About Us

In 1971 the Library Director and Trustees, Friends of the Library, and other interested community members founded the North Hampton Historical Society.

It produced in short order two publications -Scenes of the Past in North Hampton and a rendering of the 1857 Chace map with illustrations added by Benjamin C. Newell. Proceeds were used to furnish the New Hampshire Room of the new (at that time) Library. Then in 1978 it assisted in funding the completion of the Town’s only published history The Way it was in North Hampton by Stillman Moulton Hobbs and Helen Davis Hobbs.

The Collection

The Library’s New Hampshire Room housed the Society’s collections of documents, scrapbooks, photographs, ephemera and artifacts. The space proved inadequate and for nearly two decades, the collection has resided in a caged area of the records storage room of Town Offices, the only municipal building with a fire suppression system. 

The former Curator, Priscilla Leavitt, accessioned those materials accepted by the Historical Society to provide intellectual and physical control over them, and re-housed them in archival quality enclosures. There are regularly changing exhibits in the Clerk / Tax Collector’s Building so all can see a sampling of the collections and learn about North Hampton. 

Community Outreach

Outreach activities, including programs and  exhibits, run the gamut from presentations, some co-sponsored with the Library or NH Humanities, to barn, trolley and cemetery tours, flyers on historical topics, and the North Hampton history timeline.