The Magical History Tour began sometime around 2012 when a Keene resident and artist proposed the painting of sixteen murals representative of the history of Keene. Money was raised, artists were chosen and in 2019 the ‘Walldogs’ of Keene began painting.
Keene, New Hampshire native Barry Faulkner (1881 – 1966) was a renowned muralist. His two must acclaimed murals, Writing the Declaration of Independence and Writing the Constitution are displayed in the National Archives in Washington D. C. His father sent him to Harvard to study business. His roommate at Harvard was Homer St. Gaudens. After his first year at Harvard Barry changed his focus from business to art due to the influence of his roommate. His roommate’s father, Augustus St. Gaudens, was an Irish born American sculptor. Augustus is remembered for his sculptures of Civil War heroes who brought victory to the Union and an end to the evil institution of slavery in the South. Much of his later work is on display at the St. Gaudens National Historic site in Cornish, NH.
Abenaki, ‘People of the Dawn Land’ were an Algonquian speaking peoples who inhabited parts of Vermont, Canada and New Hampshire at the time of the European invasion. The Abenaki were under assault from Europeans almost from the time the Pilgrims landed in Plymouth Rock and began expanding west. Abenaki were captured and taken to Europe to be sold into slavery. They were forced from their ancestral lands by the European invaders. Eventually they left their treasured New Hampshire lands for Canada. Today the state of New Hampshire does not recognize any indigineous tribal group.
Celebrating the Minutemen of Keene.
Catharine Fiske (1784 – 1837) established the first high school for women (1814) in the state of New Hampshire. It was only the second high school for women in the United States.
RR mural dedicated to Miriam E. Foster (1898 – 1983). Miriam was a Keene native and forty plus year employee of the Boston and Maine RR which came through Keene. Her pictures and articles for the RR’s magazine tell the history of railroading, not only in Keene, but in New England.
The Sentinel published its first paper in March of 1799. It is still going strong today.
Jennie B. Powers, nicknamed ‘The Woman Who Dares’ by the Boston Globe, was a Progressive Era woman from Keene who became a Humane Society agent. Jennie later became the first female deputy sheriff in the country. Armed with a camera and a pistol she arrested more men than any other woman in the United States according to the Boston Globe. Jennie saved many a mother and her children from domestic abuse and rescued countless animals during her storied career.
From bicycles to motorcars that ran on steam.
Baseball crazy Keene never had more than a semi-pro team, but that didn’t stop the fans from coming out. Today the city of Keene cheers on their Keene Swamp Bats, a team that plays in the New England College Summer Baseball League.
A tribute to the Ashuelot River.
Keene State College Mural.
Mural to a longtime Keene innovator and employer.
Keene native shines at the Paris Olympics.
Jonathan, born and raised in Keene, was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute who went on to study Divinity and Thoelogy. He interrupted his study for the priesthood at the Episcopal Theological School in Cambridge to assist with voter registration in the South. At a Civil Rights event in Alabama, he stepped in front of a female black co-worker taking the shotgun blast meant for her. He died that day, 20 August 1965. The Black teenager who Jonathon saved, Ruby Sales, went on to earn a Doctorate of Divinity from the Cambridge Episcopal School of Divinity. Although so traumitzed by Jonathan’s murder that she was unable to speak for months, Ruby went on to become an advovate for human and civil rights. A PBS documentary on religion and ethics in the United States aired in 2006 called Ruby an ‘icon of the Civil Rights movement’. Jonathon did not die in vain.
A sad, but true…uplifting series of events. The movie ‘Lost Boundaries’ tells the moving story of a beloved Keene physician and his wife who are ‘passing’ in this solidly ‘white’ town.
A Keene local, Ben Thurston, with whom I ended up chatting as we wanderers wandered the streets of Keene, told me of the ‘seventeenth’ mural. In 2021 local high school students added their mural to the ‘Keene Sixteen’. This Yankee fan could do without the Red Sox figure.
Peace…Wanderers in Wonder.
Wanderers in Wonder 
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