The WOODMAN INSTITUTE MUSEUM
Discover Us Again for the first Time………
RIGHT IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD
Remember your first trip to the Woodman Museum? Perhaps it was a school field trip or an outing with neighborhood friends on a hot summer afternoon.
Do you remember the thrill of the 10 foot polar bear and the four legged baby chicken? Did you marvel at dinosaur bones and fossils of creatures you could only imagine? Did you creak up the narrow ladder steps to the garrison’s second floor loft, and wonder how someone like you could have lived there and slept in those old rope beds?
The Woodman is a place for discovery and wonder and the study of our common history.
Come face to face with the people who built New Hampshire and Maine…Native Americans, early colonists, mill workers, statesman. Marvel at the area’s rich natural history…from birds and bugs to mammals and marine monsters. If geology is your thing, the Woodman has a bounty of rocks and numerous fossils to take you back through time.
Maybe you’ve never been here at all…………………………………
The Woodman is a true turn of the century natural history, local history and art museum that has been around since 1916. Four historic buildings that includes an original 1675 colonial garrison house furnished with period artifacts, the Senator John P. Hale home built in 1813, displays furniture, paintings, fire & police memorabilia, nautical instruments and model ships, a Cocheco Mill exhibit, antique powder horns, tools, toys, dolls, musical instruments, pewter and china. The Woodman House built in 1818, features a fine Civil War exhibit that includes a saddle used by President Lincoln, over 1800 minerals, birds, butterflies, turtles, Indian artifacts, a blue shark and a cougar killed in 1853. The Keefe House built in 1825 preserves historical documents and features special exhibits on loan.
Whether you’re planning to return with friends and family or you’re coming for the first time, the Woodman is an experience you won’t want to miss. Only a short drive from area beaches and lakes. Open Wednesday-Sunday / opens at 12:00 /closes at 4:30 located at 182 Central Ave in Dover, N.H. call 603-742-1038 to reserve a special group tour. (Museum closes for the winter on Thanksgiving weekend and re-opens first week in April )
