July 8, 2025

1 Now on Exhibit: "All Bottled Up!"

2 America's Tapestry Project

3 Exhibit Opening: Amoskeag Revisited

4 2024 Annual Report

5 New Hampshire Fisher Cats Discounted Tickets

6 Manchester Trivia Questions

Now on Exhibit:

"All Bottled Up! The History of Bottling in Manchester"

Bottling was a prominent industry in Manchester for many years. In the early twentieth century, wines, liquors, and beers were bottled and sold at over twenty businesses in the Queen City, including Quirin Brothers, P. Harrington Sons, and N. J. Pichette. By the 1940s, larger companies like Lafayette Beverages and Silver Brothers/Cott Beverages operated bottling plants in the city, bottling millions of cases of soda a year.

With over 200 glass bottles from Manchester on display, this exhibit looks at the history of the many liquor, soda, dairy, and other bottling businesses in the city over the years.

In the Millyard Museum’s Henry M. Fuller State Theatre Gallery

On exhibit through August 17, 2025

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.

Exhibit Opening:

Amoskeag Revisited: A Fifty Year Retrospective

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

5:30 p.m.

Millyard Museum

The year 1975 was a turning point for Manchester’s Millyard. The Millyard’s 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, leaving a large amount of the Millyard vacant.

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 will examine 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.

Please RSVP by calling 603-622-7531 or emailing history@manchesterhistoric.org

2024 Annual Report

2024 Annual Report

The Manchester Historic Association's 2024 Annual Report is now available! Please click on the above link to view or download the report.  

Print copies of the report are also available at the front desks of the Millyard Museum and Research Center and can be mailed upon request.

We hope you enjoy reading about some of the highlights from the past year!

New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Discounted Tickets

The Manchester Historic Association is proud to partner with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats to offer discounted tickets to any Fisher Cats game you would like to attend during the 2025 season!

Follow the discount ticket link below and enjoy discounted tickets with a portion of every ticket being donated back to the MHA!

By purchasing tickets through this link, you'll not only enjoy a fun night at the ballpark, but also support the preservation of Manchester's rich history. Don't miss out on this opportunity to make a difference while cheering on the Fisher Cats!

Purchase tickets here!

Last Month's Trivia Question:

What dairy business operated at 1444 Candia Road, near Lake Massabesic, from the 1920s until the early 1970s?

ANSWER:

Magoon’s Creamery

Learn more about Magoon’s Creamery and other dairy bottlers in Manchester at the Millyard Museum’s special exhibit, “All Bottled Up!”

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This Month's Trivia Question: Manchester composer Arthur S. Hood published dozens of musical compositions, many with local themes such as “Welcome to Manchester March and Two Step” and “Board of Trade March”. What was the inspiration for his 1911 work, “Up the Incline?”

The answer will appear in the next newsletter.