Meet the collector behind Portsmouth Athenaeum's NH primary exhibit

Sherry Wood
| Portsmouth Athenaeum

It was the dashboard dolls that did it.

A circa-1964 set depicting candidates President Lyndon B. Johnson and Sen. Barry Goldwater put Durham attorney Susan Roman on the path of collecting political memorabilia at a young age.

The dashboard dolls were a gift from her uncle, and are on display at the Portsmouth Athenaeum’s Randall Gallery — right beneath a pair of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ famous mittens. Roman was Sanders’ New Hampshire operations director during his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.

Her massive collection of posters, signs, buttons, toys, jewelry − and just about anything else you can think of − is a bipartisan delight.

“My collecting runs the gamut,” she said. “I am not partisan in my collecting.”

This is good news for those who visit the Portsmouth Athenaeum exhibit, “First in the Nation: New Hampshire Presidential Primaries, 1920-2020,” which runs through November.

“I’m a huge supporter of the New Hampshire primary and retaining its first-in-the-nation status,” Roman said. “We are small enough that it is possible to meet all or almost all the candidates in person and hear their ideas directly without the filter of mass media.

“You can stand in living rooms sharing coffee or at neighborhood barbecues with someone who will become president.”

Athenaeum members Mary Jo Monusky, Ceal Anderson and Mara Witzling co-curated the exhibit.

Roman, a member of the University of New Hampshire Class of 1974, campaigned for Democrat George McGovern starting in the summer of 1971. McGovern lost in 1972 to President Richard Nixon.

That year Roman helped organize the first mass voter registration event on the University of New Hampshire campus. The 26th Amendment, which lowered the eligible voting age from 21 to 18, was ratified in 1971.

“It was an amazing day,” Roman said of the turnout at the UNH field house.

The exhibit also features images of candidates campaigning in New Hampshire by photographers Jim Cole, Renee Giffroy, Roger Goun, Meryl Levin, and Michael Sterling. A video montage by Dennis Kleinman compiles presidential campaign slogans and songs from 1920 to 2020.

The exhibit is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, 1-4 pm

The Portsmouth Athenaeum, 9 Market Square, is a nonprofit membership library and museum founded in 1817. The research library and Randall Gallery are open Tuesday through Saturday, 1 to 4 p.m. For more information, call 603-431-2538 or visit portsmouthathenaeum.org.