The New Hampshire Historical Society collects, preserves, and interprets the materials of New Hampshire history in fulfillment of its mission "to educate a diverse public about the significance of New Hampshire’s past and its relationship to our lives today.” The Society's collections form the basis for research by all who are interested in New Hampshire history. They are used by scholars, local historians, educators, museum curators, librarians, genealogists, collectors, the media, tourists, and the general public. The collections provide the substance for the Society's exhibitions, publications, and school and public programs, designed to create engaging and enjoyable learning experiences for a wide range of audiences. The New Hampshire Historical Society is an independent, nonprofit membership organization, founded in 1823 as the fifth such statewide historical society in the United States. Following the New England model for a statewide historical organization, the Society is a private corporation, not a government agency. The Society began to collect written materials immediately upon its founding; began to collect artifacts in 1825; began to exhibit its artifact collections in 1831; purchased its first building in 1869; hired its first staff member in the late 1870s; inducted its first female member in 1880; opened its present purpose-built headquarters building in 1911; began to publish its journal, Historical New Hampshire, in 1944; elected its first woman trustee in 1955; began its school programs in 1964; provided an online catalog of its library holdings in 1999; acquired digital reproduction capabilities in 2000; began to make its museum collections digitally available online in 2013; and launched the New Hampshire History Network (NHHN), a digital gateway that provides centralized access to New Hampshire's history and historical collections through partnerships with local historical societies and other collecting institutions in 2015.