Our Favorite Things

For more than fifty years Norwich Historical Society has collected, preserved, and made accessible photographs, books, and artifacts from Norwich’s past. Today NHS is the custodian of over 1600 artifacts.

The treasures in this exhibit tell the stories of people, places, and moments spanning over 150 years—from the arrival of the first settlers from Connecticut to the present day. The stories of the indigenous people who were here from the beginning live on in a treasured oral tradition. Intertwined they form a rich tapestry. An exhibit focused on objects brings the ordinary to life. We can sense the hard work of haying in the fields, the joy of a baseball game, the experience of riding in a Model T, and the love on a wedding day. The objects are anything but ordinary. They are worn with decades of hard work, inspirational in their painstaking creation, and surprising in their tinkered assemblage.

To treasure something is to keep it carefully. Every item in this exhibit was once treasured, passed down through the generations until given to the historical society as a touchstone to the past.