Treaty Exhibits

Portsmouth Peace Treaty Exhibit "an uncommon commitment to peace"

Nichinan Gakuen and Portsmouth High School students visit exhibit in October 2024.

An Uncommon Commitment to Peace: Portsmouth Peace Treaty 1905 -- the central exhibit created in 2005 for the 100th Treaty Anniversary -- explores the causes of the Russo-Japanese War, the conflict and the multi-track negotiation process consisting of:

formal negotiations between Russian and Japanese delegates
behind the scenes diplomacy of President Roosevelt
the U.S Navy's hosting and protocol for peace
the hosting of the delegates by the New Hampshire Governor and Portsmouth Mayor
the informal social events and activities of the local people to encourage the peace process

The Exhibition features images of the war and the peace process, artifacts from the time and a timeline showing the relationship among the formal diplomacy, back-channel diplomacy and local events that led to the Treaty signing on September 5, 1905. Artifacts include a pen used to sign the Treaty, the chair in which the Japanese diplomat, Baron Komura sat, and other objects loaned from various collections.

For 30 days in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, an uncommon commitment to peace because a common virtue. The Portsmouth process is an example of the ability of local communities to be involved in resolving international disputes.

This exhibition was organized by Charles B. Doleac, Project Director; Hayato Sakurai, Guest Curator; Christie Jackson, Assistant Curator; Richard Candee and Peter Randall, Consulting Curators; LifeSize Graphics, Lightship Design and MapWorks, Exhibit Panel Designers. A catalogue for this exhibit is available through this website.

The exhibition was made possible by a grant from the Center for Global Partnership of the Japan Foundation to the Japan-America Society of New Hampshire and is hosted by the Portsmouth Historical Society at its John Paul Jones House Museum on the corner of Middle and State Streets in downtown Portsmouth, NH.

The exhibit includes multiple panels on the war and the peace conference, including a day-by-day timeline of events between the delegates' arrival on August 8, 1905 and the signing of the Treaty on September 5, 1905. For information on purchasing the exhibit catalogue, please use the contact form below.

Click on each link below for the exhibit panels:

Introduction, Part 1
Introduction, Part 2
Causes of the War, Part 1
Causes of the War, Part 2
The Russo-Japanese War, Part 1
The Russo-Japanese War, Part 2
Russia and Japan, Ready for Peace
Key Participants in the Road to Peace, Part 1
Key Participants in the Road to Peace, Part 2
Key Participants in the Road to Peace, Part 3
Portsmouth is Chosen, Part 1
Portsmouth in Chosen, Part 2
Roosevelt Meets with Delegates at Oyster Bay
Portsmouth Hosts the Conference, Part 1
Portsmouth Hosts the Conference, Part 2
Timeline 1
Timeline 2
Peace is Reached, Part 1
Peace is Reached, Part 2
Lasting Impressions of the Conference and Portsmouth
Legacy of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, Part 1
Legacy of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, Part 2
Legacy of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty, Part 3
Portsmouth Peace Treaty: Citizen Diplomats

2015: PORT ARTHUR MEMORIAL

In April 1904 during the Japanese blockade of Port Arthur that began with the start of the Russo-Japanese War in January 1904, Admiral Stepan Osipovich Makarov and his flagship the Petropavlovsk, while trying to return to the harbor, hit a Japanese mine. Eyewitnesses said the ship sank within minutes, with all hands lost. A famous Japanese print (left) shows a valiant Makarov on the deck as his battleship sank. The Japanese retook Port Arthur in January 1905.

Nine years later, in June 1913, the Japanese Government sent a team of divers to recover the remains of those who perished on the Petropavlovsk. Admiral Makarov, who had been blown off the deck by the force of the explosion was not among them; but the bodies of several officers (identified by their uniform insignia) and Russian sailors were brought to the surface and given a full-honors military burial attended by Russian Orthodox clergy and the relatives of those who died.

Photographs from a rare book document the Petropavlovsk funerals on June 24, 1913 in Port Arthur. The images were presented by the Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of the Russian Emigre Community in Moscow through the Consul General of the Russian Federation in New York to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum with permission for exclusive display in the Treaty exhibit for the 110th anniversary IN 2015.

2016: russian documents and nobel peace prize replica

History was made at the September 5, 2015 celebration of the 110th anniversary of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty when Russian diplomats joined Japanese diplomats at a reception at Wentworth By the Sea Hotel in the room where Russian and Japanese delegates to the peace conference had last met in 1905. At the reception, the Consul General of the Russian Federation, Igor Golubovskiy underscored his commitment to people-to-people diplomacy and culture as a safety net between nations. In his remarks, Consul General Golubovskiy thanked the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum, the many museums of Portsmouth who share the Treaty history and the Mayor of Portsmouth, “for keeping good memories of Russia and those Russian people who demonstrated good diplomatic skills in 1905.” He went on to thank the Consul General of Japan and “the representatives of Japan for your wise decision to participate before we Russians came. You showed us that example for after all we have a common history, we are all neighbors and therefore we must be here together in Portsmouth.” Alexander Kuznetsov, Head of History and Documentation Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, also attended the Treaty commemorations on September 5th and presented a set of documents from those archives, “selected in honor of the people of Portsmouth who have collected the history of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty conference, to enrich those archives.” In 2016, those documents from the Russian Archives were featured in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit on loan to the John Paul Jones House Museum. New items in the exhibit, celebrating the 110th anniversary of the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to President Theodore Roosevelt include an authentic replica of the Nobel Peace Prize from the mint authorized by the Nobel Peace Prize Institute in Norway, furniture from the 1905 Treaty conference rooms at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and the Russian documents, including June 1905 telegrams discussing the invitation to participate in a peace conference.

