Eileen Foley was born in Portsmouth and has lived there all her life. She is a graduate of Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York and she served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II. She was the third of four daughters born to Charles and Mary Carey Dondero and her background is rich in both Italian and Irish heritage. Her mother was the first woman mayor of Portsmouth, a rare occurrence in the 1940s.

Her political career entails working in national, state and local arenas and she enjoyed serving seven terms as the New Hampshire State Senator from the 24th District. She held the position of Minority Leader during one of these terms.

After a dozen years, a newly revised and enlarged edition brings a Portsmouth classic back in print!

A rare survivor of three centuries of urban change, with new emphasis on preservation and revitalization, Portsmouth, NH, is recognized today as one of the architectural treasures of New England. The evolution of its many neighborhoods, house types, building technologies, and related design ideas are all found in Building Portsmouth. Elaborate colonial and federal mansions, smaller dwellings of mariners and artisans, handsome Victorian suburbs, and housing for industrial workers are all documented here as part of the city's built fabric.

Illustrated with both modern and historic photographs, maps and drawings, Building Portsmouth began in 1992 as a group project to bring the accumulated knowledge of many scholars under the editorial eye of architectural historian Richard M. Candee.

This new and revised second edition captures research done in the intervening decade and corrects old errors. The book is redesigned to help all who are interested in how Portsmouth grew and changed to make connections with their city. It contains new information about historic homes in the South End, along South Street and out New Castle Avenue, expands on the rebuilding of the brick urban core and on new discoveries about the Edwardian summer colony along Little Harbor Road. Like the first edition, it will become a key to all those buying or restoring a building anywhere in the city.

Piscataqua river shipyards turned out 28 clipper ships in the two decades prior to the Civil War. Not only were Portsmouth vessels fast and well-built, they were also elegantly outfitted with fancy carving and woodwork to rival that found in the finest houses of the period.

This volume reviews the history of each shipyard and tells the story of each vessel including such famous ships as Typhoon, Nightingale, Morning Light, Witch of the Wave, Dashing Wave, and Sea Serpent.

Included are 16 color illustrations.

175 pages, 33 illustrations, ISBN 0-915819-05-8

Edited by W. Jeffrey Bolster

This illustrated guide to one of the longest-settled and most enchanting estuaries in New England weds historical preservation to ecological stewardship. Connecting readers to place, it reveals the Piscataqua as a region like no other, and one worth savoring and sustaining. For centuries the Piscataqua region was an extended maritime community connected by the Great Bay Estuary, the short seacoast of New Hampshire and southern Maine, and the seven tributary rivers that fortify the Piscataqua River itself. Moving water shaped the region—under its vessels, at its mills, and across its marshes. Carrying the freight of our history, and holding out the promise of community-based conservation: this book (and these waters) invites you on a journey of exploration and renewal. Join the naturalists, fishermen, and historic preservationists who have all felt the pull of this place, and who wish to sustain it in the face of the headlong development consuming America today. With over forty-five contributors this book yields a multifaceted view of an area which has meant so much to so many. Six full-color plates and two hundred and thirty-six illustrations provide scenes of various spots along the Piscataqua. A double-sided, 16" x 20" fold-out, color map allows the reader to easily locate many points of interest.

Nonfiction. History. 11" x 8.5", 240 pages, 236 b&w illus., 6 full-color plates, 16" x 20"; fold-out map, paperback  ISBN 0-914339-65-6

By Jane Molloy Porter

Lighthouses have long fascinated more people than just the mariners for whom the lights were built. The sight of a light shining through the coastal blackness seems to lend comfort and reassurance even to people who are safely ashore. Worldwide, lighthouses stir the imaginations of artists, poets, and writers.

The five lighthouses of the Piscataqua region of New Hampshire and Maine are among the most admired structures of their type in America. Nubble Light in York, Maine, is perhaps the most photographed light in the world. And Boon Island Light, just offshore from Nubble, captivated readers of Kenneth Roberts’ tale of shipwreck and cannibalism in the early 1700s.

American impressionist Childe Hassam painted White island Light at the Isles of Shoals numerous times, inspired by his friend and fellow artist, the poet Celia Thaxter who spent her childhood at the lighthouse. New Castle’s Fort Constitution Light dates back to the time of John Wentworth, New Hampshire’s last royal governor As the American Revolution began, Wentworth spent his last days in New Hampshire sheltered in the fort beneath the light’s shadow.

For author Jane Porter, these tales of tragedy, beauty, and intrigue are only the tip of the story that begins with politicians and building contractors, and continues on the lighthouse keepers and their families. The construction of a lighthouse is not a simple matter. In addition to being able to project a warning light, the structure also must be able to withstand the foul coastal weather, especially here where the North Atlantic brings crashing waves and strong winds. Before a lighthouse could be built, funds had to be authorized usually from public sources, and politicians, whether local or state or national, had to be convinced that the expenditure is warranted.

