so they would spend their whole careers knowing they're going to be seeing people stand up, seats empty and walk out. but this idea of the continuous is a very industrial idea. production is continual, election cycles are continual. so continuous to vaudeville is a perfect match for urban time, for industrial time, and very different than seasonal time. and that's an example of our sense of time getting right into the way we entertain ourselves. >> c-span visited concord, new hampshire, to learn more about the city's literary scene. up next, we visit the new hampshire state library, one of the oldest state libraries in the country. >> the new hampshire state library is the oldest state library in the country. it dates from 1717 when we were

still a province of england. we have been at this location in concord since 1896 when we built the state library and the supreme court building. the major purpose of the state library is to provide information to the citizens of the state. now, cheerily, that mean -- clearly, that means we have to collect materials that have the information, and we have to keep that information up-to-date, and we have to make it available to the citizens. and we do that in a number of ways. the traditional materials that we have that date back to 1718, for example, and the latest things that we have -- reports from state agencies, etc., which are in digital format and are available on our web site, for example. our major goal is to collect materials that deal with new hampshire specifically so we have an extensive collection. we like to think of ourselves as

the place to go for information about new hampshire. it's natural he's -- its natural history, its political history, its cultural history. and we think we do a pretty good job of covering that. these are a number of things that we have that i've selected from our collection. obviously, we have a large collection of over 500,000 items, and so i've tried to select those that might be of interest. this is a register from the pan-american exhibition. it was at the pavilion for new hampshire, and residents were asked to sign their names. and what you see here is that there were lots of people. they've asked for both place of birth and place of residence. and as you go through this register, you see that there are a lot of people who were born outside of new hampshire but now lived in new hampshire. and that speaks to the

in-migration in new hampshire during the 19th century. the mills, especially in manchester but throughout the state, obviously had lots of workers. and lots of them came from other places. the migration of the franco-americans from canada took place extensively during the 19th century where they settled in nashua and especially manchester. manchester was the largest manufacturing city in the world. there were mills on the side of the merrimac river that stretch for miles on either side. it was an extensive manufacturing city of both wool and cotton. this is an unusual treasure. this is a ring that was given to franklin pierce by the people of california. president franklin pierce was born and reared in new hampshire.

he was also a hero of the mexican war. and he was elected president in 1852 and served until 1856. and this is perhaps one of our most unusual items at the new hampshire state library. it is a ring -- obviously, it wouldn't fit the average person. but it was given to franklin pierce by the state of california. it is solid gold. and in it you'll see that there are nine panels, and each one of them has a sample of gold from a different mine in california. again, it's a highly unusual item, not one that we bring out very often, obviously. and it has been part of our collection for quite a few years. new hampshire is well known for

its first-in-the-nation primary. we pride ourselves on hold willing this important contest every four -- holding this important contest every four years to pick the nominees for the major parties, most often the democratic and republican parties. and we have an extensive collection of political materials at the state library. we were, for a number of years, the home of the new hampshire political library also called the new hampshire archives of new hampshire's political tradition. and you see here a number of what we call the currency of political campaigns, the buttons, the posters and the bumper stickers. these are important because this is how people get name recognition, obviously. you'll see that the one here that says new hampshire: always

first, always right, this was true until 1992 when bill clinton was running in the first-in-the-nation primary in new hampshire, and paul tsongas, who was considered by many to be a native song son, he was borned and reared in lowell, massachusetts, the first large city south of the new hampshire border in the center of the state, and was a dartmouth college graduate. so he was really thought of as a hometown boy. and he actually won the first-in-the-nation primary in 1992. but bill clinton, obviously, went on to win the presidency, and that was the first time that somebody had not won the new hampshire primary and was elected president.

so our run from 1952 to 19888 was over. it happened subsequently as well in 2000 when john mccain won the first-in-the-nation primary handily but then lost the nomination to george w. bush. with we see the new hampshire first-in-the-nation primary as a regular election. the candidates come in, we always talk about retail politics in new hampshire. you can't just come in, land at the airport, give a press conference at the tarmac and think that you've covered talking to the people in new hampshire. ..

>> >> by going to all kinds of communities to hold town hall meetings than staying as long as people wanted and that translated into a win over george w. bush by 20 points and that is what new hampshire voters expect because our collection development policy we make a

real effort to do that they do have so many other responsibilities like the historic goal needs of their community so it is much better to have the state libraries that make the effort to put together those resources . >> when they think of an octopus they think of a monster or this drawing