a changing nation by preserving and exhibiting objects of historic significance, decorative and fine art, and natural science that connect Dover and its citizens to .

[1] The museum's campus now includes three brick houses of Federal style architecture, one of which is the former home of noted abolitionist Senator John P. Hale.

One famous item is the saddle in which President Abraham Lincoln rode to review troops shortly before his assassination.

Visitors can see the sword a Japanese delegate to the 1905 Portsmouth Peace Conference (Treaty of Portsmouth) given to a waiter at the Hotel Wentworth, examples of Dover's textile output, relics from every war in which the United States has fought, an old 13-star American flag, a 10-foot-tall (3.0 m) stuffed polar bear from the Arctic, an old piano with genuine ivory keys, and a collection of taxidermized birds, bugs, fish, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.

On the grounds, in the 1st NH Light Artillery Shed, visitors may see an 1863 12-lbs bronze Napoleon cannon used in the American Civil War one of only ten left in existence.