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ICE! Historically, ice was harvested in this area from frozen ponds and lakes using a specific set of tools.  Thanks to a generous loan from the Freedom New Hampshire Historical Society the Conway Public Library's Henney History Room has been able to present a new program on ice harvesting which we offer free to local schools and community groups. It starts with laying tools out on tables or the floor in no particular order... ... and inviting the students to then try to figure out the order in which they would have been used, which of course they can not do. Then we watch the opening scene of the Disney film Frozen and they try again... ...and they are able to figure it out.  We confirm and expand their understanding of the tools and the ice harvesting process by examining period photos and archival materials from the Henney History Room collection.  Now they are able to put a name to the tools... such as this ice hook.  Then the students closely examine the tools a...

Are you familiar with these traditional culinary holiday delights? Let me tell you some holiday stories from our extended family.  Carp in the Bathtub is a popular Slavic holiday experience that was carried over from our family ancestors in central Europe to Chicago and celebrated by our Jewish, Catholic and Baptist relatives there.  The story is told in a wonderful children's book that harkins back to an earlier era, before refrigeration, in which live carp in the bathtub provided fresh fish for the holiday.   In some cases served as a delightful twelve course meal.  We also enjoy the more mainstream, mid-western traditions from our Ohio family members of turkey and ham and green bean casserole with Campbell's cream of mushroom soup. The tradition of Hoppin' John on New Year's Eve comes from our southern kin.  Hoppin' John goes great with collards and corn bread or hushpuppies, or both! A newer family tradition, Iskender, comes from some of our travels....

Happy Fibonacci Day! November 23 is Fibonacci Day, because the numbers are in the Fibonacci sequence of 1, 1, 2, 3. So when written in MM/DD format it forms the sequence that can be charted out into a pattern.  The Fibonacci sequence appears in many patterns of nature like the branching in trees, leaves on a stem, family trees of honeybees, flower petals, spirals of a sunflower and so on. The sequence is named for Leonardo Fibonacci, a Medieval mathematician who lived in Pisa from around 1170 -1250 ad.  x Starting with 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, the Fibonacci sequence is created by adding up the two previous numbers to get the next one.  The pattern is made up of numbers that sum the previous two numbers before them — 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13 — and so on. The sequence is used in computing, stock trading, and architecture and design. Once we discovered the sequence, it started showing up everywhere. Nature is full of Fibonacci patterns, from DNA to hurricanes, leading some to dub the...

These are some of the iconic images of Autumn from the Conway Public Library's Henney History Room that greet you as you enter the library.  You are invited to learn more about this subject at our Art of the Harvest program on Wednesday, November 2, 2002 from 6:30 - 7:30 pm. FMI follow this link here .  We would also be happy to present this free program to local school and community groups.  You are also welcome to visit the Conway Public Library's Henney History Room to explore the many other items we have related to the season. For our opening hours and contact info follow this link here .  This is just a small sample of a seasonal items we have in a variety of media including VHS, DVD, CD-ROM, life style periodicals, poetry and period guidebooks.  For an interesting perspective on Halloween in Conway follow this link here to The Conway Boy video and view the clip at 8 minutes and 33 seconds (...little kids sure are comical).  We are always looking for...

Does the title of this blog make your mouth water?  If not, then you are just too young to remember these recipes! Now that Autumn has begun, our thoughts may turn to traditional comfort food. A number of interesting recipes can be found in a recent donation to the Conway Public Library's Henney History Room. As you will see you just can't go wrong with bacon, cheese and corn.  This cookbook was compiled by the ladies of Mountain-View Grange in East Conway. The distinctive architecture of the building can be seen today on Google street view.  The building is now the East Conway Community Hall. See their facebook page here .  several nice interesting comments about this cookbook and past events there  x described as  Quaint little building available for all of your special occasions! This century old building has hosted many events over the years. Gatherings such as birthday parties, weddings, yard sales, and public suppers have been held at the hall. Each o...

x only steps from the damaged facade, the original supporters of the library left a legacy  x x flanking a pair of windows are a pair of framed photos of people involved in the building of the library. In the right framed panel, listed as number 2 is "James P. Falt, Springfield, Mass, Contractor for freestone work." (click on images to enlarge them).  x x x His portrait is above.  x an initial internet image search yields a copy of an ad he ran in a stone industry trade magazine here.  xx overall page from the American Architect and Building News, p. xix, October 28, 1898.  x x x mentions red sandstone, the type of stone used on our building.  mentions the Carlisle Quarries in Springfield, Mass.  over the years he operated several quarries in the Springfield, MA area including  Carlisle Longmeadow  Sixteen Acres  According to historian Bruce Moore there were over one hundred quarries in the area. See this link here .  The ad refers ...

November is best known for celebrating Thanksgiving.  But did you know it is also the time to celebrate Geography Awareness Week and Native American Indian Heritage Month.  How does all this tie together to the U.S. Census Bureau?  Today I received an email bulletin fron the U.S. Census Bureau that covered all these topics and more. See this link here .  Some of the fun facts from the bulletin - there are 4 places named Turkey and 5 places named Cranberry in the U.S. FMI see this link here . Facts should not lie, but in this case they do. If you look on the left of that pdf under "A History of Giving Thanks" you will note it focuses on the 1621 Pilgrim event so many people believe is the earliest celebrated in what is now the United States.  I find a certain irony of the census bureau getting the date and the location of the first thanksgiving wrong. See my previous blogs  here  and  here .  The census bulletin also features American Indian H...