Historical New Hampshire, Volume 72, No. 2, Fall 2019

SKU: HNHFALL2019

This issue features articles on a number of Granite State anniversaries, including a celebration for Historical New Hampshire's own anniversary.

The Scots-Irish, who had such a significant cultural impact on New Hampshire, arrived here in 1719, just over 300 years ago, paving the way for the settlement of the Merrimack Valley and most of the state. Their distinctive culture and traditions contributed much to defining what it meant to be a “Yankee.” Two anniversaries dating from 1819 are commemorated in the issue: the passage of the Toleration Act—an important step in establishing religious freedom in New Hampshire—and the forging of the Crawford Path, which has helped lure thousands of visitors to the White Mountains. Fifty years later, in 1869, another White Mountain institution, the Cog Railway, opened to the public and transformed the journey to the summit of Mount Washington from a death-defying venture to a pleasant day trip. as explored in an article by historian Rob Bermudes. President Ulysses S. Grant visited the Cog that same year, the first sitting American president to journey so far north in the Granite State. The most current anniversary to be noted in this issue is the 1989 publication of the book Forest and Crag: A History of Hiking, Trail Blazing, and Adventure in the Northeast Mountains by Guy and Laura Waterman. Historical New Hampshire features an excerpt from the groundbreaking book, sometimes referred to as the Bible of northeast mountaineering, with a special introduction written for this issue by Laura Waterman.

Finally, this issue honors Historical New Hampshire itself, which began publication in 1944, just over 75 years ago. The article explores the Society’s publishing efforts all the way back to 1824, when the Society was less than a year old. In 1944, while the nation was in the midst of fighting World War II, the Society’s trustees undertook the effort to produce a magazine that would appeal to anyone who liked a “little history now and then.” The issue includes a visual retrospective of many of the magazine’s most dynamic and interesting covers that illustrate the many topics covered within the magazine’s pages over the years.

Authors: Robert W. Bermudes Jr., Elizabeth Dubrulle, Laura Waterman
Editor: Elizabeth Dubrulle
Illustrations Editor: Joan E. Desmarais
(Softcover)