A history of Peterborough,
since 1760
Postcards, papers and photographs of Peterborough from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Granted by Massachusetts in 1737, it was first permanently settled in 1749. The town suffered several attacks during the French and Indian War. Nevertheless, by 1759, there were fifty families settled. Incorporated on January 17, 1760, by Governor Benning Wentworth, it was named after Lieutenant Peter Prescott (1709–1784) of Concord, Massachusetts, a prominent land speculator.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Peterborough’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewGrove Street, c. 1865: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Peterborough, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Grove Street (c. 1865) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (3) and the Library of Congress (3). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.