Dr. Joseph Merrill Harper (1787 - 1865)
Born at Limerick (ME); died at Canterbury (NH).
Medical doctor, state legislator, banker; for five months (Feb - June 1831), unelected governor of New Hampshire (see below).
Portrait by Lois Harper (Mrs. Kendall) Wyman, c.1946, after 1834 portrait by unknown artist.
Presented to the State, 1946.

Harper (1787 - 1865) was born at Limerick (ME) and schooled at Fryeburg (ME). He practiced medicine at Sanbornton (NH), then moved to Canterbury (NH) in 1811. For more than twenty years (1811 - 1835) Harper practiced medicine at Canterbury. He also served as Assistant Surgeon to the 4th Infantry, U.S. Army during the War of 1812.

Harper served two one-year terms as a State Representative (1826, 1827) and as a State Senator (1829, 1830). While Harper was serving as President of the Senate in 1831, Governor Matthew Harvey resigned his position, in order to accept a federal judgeship. Harper was next in the line of succession and he served as governor until a new election could be held. In June 1831 Samuel Dinsmoor (of Keene, NH) was elected governor (served 1831 - 1834).

This portrait is a 1940s copy of an 1834 portrait of Harper "taken" by an unknown artist. The whereabouts of the original is unknown; this portrait was presented by a descendent to the state in 1946. Because Governor Harper was not popularly elected he does not hang on the State House Second Floor, which is restricted to portraits of other New Hampshire governors. He is placed instead with state legislators, in recognition of his popular election to the House and Senate.