New Hampshire was weathering the hardship of the Great Depression when in the spring of 1931, the state began publishing a unique, pocket-sized, monthly digest to spotlight the beauty of NH to residents and attract new visitors.

Named for a composer and performer of song during the High Middle Ages in Europe, the old New Hampshire Troubadour proudly sang the praises of its home state. For twenty years this magazine celebrated the scenic mountain ranges, the covered bridges, the apple orchards, the foliage, the farmers, the fierce community pride and independence that have always made the Granite State unique. It sparked the imagination and earned the loyalty of readers with eye-catching, original pictures, prose and poetry. From the works of Robert Frost to those of a folksy local scribe named Uncle Talbot, the Troubadour was a New Hampshire original.

The state’s tourism bureau would ultimately print its last Troubadour in 1951, the magazine a casualty of cost-effectiveness. Over the next decades, it would resurface in numerous iterations under different ownership – most prominently as New Hampshire Profiles.

In 2008, under the direction of Milford-based businessman and philanthropist Robert Finlay, the rebirth of the NH Troubadour began. It was the belief of Finlay, a Granite State native, that there was an opening and a desire for such a digest in modern-day New Hampshire – something to help residents feel good about themselves and their communities; something that would serve as both entertainment and an educational tool.

With a reverent nod to the past and an energized eye to the future, the new NH Troubadour was launched on September 1, 2008 as a monthly, full-color publication. Like its predecessor, it remains a collection of original human interest stories, poetry, photography anecdotes and regular features about New Hampshire’s history and one-of-a-kind towns. It is mailed each month to residents, schools and libraries statewide and presented free of advertisements and free of charge. It is, in short, as it once was: a gift to the people of New Hampshire.