Laconia Historical & Museum Society

The Laconia Historical and Museum Society is a private, non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, preserving, and interpreting the history of the City of Laconia, New Hampshire. Founded originally as the Laconia Historical Society in 1951, the organization was restructured in 1980 as a New Hampshire Voluntary Charitable Organization. In 1994, a second group, known as the Laconia Museum Society was incorporated in the city. The two organizations merged in 1998 and the surviving entity was named the Laconia Historical and Museum Society (LHMS).

The Society’s offices are housed in the Laconia Public Library, which is a National Register of Historic Places structure located in the heart of downtown Laconia. LHMS conducts monthly programs, circulates a monthly newsletter, and runs multiple programs on a widely watched local cable-access television station. Small changing exhibitions throughout the library interpret both local history and American cultural themes to more than 137,000 patrons annually. (Photo courtesy of William Hemmel)