Miss New Hampshire

The Miss New Hampshire competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of New Hampshire in the Miss America pageant.

The Miss New Hampshire program was conducted by the Union Leader newspaper for more than 50 years. In the great tradition of Miss America, it was city newspapers that sponsored the young women to go to Atlantic City during the years that the Miss America Organization allowed city titleholders to compete. The Union Leader conducted the pageant from 1947 until 2001. The newspaper held the pageant from at least 1985 to 2001 at the Manchester Central High School auditorium. In 2000 a non-profit corporation formed and was granted the license by the Miss America Organization to conduct the state pageant from 2002 through today. Made up originally of former Miss Greater Derry local chapter leaders, the Miss New Hampshire Scholarship Program, Inc. became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity and today grants more scholarships than most of the states in the Miss America Program. Brenda Keith of Derry serves as Board President and Executive Director. The competition was moved to Derry in 2003 and is held annually at Pinkerton Academy's Stockbridge Theatre. In 2009, more than $89,000 in scholarships were granted to the 26 contestants who competed after winning their local titles. In 2010, more than $85,000 was granted. On top of that the local programs grant another $80,00-$85,000 a year at the local level. The local programs are all nonprofit corporations with group 501(c)(3) tax exempt status as well.