Discount Tickets to the Millyard Museum

The long stretch of old mills lining the Merrimack River in Manchester makes it clear something big went on here. But did you know these mills, started in the 1830s, became one of the world’s largest textile manufacturing plants? Or that Native Americans fished upriver 11,000 years ago?

Learn more at the Millyard Museum, 200 Bedford St. The museum is offering AARP members a $3 discount on each of two tickets (member plus guest) on the first Thursday of each month in 2015. (Show your AARP card or use the code “HISTORY.”)

The exhibits document the work and lives of the mill workers—young women at first, but later entire families, many of them immigrants. Exhibits include a horse-drawn steam fire engine built here in 1871 and a flag celebrating America’s 200th birthday, stolen from a tower and recently returned by a “flawed son of Manchester.”

Through April, see 10 paintings by local artists of state landscapes and Manchester buildings.

“The museum really is a gem in the heart of Manchester, and it’s a great way to see history in your own backyard,” said Suzanne DiBella-Olson, the museum’s educator. Go to manchesterhistoric.org/millyard-museum for directions, information on free parking and other details. —Joe Magruder