
Hampstead Historic Museum - Hampstead, NH
Posted by:
silverquill
N 42° 52.722 W 071° 11.022
19T E 321657 N 4749657
This museum is housed in a building that was the old town library built in 1897 and in use until 1994. Among its holdings is the Charles Grover Civil War Collection of books from covering every aspect of the Civil War.
Waymark Code: WM1EDH
Location: New Hampshire, United States
Date Posted: 04/19/2007
Views: 65
The Hamsptead Historical Society Collection is located in the Historic Library Museum on Main Street next to the Congregational Church. The collection contains artifacts from the very beginning of the town (1749) up to present day. We have hand-written sermons from Rev. True the first pastor of the church when it met in the Meetinghouse on Emerson Avenue, an extensive collection of the Hampstead High School one of the first public high schools in the U.S. and a delightful file box containing a 3 by 5 index card on every town member who fought in WWII. Each card has a serviceman's unit and what happened to him or her during the war. This box was started and maintained by Mrs. Levi Duston who lived at 777 Main Street.
We also have our original Boston Post Cane given to the oldest member of the town by the Boston Post Newspaper. These canes are made of ebony with a 24k gold head containing the town inscription and seal. Canes were given by the Post to each town's oldest member in most New England towns starting in 1905 (?). Many towns no longer have their canes, but we do!
Hampstead Historical Society Collections
1. Charles Grover Civil War Collection: A fantastic collection of books from Charles Grover covering every aspect of the Civil War. He also included books about the early history of Massachusetts.
2. Hampstead High School: This collection includes items from every year the high school was open. The high school is now the town hall. The high school closed in 1958.
3. New Hampshire State and Provincial Papers: These books are a collection of all the state papers from the beginning to 1900 (?).
4. Town Survey of Historic Houses: Interested in a historic house? In the 1980s all the antique houses in Rockingham County were surveyed. We have a copy of Hampstead's survey in the museum; each antique house record has its building date, construction, alterations to the structure and lots more.