New Hampshire

A

Education

Public education in New Hampshire was established by law as early as 1647, when the colony was a part of Massachusetts. Until 1919, schools were largely under local supervision, and dependent on the town or district for financial support. Since that year public education has been under the control of a state board of education, composed of seven members appointed for five-year terms by the governor. Education is compulsory for all children aged 6 to 16. Private schools enroll 11 percent of the state’s children.

In the 2002–2003 school year New Hampshire spent $9,802 on each student’s education, compared to the national average of $9,299. There were 13.7 students for every teacher (the national average was 15.9 students). Of those older than 25 years of age in 2006, 89.9 percent had a high school diploma, while the country as a whole averaged 84.1 percent.

A

1

Higher Education

In 2004–2005 New Hampshire had 9 public and 17 private institutions of higher education. The oldest and best known is Dartmouth College, at Hanover, which received its charter from King George III of Great Britain in 1769. The University of New Hampshire, the state’s land-grant university established in 1866, has its central campus at Durham. There are state colleges at Keene and Plymouth. The state also maintains two-year colleges. Other noted institutions include Saint Anselm College and New Hampshire College, in Manchester; Colby-Sawyer College, in New London; and Franklin Pierce College, in Rindge.

B

Libraries

New Hampshire pioneered in the establishment of public libraries. Probably the first free public library in the United States was that established in Peterborough in 1833. In 2002 the state had 230 tax-supported libraries, and free libraries are found in all but a few tiny towns. The State Library in Concord provides a variety of support services to local libraries. Each year the libraries circulate an average of 7.3 books for every resident.

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The Baker Library at Dartmouth College contains a collection of original manuscripts of works by Robert Burns, Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville, and other distinguished literary figures. In the library are murals by the noted Mexican painter José Clemente Orozco. Other outstanding libraries are the University of New Hampshire Library in Durham and the library of the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord.

C

Museums

Two of the state’s leading art galleries are the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College and the Currier Gallery of Art in Manchester. Both have fine permanent collections as well as special periodic exhibitions. Other notable galleries include the Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, the Art Gallery at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, and the Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery at Keene State College. The museum of the New Hampshire Historical Society houses period rooms and art objects. The League of New Hampshire Craftsmen is a statewide organization that promotes handicrafts through a teaching program as well as through the shops it operates in various parts of the state and the gallery at its headquarters in Concord. The Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish features the home, gardens, and studios of the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

The MacDowell Colony at Peterborough, named for the noted American composer Edward MacDowell, is a special haven for artists in all creative fields. This colony was originally MacDowell’s summer home.

D

Communications

The New Hampshire Gazette, the state’s first newspaper, was published in Portsmouth in 1756 and is now part of the Portsmouth Herald. In 2002 New Hampshire had 10 daily newspapers. Influential newspapers included the Union Leader of Manchester, the Telegraph of Nashua, the Concord Monitor, and Foster’s Daily Democrat of Dover. An important 20th-century New Hampshire journalist was William Loeb, publisher of the Union Leader.

New Hampshire’s first radio station, WLNH in Laconia, was licensed in 1922. WMUR-TV in Manchester, New Hampshire’s first commercial television station, began operations in 1954. In 2002 the state had 25 AM and 43 FM radio stations and 6 television stations.

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