December 19, 2025

1 New in the Museum Shop

2 Manchester's Most Wanted

3 The Lost Films of Amoskeag

4 2025-26 Annual Appeal Campaign

5 Home School Programs at the Millyard Museum

6 Now on Exhibit: Amoskeag Revisited

7 Special Exhibit: Mentioning the Unmentionables

8 America's Tapestry Project

9 Manchester Trivia Questions

During this holiday season, we wish to express our deep appreciation to our members and all those who have supported the Manchester Historic Association throughout the year.

Wishing a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and your family and a New Year filled with Peace and Happiness!

 

MHA Board of Trustees and Staff

Please note: 

The Millyard Museum will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day

The Museum and Museum Shop will be OPEN

Wednesday, December 24

The Research Center will be CLOSED December 24



New in the Museum Shop

If you're looking for some last-minute gift ideas, come and check out our museum shop! We have many items by local vendors, a number of books about local history, and more!

2025 Manchester Holiday Ornament

The Manchester Historic Association is pleased to announce this year’s holiday ornament featuring Amoskeag Corporation Housing.

The ornament features a colorized depiction of the corporation housing - a distinct feature of the Amoskeag Millyard. The corporation housing district between Elm, Canal, Hollis, and Pleasant Streets was built by the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company between 1838 and 1916 to provide homes for their workers. 

For over 20 years, the Manchester Historic Association has produced original, limited edition brass-plated ornaments that celebrate Manchester’s history. These unique, detailed ornaments are handcrafted in the United States and make perfect Christmas tree decorations or gifts for the holidays and for many other occasions. Each comes in a decorative box.

These ornaments are available for $30.00 in the Millyard Museum Shop as well as at the MHA Research Center. The 2025 ornaments, as well as a limited number of ornaments from past years, can also be purchased online.

2026 Manchester Calendar

Stroll down memory lane every month with this exclusive calendar from the Manchester Historic Association! This year's calendar features 12 images of the Millyard taken by architectural historian Randolph Langenbach in the 1960s and 70s and is a great supplement to our special exhibit, "Amoskeag Revisited." These make great gifts!

The calendars are $18.00 and can be purchased at the Millyard Museum Shop, MHA Research Center, or online.

Manchester's Most Wanted

Thursday, February 19, 2026

5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Millyard Museum

$25 Members

$30 Non-members

Come and Meet ‘Manchester’s Most Wanted’ on February 19!

Get ready to meet some nefarious Victorian villains when the Manchester Historic Association and the Majestic Theatre team up for an interactive night of high crimes, misdemeanors and mischief at the Millyard Museum.

Meet Manchester’s Ten Most Wanted, as depicted on a poster from the U.S. Post Office in the Queen City, circa 1896, and enjoy cocktails, fun and the odd felony.

Among the characters in this rogue’s gallery? Consider Michael Sherlock, a.k.a. “The Gentleman Burglar of Stockbridge,” the British bigamist known as James Canham Read and the “Knock-Out Mollies,” Nellie Brown and Georgie Adams, whose M.O. included knock-out drugs in the beers of their victims, clearing the way for them to empty their hotel rooms of all of their valuables.

The event will run from 5-7 p.m. Admission is $25 for MHA members, $30 for not-yet members.

Pre-registration is required. Click here to register, or call or e-mail today to reserve your spot! (603) 622-7531 / history@manchesterhistoric.org

The Lost Films of Amoskeag

Saturday, February 28, 2026

11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Millyard Museum

FREE with Regular Admission

In the fall of 1968, redevelopment was dramatically reshaping Manchester’s Millyard. The Manchester Historic Association considered producing a film to document the before and after. Two brothers submitted black and white film in hopes of being chosen for the project, which was abandoned due to a lack of funding in the 1970s. The film sat forgotten on a shelf until last summer.

In June 1978, WGBH-TV in Boston produced a half-hour program called “The Amoskeag Transcripts” based on the work of Tamara Hareven and Randolph Langenbach. It explained what happened after the mills closed and the impact on Manchester’s population.

 On February 28th we’ll show both of “The Lost Films of Amoskeag.”

WHERE: Millyard Museum, 200 Bedford Street, Manchester

COST: Included with Regular Admission

2025-26 Annual Appeal Campaign

As we near the end of 2025, we want to say how thankful we are for all of our members and supporters.

We are proud to play a part in preserving and sharing Manchester’s unique history and your support makes it possible: from operating the Millyard Museum and Research Center, providing educational programs to school groups in Manchester and beyond, continuing to offer fresh new exhibits, and caring for the Association's important collection of artifacts and documents pertaining to the city's history.

In this season of giving, please consider a gift to the Manchester Historic Association to help us continue our important work.

