Lebanon is a city in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 14,282 at the 2020 census, up from 13,151 at the 2010 census. Lebanon is in western New Hampshire, south of Hanover, near the Connecticut River. It is the home to Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center and Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine, together comprising the largest medical capability between Boston, Massachusetts, and Burlington, Vermont.

Together behind Hanover, New Hampshire, and White River Junction, Vermont, Lebanon is at the middle of a Micropolitan Statistical Area, encompassing nearly 30 towns along the upper Connecticut River valley.

Lebanon was chartered as a town by colonial proprietor Benning Wentworth on July 4, 1761, one of 16 along the Connecticut River. It was named for Lebanon, Connecticut, from where many in front settlers had come or would come, including the Rev. Eleazar Wheelock, who arrived in 1770 and founded Dartmouth College. Lebanon, Connecticut, was the original house of Moor’s Charity School, the antecedent of Dartmouth College.

Early unity concentrated along the Connecticut River in what is now West Lebanon, and in the Mascoma Lake region close Enfield. In the mid-19th century, a mill district developed at falls upon the Mascoma River. Industries included, at various times, furniture mills, a tannery, several robot shops, a woolen textile mill, and a clothing factory. In the mid-19th century, this district attracted many French workers from Canada’s Quebec province. This became the middle of town, although West Lebanon grew into a railroad hub taking into consideration a separate identity after lines entered from Boston. This rail middle would become known as “Westboro” after two trains collided similar to West Lebanon was mistaken for Lebanon.