The New Ipswich Historical Society will host a presentation on the history of rural electrification in New Hampshire at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 20, at the New Ipswich Library.
The program, “Late in Arriving: How Electricity Changed Rural NH Life,” will be presented by Stephen Taylor and is sponsored through grants from New Hampshire Humanities and the Stearns-Burton Lecture Fund.
Taylor will discuss how the New Deal’s Rural Electrification Administration and a group of determined farmers overcame opposition from private utility companies to establish the New Hampshire Electric Cooperative in 1939. Within a decade, electricity reached most previously unserved areas of the state, transforming work, civic engagement, social activities and daily life in rural communities.
A longtime scholar of New Hampshire agriculture and rural life, Taylor served as the state’s commissioner of agriculture for 25 years and was the founding executive director of the New Hampshire Humanities Council.
The program is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.
For more information, contact the New Ipswich Historical Society.
