Mindy Atwood slips on a pair of white gloves and delicately opens a large folder containing an original document signed by President George Washington in 1794.

As the administrator of library operations at the New Hampshire State Library , Atwood reads the nomination of John Parker Hale to be a lieutenant in the Corps of Artillery and Engineers.

“What’s cool and special about this is that someone had this in their home and they thought to themselves, ‘You know what? I want to put this some place where it will be preserved, where it will be kept safe. I’m going to give it to the State Library,’” Atwood said.

That’s how many treasures end up in the State Library in Concord, founded in 1717 and the oldest of its kind in the United States.

Although the library started out in Portsmouth w

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