The state's nickname, "The Granite State", refers to its extensive granite formations and quarries.

On January 5, 1776, New Hampshire's provincial congress adopted the first state constitution.

The first alarm clock was created in 1787 by Levi Hutchins in Concord, New Hampshire. He invented the device for his own personal use, and it only rang at 4 AM, in order to wake him for his job. The French inventor Antoine Redier was the first to patent an adjustable mechanical alarm clock, in 1847.

Daniel Webster, born in Salisbury, New Hampshire, argued over 200 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court between 1814 and his death in 1852. He was known in his day as a mighty orator, a reputation preserved in Stephen Vincent Benet's short story The Devil and Daniel Webster, in which he beats the original lawyer, Lucifer, in a contract case over a man's soul.

In 1808, Concord was named the official seat of state government. The 1819 State House is the oldest capitol in the nation in which the state's legislative branches meet in their original chambers.

Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804, in a log cabin in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He represented the state in both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate before serving as President of the United States from 1853 to 1857.

Its license plates carry the state motto: "Live Free or Die".

The first public library in the country opened in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in 1833. Reverend Abiel Abbot, Peterborough's Unitarian minister, proposed the creation of the Peterborough Town Library, a central collection of books that would be owned by the people and free to all inhabitants of the town.

New Hampshire's state seal depicts the frigate USS Raleigh surrounded by a laurel wreath with nine stars. The Raleigh is one of the first 13 warships sponsored by the Continental Congress for a new American navy, built in 1776, at Portsmouth.

The Chinook is a breed of sled dog, developed in the state of New Hampshire during the early 20th century. It was crossbred to combine the power of freighting breeds with the speed of the lighter racing sled dogs.