June 23-27, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM

Venture into the past using books as the time machine! Each day of this program begins with a lively picture book about an amazing individual or historical event, which sets the scene for expeditions through Strawbery Banke’s gardens, houses, and grounds. Kids will activate their imaginations by meeting roleplayers, playing games, and making historical crafts. Activities this week will include creating fossils, making ice cream, baking an old-fashioned recipe, and more! Campers will bring home their picture book filled with artwork, recipes, and great memories at the end of an action-packed week. 

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

Session I: July 7-11, 2025
Session II: August 4-8, 2025
Session III: August 18-22, 2025
9 AM- 3 PM

Perfect for youngsters who enjoy using their imaginations and participating in dress-up and pretend play, History Alive encourages kids to compare and contrast life in different eras of the past. Kids will have a chance to dress in costumes every day. After a brief, interactive lesson about the historical era, they engage in games and activities particular to each century in period gardens and buildings.

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

July 14-18, 2025, 9 AM- 3 PM

It’s time to set sail on a maritime journey through the past. Meet some famous pirates and privateers of Portsmouth, and try out some of the different jobs of sailors aboard ships. Learn to tie knots, cook a ship’s meal, try out crafts, play games, and do hands-on activities to discover what it was like to be a pirate (or sailor) long ago. We are looking for new recruits. Join us for fun on land and sea!

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

July 21-25, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM

Spend the week exploring Strawbery Banke’s gardens and landscapes to learn about life long ago. Campers will discover how plants have been used for food, create herbal medicine to stay healthy, and use flowers to create beautiful art. They will go home at the end of the week with the beginnings of a kitchen garden to cultivate at home.

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

July 28 - August 1, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM

Discover whether the “good old days” were as good as they seem by experiencing children's daily life in five eras of American history. Campers will help with morning chores in the 18th century, dress up in Victorian clothing and play 19th-century lawn games, attend school at the turn of the 20th century, and cook a meal using 1940s wartime rations.

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

August 11-15, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM

Travel back to the 1800s to discover how the world was rapidly changing through factories and technology. Campers will participate in scientific experiments, make 19th-century toys, create Victorian art with nature, and join a garden party. At the end of the week, campers will have a variety of projects to share at home.

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

Growing Up Colonial: June 23-27, 2025
Growing Up Victorian: July 21-25, 2025
Growing Up Between the Wars: August 18-22, 2025
9 AM-3 PM

Learn about different eras of the past by living them. Campers will dress in costumes and use reproduction toys and tools in a historical setting to discover what life was like for children in different centuries. They will also develop improvisation and acting techniques while roleplaying in the museum’s buildings. By demonstrating toys and games for the Museum’s visitors, they’ll make history come to life!

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

July 7-11, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM

Explore the natural world to discover how plants helped to heal common ailments of the past. Campers will investigate different plants each day through science experiments, cooking with herbs, and creating herbal remedies. At the end of the week, campers will have a handmade herbarium, the start of an herb garden, and a first aid kit of herbal cures to take home and share with friends and family.

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

July 14-18, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM

Kids are invited to step into the hustle and bustle of the Victorian Age – a time of developing technology, changing culture, and increased leisure time. Throughout the week, campers will be introduced to hands-on activities to learn about the dramatic changes that occurred as America became an industrialized society. Weave on a loom, make a basket, create soda fountain flavors, try your hand at reversed glass painting, create crafts from the Civil War, experiment with photography, and send messages through Morse Code. Campers will be kept busy with crafts, roleplaying activities, games, cooking, and 100 years of fun!

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

August 4-8, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM

Go on a time-traveling adventure where you decide what happens next. Become part of your own story as it unfolds throughout the week. At each step of the journey, campers will have a choice between two activities that they will engage in before learning the consequences of their choice that will take them to the next fork in the road. Perhaps you will cook a meal or construct a fort. You may do some acting or solve a mystery. At the end of the week, each camper will come home with a written record of the story they made as well as lots of projects and memories from an action-packed week.

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

August 11-15, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM

Spend the week on the homefront during World War II, and consider how life changed for kids in the 1940s. Campers will participate in air raid drills, volunteer for the Red Cross, make a meal with rationed foods, and use creativity to invent new games. Discover how resilience and a can-do attitude helped children overcome the challenges of the past.

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

July 28 - August 1, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM

Antibiotics, indoor plumbing, running water… How did people manage without the technological and medical advances of today? During the week, campers will examine some of the struggles that people faced at different eras in history from death and disease to slavery, fires, and natural disasters. Activities include experimentation and problem-solving, scavenger hunts, historical simulations, and walking excursions around Portsmouth. Find out if you have what it takes to survive the past!

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

June 23-27, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM

Learn the art of creative writing through the lens of history. Working with a professional author, students will hone their writing skills, use real historical primary and secondary sources, and develop their imaginations. Campers will have the chance to immerse themselves in the 18th-century world by cooking, trying on clothing, and engaging in chores and daily life to develop authentic characters, settings, and plots. The museum inspires the works of historical fiction that participants will create.

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

New Republic (1777-1818): July 7-18, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM (weekdays only)
Industrial Age (1820-1870): July 28-August 8, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM (weekdays only)

Times change but adolescents have always played a part in history. Teens of today can make the past come to life by becoming a historic roleplayer and using the museum’s houses and grounds as their stage. Participants will learn theatrical techniques, dress in full costume, use old-fashioned tools and materials, and engage in historical research methods to learn how to portray a person from another time. After successful completion of the program, many Jr. Roleplayers are invited back to participate in the Museum’s special event programs throughout the year. This is a two-week camp and participants must attend both weeks. 

$780. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

July 21-25, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM

Examine real historical artifacts up close and learn to uncover the historical tales that they have to tell. Campers will work with professional curators to put together a museum exhibition that will share their discoveries with Strawbery Banke’s visitors. Over the week, they will participate in an auction, take field trips to Portsmouth’s historic sites, and journey behind the scenes at the Collections Center. The camp will culminate with the opening of the Young Curator Exhibition, which will remain on display throughout the season.

$400. Families enrolling in multiple weeks or registering siblings will receive a 10% discount on each additional registration.

Extended childcare is available from 8 AM to 5 PM for an additional $30 per day.

Session 1: July 7-11, 2025
Session 2: August 11-15, 2025

Join professional boatbuilders at The Boatshop at Strawbery Banke and the crew at the Gundalow Company for an exciting week of building and exploring. Campers ages 7-9 will discover the wonders of crafting a cat-rigged model sailboat using basic tools and materials. They’ll learn about concepts like buoyancy, displacement, and knots, all while making friends and working together on team-building activities. After a morning of boatbuilding, campers will set sail on the water, learning how to operate a Gundalow, row Piscataqua Wherries, and paddle kayaks, gaining hands-on experience in navigation and teamwork along Portsmouth’s waterways.

Members $450. Nonmembers $500.
Registration for this camp is through the Gundalow Company.

July 21-25, 2025, 9 AM-3 PM

Campers will team up with the professional boatbuilders at The Boatshop at Strawbery Banke for a hands-on week of crafting a wooden model sailboat. They will dive into the fundamentals of boatbuilding, mastering basic woodworking techniques to transform drawings and raw materials into fully functional, 3D sailboats. The week will wrap up with campers launching their creations and sailing them, before taking them home to inspire future adventures.

In addition, campers set sail aboard the Gundalow to learn the skills of traditional navigation and sailing. They’ll also hop into wooden wherries to explore the rivers, learning how to row and discover our waterways.

Members: $450. Nonmembers $500.
Registration for this camp is through the Gundalow Company.