Pelham, NH Historical Society
Aunt Molly's Scrapbook
Aunt Molly's Scrap Book tells the story of Mary Edna "Molly" Hobbs (1875–1958), one of Pelham's most influential local historians and the town's first librarian. Descended from Pelham's first Congregational minister, Molly became librarian in 1892 at age 18 and spent the next 65 years preserving the town's history.
Key points about Aunt Molly:
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Molly worked first in a small library located in Pelham's historic Great Meeting House.
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Her father, Charles William Hobbs, helped lead the effort to build Pelham's first dedicated library building in 1896. The building was designed by architect Frederick Stickney and is considered historically significant, and now houses the museum curated by The Pelham Historical Society.
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Between about 1892 and 1958, Molly compiled a massive scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings and articles documenting Pelham's people, events, schools, churches, organizations, and everyday life. She became affectionately known as "Aunt Molly" to generations of library patrons.
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The scrapbook remained available to the public for decades, but years of handling left it fragile, yellowed, and damaged. When Molly retired in 1958, she took it home to preserve it.
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After passing through several caretakers, the scrapbook was eventually restored and digitized by William T. Hayes and Karen Genoter. The project involved scanning individual articles, cleaning up damaged images, and creating an extensive index of the thousands of names and subjects contained within it. The restoration took well over a year.
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Molly rarely dated the clippings.
The scrapbook is essentially a 65-year record of life in Pelham, preserving local news, family histories, social events, and community developments that might otherwise have been lost. The digitization project transformed a deteriorating scrapbook into a searchable historical resource for researchers, genealogists, and residents interested in Pelham's past.
Below is a collection of over 500 articles and photos scanned from Aunt Molly's scrapbook.
Each file will open in a new tab and can be downloaded or printed. As time allows, our volunteers will work on naming each with a more descriptive title and adding more files.
Most of these articles and photos were digitized by Karen Genoter and William Hayes. We thank them for their work.