The Peterborough Town Library and Friends of the Library will host “Late in Arriving: How Electricity Changed Rural New Hampshire Life” on Thursday, Nov. 6, at 6:30 p.m. as part of the New Hampshire Humanities to Go program.
Historian Stephen Taylor will explore how the arrival of electricity transformed rural New Hampshire communities in the first half of the 20th century. The presentation will examine how access to power reshaped daily life — from replacing kerosene lamps and woodstoves to improving civic engagement and social connections.
Taylor will discuss how the New Deal’s Rural Electrification Administration and the creation of the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative in 1939 helped bring power to the state’s most remote areas, despite wartime material shortages. The program will also draw parallels between historical electrification and today’s disparities in broadband access.
Taylor, a lifelong scholar of New Hampshire agriculture and rural life, has served as a newspaper editor, dairy farmer, and the state’s commissioner of agriculture for 25 years.
The event is free and open to the public. No registration is required. The library, located at 2 Concord St., Peterborough, encourages attendees to use nearby public parking in Depot Square or the Riverwalk lots.
For details, visit PeterboroughTownLibrary.org or call (603) 924-8040.