Monadnock Center for History and Culture

06/05/2026

Another terrific art show coming up at the Monadnock Center!

Just around the corner! Our 21st Members Exhibition. Easy entry on where you will find all details.

06/04/2026

The 19th Amendment was passed by both houses of Congress in 1919, which began the state ratification process that would lead to the Amendment's certification in the Constitution on August 26, 1920.

But the battle for women's right to vote didn't end there. While it represented a major victory for the movement after nearly 70 years of activism, the 19th Amendment did not simply grant universal suffrage for all women.

Native American women were not considered US citizens until 1924, but until as late as 1962, individual states still prevented them from voting.

Asian American immigrant women were excluded from voting until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 allowed them to gain citizenship.

Black women faced Jim Crow-era barriers like poll taxes, voter ID requirements, and acts of violence that threatened their ability to cast a ballot until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Latina women faced literacy tests and other language-based setbacks that prevented them from voting until a 1975 extension of the Voting Rights Act.

As we celebrate this monumental achievement for women, we also recognize that only some of the women who fought for suffrage were able to exercise their newly-won right to vote. Despite being some of the movement's fiercest advocates, suffragists like Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, Zitkála-Šá, and Luisa Capetillo could not cast their first ballots in the 1920 election because of their race.

Today, we honor the women who not only fought for the 19th Amendment's passage, but also after it, as their efforts on behalf of their communities paved the way for the freedoms of all American women.

📷: Dora Lewis (seated), Abby Scott Baker (seated), Anita Pollitzer (standing), Alice Paul (seated), Florence Boeckel (seated), and Mabel Vernon (standing) conferring over ratification of the 19th Amendment at the National Woman's Party headquarters, 1919.

06/01/2026

Great story!

From an April 1949 issue of the Peterborough Transcript. They thought 20 in a row was something special, but it was only the beginning for Hancock High.You forget that tiny, picturesque Hancock once had a high school (located on School Street, at the site of the Conval District grade school). You fo...

05/31/2026

Peterborough and Harrisville made the list! But, we want to assure the author that we are not storybook characters,just very lucky people who get to live here!

Just a casual day wandering through New Hampshire, wondering if the residents are actually storybook characters.

05/25/2026

Though there was no official state champion in New Hampshire in 1905, the boys from this area were recognized to be among the strongest baseball teams in the state.

Led by pitcher Orrin Smith, pictured first row, second from left (note the wear on his cleats from pushing off the mound!), Peterborough did not lose a single home game. “Its schedule this season has been an unusually attractive one,” wrote the Manchester Union, featuring the best teams from New Hampshire and Massachusetts. “Smith is a hard man to hit, and the batsman must be clever, indeed, to solve his great speed and puzzling curves.”

It should be noted that one of Peterborough’s losses during the 1905 season was at Antrim! For some reason, Orrin Smith did not play in that game. Home games were played on Summer Street, believed to be the current site of the Heritage Apartments (formerly, Whit’s Ski Tows).

Fast forward to the spring of 1975…In a celebration banquet honoring Conval High’s state champs, special guests were Orrin Smith and Forrest Mercer, who were the two surviving members of the 1905 Peterborough High School baseball team—the only baseball team to win a state championship, unofficial as it was, before 1975.

From the April 20, 1905 edition of the Peterborough Transcript…
“Cries of the Base Ball”
You’ll sit on the bleachers just a few days hence
And cheer when some slugger puts me over the fence.
It will be in the ninth of a mighty close fight,
When it needs just a “homer”’ to do the thing right.
I’ll ascend with your yell, and come down midst your howl
When a robber—the umpire—calls it a foul.

05/19/2026

Fitzwilliam was incorporated on this day in 1773. First granted by the Masonian Proprietors as "Monadnock No. 4" in 1752, the first European settler didn't arrive until 1762. The township incorporated as Fitzwilliam in 1773. A portion of Fitzwilliam was set off in 1815, becoming the southern half of Troy.
Map dated 1761

05/12/2026

On view through June5!

05/04/2026

See the show through June 5! We are open Wed-Sat, 10-4

Don't forget to stop by for the Monadnock Art Member Exhibit Opening for Spring Into Art tomorrow from 4-6pm.

Enjoy some light refreshments, the best company, and of course inspiring local art at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture !

05/02/2026

This show opens today at 4 p.m.!

Don't forget to stop by for the Monadnock Art Member Exhibit Opening for Spring Into Art tomorrow from 4-6pm.

Enjoy some light refreshments, the best company, and of course inspiring local art at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture !