New Hampshire Posters, Prints, Photographs, Calendars
for educators and home schoolers, themed decor in studio or office.

Most mountainous of the New England states, New Hampshire counts hardly a level acre. Much of its area rises to 2,000 feet or more; its 6,288-foot Mount Washington looks down on every other peak in the Northeast. Such mountains have shaped the New Hampshireman's character – taciturn, frugal, hard-working, self-reliant, and yet hospitable and fond of a good laugh as folk in rugged country often are. Mountains also have shaped the state's history, keeping early settlers close the 18-mile seacoast, funneling later pioneers along valleys and through notches in the great granite barriers, feeding the streams that turned the wheels of their descendants' factories.

Now the mountains shape vacation plans of hundreds of thousands of visitors a year. Bowls between the peaks hold some 1,300 lakes and ponds, where boaters put in canoes and outboards while anglers pull out trout and salmon. Water carves wonders in ravines that vein the mountainsides, calling camera buffs and scenery seekers to innumerable waterfalls and rock formtions. On the forested flanks the camper finds sites by the score; higher up, toward timberline and beyond, the hardy outdoorsman finds challenging trails studded with rustic shelters, and jagged rock walls that dare him to break out ropes and wedges.

On one such wall hangs the state symbol, a natural profile called the Old Man of the Mountains. You can view the “Great Stone Face” from a vantage point at Profile Lake beside U.S. 3 in Franconia Notch. Bring field glasses for a close look at the craggy features.

From there the mountains towering around you give you the same choice they allowed the early traveler: you must drive north or south. To the north juts Cannon Mountain, whose cable cars whisk gasping tourists to the chllly, windblown summit in summer and lift eager skiers in winter. As you loop earward to join U.S. 302 you'll see rugged peaks of the Presidential Range – among them Jackson, Monroe, lordly Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison – marching along in solemn cadence.

Head south out of Franconia Notch and you soon intersect State 112 near Lincoln. Eastward, 112 becomes the Kancamagus Highway, one of New England's most beautiful drives. Plan to picnic near 2,855-foot Kancamagus Pass, then walk off lunch and feed the soul on the short trail to breathtaking Sabbaday Falls. Its name recalls sabbath-day outings of horse-and-buggy visitors who came here long before you.

More than four-fifths of New Hampshire is forested. Paper and lumber companies manage thousands of acres, especially in the far northern neck; the White Mountain National Forest and numerous state preserves embrace thousands more. Most of the private woodland is open to visitors; check locally for road maps and rules.

No tree grows on the gale-torn, baldrock pate of “Misery Hill”– Mount Washington (6,288 ft), home of some of the orneriest weather in the East. A toll road, a web of trails rated from gentle to just about impossible, and a quaint old cog railway all lead visitors toward a summit where tempertures have slid to -47ºF and winds have roared at 231 miles an hour, a world record for surface gales. A visit to this rugged eyrie can be, in many ways, the high point of your vacation. (poster text about New Hampshire)

FYI ~ In 1524 explorer Giovanni da Verrazano was the first European to see Mount Washington, from the waters off New Hampshire's seacoast.

New Hampshire State Animal: White Tail Deer | State Bird: Purple Finch

New Hampshire State: Salt Water Fish & Fresh Water Fish

• food posters

Close view of Paper birch bark, Giclee Print, Nat'l Geographic

The NH State Tree, the Paper-Birch, is native to the region and found in all areas of the state, growing on slopes and along the borders of lakes and streams.

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When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay
As ice-storms do. .... Robert Frost

• more trees posters

Lady Bug, Photographic Print

New Hampshire State Insect: Ladybugs, or lady beetles, are small insects that are usually red, orange, or yellow with black spots on their back. Most ladybugs consume other insects that damage crops. [a rainy day project]

The Ladybug is also the Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee State Insect.

New Hampshire State Flower & Wild Flower

John Stark
b. 8-28-1728; Londonderry, NH
d. 5-8-1822

John Stark, a veteran of the French and Indian War as a Roger's Ranger, lead his New Hampshire militia into the Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of Trenton, Battle of Princeton and Battle of Bennington, during the Revolutionary War.

Molly Stark, John's wife, gained historical notoriety due to her husband's battle call of “There are your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!” before engaging with the British and Hessian armies. She also nursed her husband's troops during a smallpox epidemic, using their home as a hospital.

John Stark is the source of the state of New Hamphire's motto “Live free or die.”