2019: the carey family & citizen diplomacy

In 2019, when the Carey Cottage at Creek Farm was under threat of demolition by the Society for the Protection of NH Forests, a new element in the exhibit focused around August 27, 1905 and the impact citizen diplomacy had on resolving an impasse that had kept the Russian and Japanese negotiators at odds. Featuring a diary, published in Japanese, by Japanese Navy Lieutenant Commander Isamu Taskeshita, the exhibit covers seven critical days in the peace conference seeking an end to the Russo-Japanese War:

August 22, Sergius Witte, lead Russian diplomat, ignores a telegram from the Tsar directing him to break off negotiations (the exhibit includes a copy of the telegram, presented to the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum by the director of the Russian Federation Foreign Ministry Museum
August 23, Portsmouth Herald headlines identify a “Crucial Meeting” as Witte postponed the formal negotiations at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
August 26, another telegram to Witte telling him “to stand on guard for the welfare and honor of Russia”
August 27, and the garden party for the Russian and Japanese diplomats hosted by Arthur and Agnes Carey at Creek Farm. Lt. Cmdr. Takeshita reported in his diary that the delegates were entertained at an informal recital in the music room of the Carey home.
August 29, Witte and Japanese plenipotentiary Jutaro Komura meet privately before their formal session at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and agree on terms to break the impasse: Japan dropped its demands for Russia to pay an indemnity; and Russia ceded half of Sakhalin Island to Japan. Peace is declared.

The exhibit included a new panel describing the citizen diplomacy of the Careys, the memories their daughter Alida later shared about the multiple dinner parties her parents hosted for the diplomats and President Theodore Roosevelt’s acknowledgement of their efforts and the thanks he extended by dispatching the Presidential yacht, Mayflower to provide a harbor cruise for the family. “The week of August 22nd to 29th was the most tense of the entire peace conference,” said Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum president Charles B. Doleac. “It was also when the citizen diplomacy of Portsmouth, including the Careys, was most evident. In 2005, architect Patrick Stevens graphed all the events of the Treaty summer, starting with 10 days of formal negotiations at the Shipyard. It is clear that when the formal negotiations broke down, local people did everything they could to keep the diplomats at the table and sustain the hope for peace. Those tense days in August, that citizen diplomacy helped transform into reconciliation, are what we celebrate each year on September 5th, Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day.”

2023: DIPLOMATS IN PORTSMOUTH, 1713-1905

Created for the 2023 Portsmouth NH 400th Anniversary commemorations, the “Diplomats in Portsmouth, 1713-1905” addition to the main exhibition used rare historical objects to trace the record of diplomats with Portsmouth connections and connect the story of the 1713 Wabanaki and English Treaty of Portsmouth and the diplomats in or from Portsmouth who shaped America’s relationship with Japan through the 1905 Portsmouth Peace Treaty and beyond. There are two threads to this story. The first introduces the official diplomats: Wabanaki emissaries, English Royal Governor Dudley, Edmund Roberts, Daniel Webster, Helen Peirce and the Russian and Japanese envoys. The second explores treaty negotiations in Portsmouth that provided unanticipated circumstances that gave local people opportunities to become citizen diplomats. All of these diplomats with connections to Portsmouth contributed to the diplomatic history of a new nation as it rose from colonialism to becoming a player on the world stage. All are connected to treaties: the 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth, 1833 Treaties with Siam and Muscat, the 1854 Treaty of Kanagawa with Japan and the 1905 Portsmouth Peace Treaty. Rare objects include a wax portrait of Edmund Roberts and his Commission as United States negotiating agent signed by President Andrew Jackson, replicas of the Library of Congress copies of the 1713 and 1714 treaties and the signatures of prominent citizens and Wabanaki emissaries and newspaper accounts of pivotal citizen diplomacy moments during the 1905 peace conference. Maps show the physical Portsmouth locations linking the diplomats to the city. From the first Treaty of Portsmouth in 1713 onward, these Diplomats in Portsmouth laid the foundation that allowed Portsmouth to become a place where, in the 21st century words of Japanese Ambassador Ryozo Kato, ‘Diplomats love Portsmouth, because here, diplomacy actually works.’”

2024: DIPLOMATS IN PORTSMOUTH & PORTSMOUTH PEACE TREATY FORUM

In 2024, the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum enhanced the “Diplomats in Portsmouth” exhibit in the John Paul Jones House Museum to showcase the
prominent diplomats featured in Forum events. The Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum was founded in 1994 to explore, through Japanese, Russian and American perspectives, the history of the Treaty of Portsmouth and its relevance to current issues involving the Northern Pacific region and provides a platform for examining US international diplomacy in the "spirit of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty. Since then, the Forum has hosted senior diplomats including Ambassadors Dennis Ross and Samantha Power, Assistant Secretary of Defense Joseph S. Nye, Jr. and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. In February, the Forum welcomed Russian specialist and former National Security Advisor Fiona Hill. Hill first participated in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum in 1995 when she joined Harvard Belfer Center Director Graham Allison for a panel with Russian and Japanese diplomats to discuss their study, Beyond Cold War to Trilateral Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region. Hill and Allison returned to the Forum in 2016 to “Reconsider the Trilateral Cooperation Study.”
The exhibit featured the Forum diplomats’ books and posters from the events to underscore the ongoing research by the Forum to supplement the ‘Portsmouth Peace Treaty: An Uncommon Commitment to Peace’ exhibit, created in 2005 to present original research detailing the role of citizen diplomacy during the 1905 peace conference seeking an end to the Russo-Japanese War. Visitors also learned about the 1713 Treaty of Portsmouth which sought to settle disputes between English settlers and the First Nations of the Seacoast who were being displaced by the colonists.