A history of Portsmouth,
since 1638
Postcards, papers and photographs of Portsmouth from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Portsmouth was settled in 1638 by a group of religious dissenters from Massachusetts Bay Colony, including Dr. John Clarke, William Coddington, and Anne Hutchinson. It is named after Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. Roger Williams convinced the settlers that they should go there instead of settling in the Province of New Jersey, where they had first planned on going.
It was founded by the signers of the Portsmouth Compact. Its original name was Pocasset and it was officially named Portsmouth on May 12, 1639. It became part of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (see Aquidneck Island) and eventually part of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Portsmouth’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewLovell General Hospital, 1862: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Portsmouth, decade by decade
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Lovell General Hospital (1862) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (4) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.