Water Has a Memory: Preserving Portsmouth and Strawbery Banke from Sea Level Rise
A temporary exhibit in the Rowland Gallery (2021-2024)
Strawbery Banke’s historic houses are being damaged by the effects of sea level rise. Right now.
The Museum’s historic and picturesque location on the banks of the Piscataqua River had, unfortunately, placed it in the highest-at-risk area for impacts of sea level rise, which had already been visible in four of the historic houses.
For years, Strawbery Banke taught centuries of history in the same waterfront neighborhood to thousands of visitors each year. With this exhibit, the Museum sought to show how history was impacting the present and future.
Click the link above to view a time-lapse video of a King Tide event in the dirt floor basement of the Shapley-Drisco-Pridham House on December 5, 2017
Strawbery Banke is working on a strategy to preserve the historic homes and is engaged in many projects that may physically extend beyond the nearly 10-acre campus but that impact the future of the Museum.
The Water Has a Memory exhibit, in partnership with the City of Portsmouth, is a model to tell the story of sea level rise and asks visitors to think about what’s to come as the climate warms and to think about the number of factors contributing to increased flooding events from surface water and groundwater.
On display in the exhibit were artifacts illustrating the City of Portsmouth’s infrastructure, including hollowed-out logs that once served as pipes and the iron ones that eventually replaced them. Visitors could also see some of the City’s earliest water meters, which prompted early residents to think of water as a resource, along with an old map showing Portsmouth’s deep connection to the river.
Throughout the exhibit’s run, the Museum continually enhanced it. In its fourth year in the Rowland Gallery, Strawbery Banke partnered with the University of New Hampshire Geospatial Lab to install data loggers in three locations to monitor water depth, salinity, and relative humidity. This data was disseminated by UNH and sent in real time to a kiosk within the exhibit.
Click the link above to listen to NHPR’s report
Strawbery Banke is grateful for the support of the following donors for their support of the exhibit: Anonymous, The City of Portsmouth, Jameson and Priscilla French, The Roger R. and Theresa S. Thompson Endowment Fund, Allison Potter, The Barbara and B. Allen Rowland Fund at the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, and the University of New Hampshire Geospatial Science Center.