Poltrack Blog

I've finally completed my task  of scanning of the photos in the New Ipswich Historical Society collection. The next step will involve some processing and organizing them into categories. I have created this album featuring the photos that have recognizable people. Click on photo below to see the album. This is a work in progress, so this album will be updated.

Among the photographs in the New Ipswich Historical Society collection is a series showing the wallpaper of the Appleton Inn & Batchelder House. These were elaborate prints depicting scenes in France. Unfortunately the photographs are not in color,  but a similar design can be seen on the walls of the Barrett House in New Ipswich via the Historic New England Website .

The New Ipswich Photo club meets on the second Wednesday of the month at the New Ipswich Library. The only exception to that schedule is prior to tax filing when it is moved to Thursday to accommodate a free tax group.. Each meeting we chose a "theme" to concentrate on for shooting photos to share with the group. I've  been stumped by several of them. I was lax about the theme "night photography" mainly because it was too cold to venture outside. Also I'm not entirely comfortable with choosing exposure settings, times and ISO settings for shooting in the dark. Here is my crop of photos taken in New Ipswich & Temple. Pizza Haven Too - 1/5 Second F/1.4 ISO 64 Doctor John Preston House, Turnpike Road - 2.5 second f/2.2 Front Door at Temple Town Hall - 1/15 Second f/1.2 ISO 64 Congregational Church, Temple, NH - 4 Seconds f/1.2

David Alcox has been teaching Social Studies & History at Milford High School for 23 years. He makes regular appearances on NHPR. Each year he takes his students to the the Statewide "We the People" Civics Competition in Concord which they have won for 16 out of the last 20 years. His students have regularly advanced the National Competition in Washington, DC. See competition  details at end of this posting. "We the People" Team from Milford High School The team fielded questions from the audience on a number of topics, immigration, gun laws, states rights, gerrymandering, even Al Gore was mentioned. Each member was an expert on a specific detail of the Constitution The event was sponsored by the Temple Democrats The venue was the historic Temple Town Hall Additional Information Source   New Hampshire Bar News (Page 3) "On Friday, December 8, students from Hollis Brookline High School, John Stark Regional High Scho...

It was quiet at the Green Center today. There were other events in town, an Easter Egg hunt, Road Race & Pancake Breakfast at Somero's Maple Farm. We did get the usual donations of clothing, books and toys and items like these. I took this home and listened. This CD promised that I would be able to get anything I wanted in life. It was amazing. All I had to do was go to a website and sign up for a thousand dollar course of training, seminars and workshops. This is going back the Green Center. These eyes made me a bit nervous Everybody loves Elmo This is different In your Easter Bonnet Simulated Image in Peacock Frame I Loved JFK but other Presidents were in the group of posters No one took our Easter bunnies. We'll put them away till next year. We had something similar in the 1960s. You could make a drinking glass from a beer bottle which had a sharp edge that would cut your lip unless you spent hours sanding it with silicon carb...

While reading the notes on the photos in the New Ipswich Historical Society, I kept finding references to the "Beehive" or the "Beehive House". It was such an odd name. In the Hazel E. Balch album I found a cyanotype   that she had captioned "The Beehive". I assume that the "Beehive" name refers to the unusual porch design. It matches the second photo which was the Charles H. Balcom Homestead (Willowbrook Farm). It was thought to be torn down in 1912. The barn was torn down in 1914.

Number 4 Schoolhouse was located in Gibson District in New Ipswich, NH. Rose A. Hacker was the teacher.  The school was closed Jun 7, 1935 and converted into a private residence in 1944. The first photo was taken by Mrs. Albro L. Balch on August 19, 1906. Currently the building is empty. I took a photo of the building on March 1, 2018. It is located on Ashby Road near the intersection with Matson Road.

As a winter project I undertook the task of scanning photos from the collection in the New Ipswich Historical Society. The biggest challenge has been trying to decipher the descriptions on the back of photos. However that has not been a problem with an album compiled by Hazel E. Balch. While Hazel was President of the New Ipswich Historical Society she did an outstanding job compiling photo albums with extensive notes and descriptions. Her notes are very readable and I have transposed them to the digital files. I'm compiling these into a online Flickr Album . The work is not complete yet, but it's final part of my winter scanning project. Click on the photo to open the album. Thank you Hazel for your work.

The 1938 New England Hurricane was a category 5 storm that killed 682 people, damaged or destroyed more than 57,000 homes and caused property losses estimated at $306 million ($4.7 Billion in 2016). Source Wikipedia . It did affect new Ipswich and the New Ipswich Historical Society has these three photos of storm damage. I have seen downed trees in the woods with new trees growing out of them, I assume they were knocked down during this storm.

Hazel E. Balch compiled and organized a photo album of events held for the New Ipswich Bicentennial Celebration.

Hazel E. Balch was the President of the new Ipswich Historical Society when the town celebrated its Bicentennial celebration in August 1950. She compiled an album of news clippings from several papers, including the New York Times. These are scans of that album.

Spring is just a few days away and after I awoke and saw that it was only 12 degrees (F) I decided to post something about gardens. Caroline Barr was a charter member of the New Ipswich Historical Society and founder and major benefactor of the New Ipswich Library. She lived at the Barr Estate until her death in 1922. During that time she created extensive gardens on the grounds. The Estate was completely renovated in 2014 by Russell & Melissa Salo. The plantings are gone, but some remnants remain. The stone bridge can be seen across the stream that runs along the property. These photos were part of an album donated to the New Ipswich Historical Society. Click on photos to view the entire set. Photos taken of the property in February 27, 2018 by John M Poltrack. Note the stone bridge which is visible in the earlier photos.

I'm finding many duplicates among the photo collection at the New Ipswich Historical Society. The photos were donated from multiple sources and vary in print quality. One benefit of multiple copies are the scrawled notes on the back of the prints. Combining them helps in identifying the people in the shot. Here is an example of two duplicates. I like this photo (below) of a subset of the Cornet Band.

The answer to that question is no, the Green Center will be closed on March 17th (2018) but will be open on the following Saturday (March 24th). So where can one go to browse through old junk? We headed to the mall, the Antiques & Collectibles Mall of New England. The mall is located at 8 Dunster Ave, in Grrenville, NH. It used to be the location of a New Hampshire Liquor Store. Unlike the Green Center, these items cost money, but not very much. I passed up buying a Ronald McDonald. These guy gave me the willies, but not as bad as the clown Just like the Green Center there are plenty of ceramic items. Lots of stuff, but its not the Green Center. However you can spend an afternoon browsing. I was anxious to try the new Chinese Restaurant which had opened at what once was the Greenville Train Depot. For years it was called the Depot Restaurant, later the Panda Wok. After the Panda Wok left the community was left bereft of a nearby Chinese takeout. We...