NHIA was founded in 1898 as the Manchester Institute of Arts and Sciences with the goal of promoting a "cultivation of the arts and sciences, to give a more general impulse and systematic direction to scientific research and encourage and stimulate the study of history, literature, and industrial institutions." In 1916 the institute moved into a new permanent home with the construction of the French Building, named in honor of the institute's patron, Mrs. Emma Blood French. In 1924, the New Hampshire State Board of Education certified the institute's four-year program to prepare high school graduates to teach art. Shortly thereafter, a four-year program in Fine Arts was approved.