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Portsmouth Celebrates 121st Treaty Anniversary with Bellringing on Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026

PORTSMOUTH – This year marks the 121st anniversary of the Portsmouth peace conference orchestrated by President Theodore Roosevelt to end the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 and the signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty on Sept. 5, 1905.
 

The commemorations throughout 2026 focused on citizen diplomacy and how local citizens provided the supportive atmosphere that helped President Theodore Roosevelt win the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for orchestrating the peace conference that ended the war. For the 2026 season, the Treaty exhibit in the John Paul Jones House Museum features a replica of Roosevelt’s Nobel Peace Prize and copies of the telegrams between the Nobel Peace Prize Committee and the White House announcing the award.

On Saturday, Sept. 5, the annual bellringing and reading of the Governor’s Proclamation of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day (the date the Treaty was signed at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard where negotiations were held) takes place in Market Square starting at 3:15 pm. The program is held, rain or shine, outside Piscataqua Savings Bank at 15 Pleasant St. and includes the reading of the Governor’s Proclamation and brief remarks by Japanese Consul General Takahashi from Boston. The bellringing starts at 3:47 p.m., the moment the Treaty was signed in 1905. Church bells in and around the Seacoast and in communities around the state are rung to commemorate New Hampshire’s history and the critical role of citizen diplomacy.

Anticipated participants in the bellringing include local churches and cherry tree locations:

  • Middle Street Baptist Church, Portsmouth
  • North Congregational Church, Portsmouth
  • Second Christian Congregational United Church, Kittery, Maine
  • St. John’s Episcopal Church, Portsmouth
  • Unitarian Universalist (South) Church, Portsmouth
  • First United Methodist Church, Portsmouth
  • Wentworth By the Sea Hotel, New Castle (which hosted both delegations in 1905)
  • Portsmouth Historical Society John Paul Jones House (Portsmouth Peace Treaty exhibit)
  • Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion
  • Portsmouth Senior Activity Center

Portsmouth Peace Treaty Living Memorial cherry tree sites in Dublin, Hanover, Lancaster, Meredith, Manchester and Milford NH also traditionally participate in the Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day observances.

Portsmouth’s Sister City of Nichinan and Sister School Nichinan Gakuen Junior-Senior High School also plan bellringing commemorations.

“Theodore Roosevelt won the Nobel Peace Prize by orchestrating the negotiations and pledging to the Russian and Japanese governments that he would not interfere. Both sides in the war came to the conference with specific demands that they negotiated face-to-face. Roosevelt stayed at Sagamore Hill on Long Island and conducted back channel discussions through intermediaries in key locations.

"But at the successful conclusion of the peace conference, he made special arrangements to thank the people of Portsmouth who had provided the hospitality to help keep the diplomats at the table. People-to-people connections that make a difference are the central idea of citizen diplomacy and the focus of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day,” commented Charles B. Doleac, Portsmouth Peace Treaty Forum chair and president of the Japan-America Society of NH.

“By re-enacting the bellringing that occurred when the Treaty was signed on Sept. 5, 1905, we echo the celebration all around the Seacoast that greeted the news that the Russo-Japanese War was over and we commemorate the active role local citizens played in helping to achieve that peace. The sounding of bells by citizens around the state at 3:47 p.m. on Sept. 5 is the historical, and in many ways most meaningful, celebration of Portsmouth Peace Treaty Day.”

For more information, visit PortsmouthPeaceTreaty.org

Portsmouth Celebrates 121st Treaty An...