After the Civil War, most New Hampshire communities celebrated their town and family histories by holding Old Home Day celebrations. The New London Historical Society was conceived during the August 1952 Old Home Day festivities as an appropriate way to mark the upcoming 175th anniversary of New London's incorporation. Old Home Day president Seth Lamson appointed a committee of Dr. J. Duane Squires, Maude Fellows Swift, and Helen Kidder Greenaway to develop the concept. New London's 175th anniversary was observed over the weekend of July 31, 1954, and an organizational meeting of the New London Historical Society was held at the Town Hall. The purpose of this new organization was to develop interest in the history of the area, to collect and preserve memorabilia and historically significant objects, and to educate and inform a growing population of the importance of our past to present day life. With no facilities at the outset, the society held meetings in places like the Parish Hall at the Baptist Church, and it stored its nascent collection in the basement of Tracy Library. Within a decade, that would all begin to change as the first donors of land and buildings stepped forward to realize the ambitious vision of the society's founders. Those donations would be restored and assembled into exhibits by many, many volunteers, but none more dedicated than Bud Lauridsen.
Looking for information about other sites with similar goals (historical societies, museums, etc)? Look here.
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Even though we are located a mile from the center of New London, on the road that leads to Little Lake Sunapee and one of two town beaches, it is surprising to discover the number of potential visitors who don't know where we're located. Unfortunately, in this age of GPS Mapping software, we've discovered that these 'tools' sometimes are not helpful at all and may even be misleading. Consequently, we encourage you to click here to get some assistance in locating our Historical Village.
For more information, copies of the society's 50th Anniversary Retrospective (a color booklet published in 2006) are still available upon request.
Want to find out more about the New London Historical Society and our upcoming events? Check out our main website here, or our Facebook page here.
Finally, background information on the development and implementation of the "Tablet Tour" project is located here.