Manchester, city in southern New Hampshire. Located on the Merrimack River, at Amoskeag Falls, the city is part of Hillsborough County. Manchester is the largest city in the state and a regional financial, distribution, and industrial center. Products manufactured in the metropolitan area include electrical and electronic equipment, machinery, lumber, plastic goods, foodstuffs and beverages, furniture, textiles, clothing, and footwear. The city is also a gateway to an area of ski and summer resorts. Manchester is the seat of Saint Anselm College (1889), New Hampshire College (1932), Notre Dame College (1950), the University of New Hampshire at Manchester (1985), and a junior college. Points of interest in the city include the Currier Gallery of Art and the Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences.
The community, settled about 1722, was incorporated as Derryfield in 1751 and grew as a fishing and lumbering town. In 1810, after the establishment of cotton mills at the river falls here, it was renamed for Manchester, England. It was incorporated as a city in 1846. The community continued as a major textile center until its largest company went bankrupt in 1935. Since that time the city has undergone a successful planned diversification of its economy. According to the 1990 census, whites constitute 97 percent of Manchester's population; people of Asian origin, 1.1 percent; blacks, 1 percent; and Native Americans, 0.2 percent. Hispanics, who may also be counted among other groups, comprise 2.1 percent of the population. Population 90,936 (1980); 99,567 (1990); 102,524 (1998 estimate).