After lighthouse specifications were written, contractors had to carry out those plans. Bricks, wood, iron, and steel have supported the local lights for centuries, although four of the five lighthouses have been replaced at least once.

Finally, the lights had to be maintained, a task originally charged to a keeper and often his family lived with him. Local lighthouses had resident families for many years and often the whole family was required to assist the keeper in lighting the lamps and cleaning the protective glass. Celia Thaxer’s strongest memories were of helping her father on White Island. The romance of island living could vanish quickly when a storm threatened to extinguish the light and crashing waves sometimes shook the very structure. Now all the keepers are gone and the lights are electrified, powered directly from the shore or by solar panels on the islands. In the current era, the lights themselves have nearly become redundant because modern vessels of all sizes carry detailed charts, radar, and other navigational equipment that usually makes a visual sighting of a light unnecessary. Today lighthouses are prized more for their historical importance and pictorial beauty then for their value to mariners.

In addition to the extensive details about lighthouse construction, maintenance, and operation, the author also discusses the design and placement of various aids to navigation, such as the river and ocean buoys that protect mariners from hidden rocks and ledges, fog signals, and breakwaters that created safe harbors.

568 pages, 168 illus. CLOTH. ISBN 0-915819-36-8

During the nineteenth century, the Isles of Shoals became one of New England's most popular summer resorts. Many of America's leading authors, artists, musicians, and politicians flocked to the islands both to enjoy the scenery and to associate with famous poet Celia Thaxter whose family owned the large Appledore House. This era has been well documented in numerous books, exhibits, and film.

Lost in the history of this unique artist's colony are the local residents, the fishermen and their families who lived year around on the wind swept islands scraping out a living from the sea. Few photographs show the homes and fish houses of these people, fewer still show the residents themselves. The village of Gosport as it was known came to end in the early 1870s when hotel interests bought the property of the remaining Shoalers. The people moved to the mainland, ending more than 200 years as a permanent community. Most of the houses were torn down or incorporated into various hotel buildings. The people have been forgotten.

In 1995, Peter Randall happened upon a collection of previously unpublished photographs of the Isles of Shoals. These unique images of primarily Star Island in the mid-nineteenth century show some of the residents together with their homes, fish houses, and boats. Here are views of a little village of fishing families documenting a way of life once common along the coast, now vanished. Many of the building owner's are identified, providing valuable research data for historians and others interested in the Isles of Shoals.

Few of these fishing families left any written description of their life on the islands. Fortunately many visitors, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Charles Henry Dana, John Jenness, Samuel Adams Drake, and Dr. Henry Bowditch, wrote about and published commentary on the islanders. Celia Thaxter, her brothers Cedric and Oscar Laighton, missionaries, and others also wrote extensively about the people and their way of life. The text for the book has been taken from these writings, which, together with the photographs, tell for the first time the story of the rugged men, women, and children who were the last residents of the islands.

160 pages, illustrated, ISBN 0915819-30-9

By Michiko Nakanishi

This new book focuses on events and people involved in the background of the Portsmouth Peace Conference in August 1905. The interactions of several individuals had a profound impact on both the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 as well as the peace conference.

Profiled in the book are Jacob Schiff, a powerful Jewish financier who provided the funding for Japan war loans and Korekiyo Takahashi, Japan finance minister. These two men worked closely together and, 100 years later, their descendents remain friends. Another important character was Kentaro Kaneko, a Harvard educated lawyer who had many American friends and contacts. The Japanese government sent him the United States to develop relations with Japan and he met regularly with President Roosevelt during the treaty negotiations.

The author also discusses the role of the two Russian negotiators, Sergey Witte and Roman Rosen, the latter a long-time Russian diplomat in Japan, then ambassador to the United States. Blunt speaking, towering Witte was disliked by Tsar Nicholas II, but remained the only capable Russian available to represent the country in Portsmouth.

Of course, another hero of the negotiations was President Theodore Roosevelt, whose back channel diplomacy, working with Kaneko and pressuring Tsar Nicholas, helped to make the Treaty of Portsmouth possible.

The author, a Japanese scholar and author of several books and many articles, has woven these men together in way to provide a unique look at how they worked individually and with each other to create the peace treaty and impact the first half of the twentieth century.

Paper, illustrated, 136 pgs, ISBN 1-931807-40-x

By Peter E. Randall
Essay by Ronald Jager, Foreword by Stephen H. Taylor

This is a spectacular, large format, 96-page hard cover book featuring 46 color panoramic images by one of New Hampshire's leading photographers. Most of the photographs span two pages and measure 21" x 7".

According to the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, "Technically and artistically, these are among the most striking images ever made in the Granite State -- from the Seacoast to the North Country. They express perfectly the qualities that make our state special, from forested wilderness areas to historic buildings and stone walls." The book has been in progress since 1991, a project that required Randall to drive thousands of miles across New Hampshire to record scenes in all seasons, especially the spectacular fall foliage for which the state is so famous.

By Peter E. Randall