deeds, brave encounters, desperate battles, bold achievements, reckless daring, lofty patriotism, terrible suffering and wondrous fortitude..." 

Enjoy your holiday and thank a veteran for their service.