Hanover has a number of colleges and schools, and is the seat of several learned societies. It is largely frequented by foreign students, especially English, attracted by the educational facilities it offers and by the reputed purity of the German spoken. Hanover is the headquarters of the X. Prussian army corps, has a large garrison of nearly all arms and a famous military riding school. It occupies a leading position among the industrial and commercial towns of the empire, and of recent years has made rapid progress in prosperity. It is connected by railway with Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen, Hameln, Cologne, Altenbeken and Cassel, and the facilities of intercourse have, under the fostering care of the Prussian government, enormously developed its trade and manufactures. Almost all industries are represented; chief among them are machine-building, the manufacture of india-rubber, linen, cloth, hardware, chemicals, tobacco, pianos, furniture and groceries. The commerce consists principally in wine, hides, horses, coal, wood and cereals. There are extensive printing establishments. Hanover was the first German town that was lighted with gas. It is the birthplace of Sir William Herschel, the astronomer, of the brothers Schlegel, of Iffland and of the historian Pertz. The philosopher Leibnitz died there in 1716.
Close by, on the left bank of the Leine, lies the manufacturing town of Linden, which, though practically forming one town with Hanover, is treated under a separate heading.
The town of Hanover is first mentioned during the 12th century. It belonged to the family of Welf, then to the bishops of Hildesheim, and then, in 1369, it came again into the possession of the Welfs, now dukes of Brunswick. It joined the Hanseatic League, and was later the residence of the branch of the ducal house, which received the title of elector of Hanover and ascended the British throne in the person of George I. One or two important treaties were signed in Hanover, which from 1810 to 1813 was part of the kingdom of Westphalia, and in 1866 was annexed by Prussia, after having been the capital of the kingdom of Hanover since its foundation in 1815.
See O. Ulrich, Bilder aus Hannovers Vergangenheit (1891); Hoppe, Geschichte der Stadt Hannover (1845); Hirschfeld, Hannovers Grossindustrie und Grosshandel (Leipzig, 1891); Frensdorff, Die Stadtverfassung Hannovers in alter und neuer Zeit (Leipzig, 1883); W. Bahrdt, Geschichte der Reformation der Stadt Hannover (1891); Hartmann, Geschichte von Hannover mit besonderer Rücksichtnahme auf die Entwickelung der Residenzstadt Hannover (1886); Hannover und Umgegend, Entwickelung und Zustände seiner Industrie und Gewerbe (1874); and the Urkundenbuch der Stadt Hannover (1860, fol.).
HANOVER, a town of Jefferson county, Indiana, U.S.A., on the Ohio river, about 5 m. below Madison. Pop. (1900) 377; (1910) 356. It is served by boats on the Ohio river and by stages to Madison, the nearest railway station. Along the border of the town and on a bluff rising about 500 ft. above the river is Hanover College, an institution under Presbyterian control, embracing a college and a preparatory department, and offering classical and scientific courses and instruction in music; there is no charge for tuition. In 1908-1909 there were 211 students, 75 being in the Academy. The institution was opened in a log cabin in 1827, was incorporated as Hanover Academy in 1828, was adopted as a synodical school by the Presbyterian Synod of Indiana in 1829 on condition that a Theological department be added, and in 1833 was incorporated under its present name. In 1840, however, the theological department became a separate institution and was removed to New Albany, whence in 1859 it was removed to Chicago, where it was named, first, the Presbyterian Theological Seminary of the North-west, and, in 1886, the McCormick Theological Seminary. In the years immediately after its incorporation in 1833 Hanover College introduced the “manual labor system” and was for a time very prosperous, but the system was not a success, the college ran into debt, and in 1843 the trustees attempted to surrender the charter and to acquire the charter of a university at Madison. This effort was opposed by a strong party, which secured a more liberal charter for the college. In 1880 the college became coeducational.
HANOVER, a township of Grafton county, New Hampshire, U.S.A., on the Connecticut river, 75 m. by rail N.W. of Concord. Pop. (1900) 1884; (1910) 2075. No railway enters this township; the Ledyard Free Bridge (the first free bridge across the Connecticut) connects it with Norwich, Vt., which is served by the Boston & Maine railway. Ranges of rugged hills, broken by deep narrow gorges and by the wider valley of Mink Brook, rise near the river and culminate in the E. section in Moose Mountain, 2326 ft. above the sea. Near the foot of Moose Mountain is the birthplace of Laura D. Bridgman. Agriculture, dairying and lumbering are the chief pursuits of the inhabitants. The village of Hanover, the principal settlement of the township, occupies Hanover Plain in the S.W. corner, and is the seat of Dartmouth College (q.v.), which has a strikingly beautiful campus, and among its buildings several excellent examples of the colonial style, notably Dartmouth Hall. The Mary Hitchcock memorial hospital, a cottage hospital of 36 beds, was erected in 1890-1893 by Hiram Hitchcock in memory of his wife. The charter of the township was granted by Gov. Benning Wentworth on the 4th of July 1761, and the first settlement was made in May 1765. The records of the town meetings and selectmen, 1761-1818, have been published by E. P. Storrs (Hanover, 1905).
See Frederick Chase, A History of Dartmouth College and the Town of Hanover (Cambridge, 1891).