The Museum of New Hampshire History, run by the New Hampshire Historical Society, occupies a handsome building on Park Street a block from the State House. The permanent collection runs from Abenaki tools through the colonial era and the industrial revolution to the present, with particular strength in decorative arts. The standout exhibit is a fully restored Concord Coach — the stagecoaches built in Concord that carried mail and passengers across the American West and onwards to every continent except Antarctica.
The museum is small enough to see properly in two hours, but it is dense and well-curated. There is also a thoughtful section on the Shakers, with furniture and tools that give context for a trip to Canterbury Shaker Village up the road. The society also runs the Lake Winnipesaukee Mystery Stone display, an unexplained carved stone that has puzzled scholars since the 1870s.