Please click here or mail your gift to the Manchester Historic Association Millyard Museum, 200 Bedford Street, Manchester, NH 03101. Thank you!



Now on Exhibit:

Amoskeag Revisited: A Fifty Year Retrospective

The year 1975 was a turning point for Manchester’s Millyard. The urban renewal project had recently been completed with the filling in of the canals and demolition of about 25% of the mill space, and many of the businesses that came into the Millyard in the 1930s and 1940s had left, including the Chicopee Manufacturing Company, which shut down that year.

In September 1975, a special exhibit opened at the Currier Gallery of Art called “Amoskeag, A Sense of Place, A Way of Life”. The exhibit was designed by Randolph Langenbach, an architectural historian, and featured historic images of the mills, along with contemporary photographs taken by Langenbach before and during the urban renewal project. Also featured in the exhibit were machinery and architectural components of the mill buildings that had been salvaged by Langenbach, as well as recollections of former millworkers who told what it was like to work in the mills and live in corporation housing.

The exhibit was very successful, attracting double the number of visitors to the Currier than any previous exhibit. It also served to instill in the city and its citizens a deeper appreciation for the mills and the legacy of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, as well as for the remaining mill buildings.

In the fifty years since the Amoskeag exhibit opened at the Currier, Manchester has grown to have a deeper appreciation of the history of the Amoskeag mills. This exhibit at the Millyard Museum examines the lasting impact that the mills have had on Manchester and feature elements of the original 1975 exhibit as well as never-before-seen photographs taken by Langenbach.

Included with Regular Admission. On exhibit through March 7, 2026

Special Exhibit: 


"Mentioning the Unmentionables"

Now on Display in the Millyard Museum's Discovery Gallery: "Mentioning the Unmentionables: A Brief History of… Briefs and other Underthings"

Come and see this unique exhibit, displaying a variety of undergarments worn by women throughout Manchester's history, spanning two centuries. See how styles changed in this rare look at everyday, familiar pieces of clothing. As we mention the unmentionables, we hope you enjoy a peak into a personal history. 

Included with Regular Admission

America's Tapestry Project

Fridays and Saturdays throughout 2025

Millyard Museum

included with regular admission

To commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Manchester Historic Association is excited to announce a partnership with America's Tapestry.

America's Tapestry is a unique exhibition that will feature 13 hand-embroidered panels, one for each of the original colonies. The embroidery is being conducted by talented artisans from New Hampshire to Georgia and each panel illustrates the diverse stories of individual contributions–many overlooked–that reveal each colony's struggle for Independence.

Museums from across the states have volunteered to collaborate on the panels' historical imagery and host the stitchers as they work.

The Millyard Museum is pleased to be hosting the stitchers of the New Hampshire panel as they create this artwork that celebrates the state's pioneering revolutionary spirit. Visitors to the Millyard Museum are invited to come and watch the stitchers as they work every Friday and Saturday (excluding major holidays) in the museum's Elm Street gallery until the work is completed, likely in early 2026.

Following the completion of all 13 panels, "America's Tapestry" will tour a number of venues throughout the East Coast, including the Millyard Museum in 2027.

To learn more about America's Tapestry, visit their website: americastapestry.com

To learn more about the design of the New Hampshire panel, click here.

Last Month's Trivia Question:

Who was the only U.S. Vice President to be born in New Hampshire, for whom a former Manchester school was named?

ANSWER:

Henry Wilson

Henry Wilson was born in 1812 in Farmington, N.H. He served as Vice-President during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant from 1873 until his death in 1875. He also served as a senator from Massachusetts and was a strong opponent of slavery. 

The Wilson School in Manchester opened in 1895 and closed in 2024, serving children in Manchester for 129 years. 

One of our members, Bob Mongan, shared some interesting facts about naming patterns of Manchester schools:

Many Manchester residents have incorrectly assumed that the Wilson School is named after Wilson Street as most Manchester Schools were named after their street: Ash Street School, Franklin Street School, Webster Street School, Lincoln Street School, Varney Street School, Main Street School, Smyth Road School, and Jewett Street School. 

A few schools were named after local people (Chandler School, Straw School, Maynard School) and some named for neighborhoods (Youngsville School, Gossler Park School, Southside Junior High School, Hillside Junior High School, West High School).

It was very inconsistent that a school in Manchester was named for a relatively unknown man from Farmington who was a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, and who died in office after only a short time.

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This Month's Trivia Question: The word “Amoskeag” comes from the language of the Pennacook people and is best translated as “place of many fish.” What word from the Pennacook is another local place name meaning, “place of many deer”?

The answer will appear in the next newsletter.