The Norfolk Historical Society is preparing for its 2025 season with the launch of a new website and announcement of its summer exhibition.
“We’ve added a few new features like ‘Architecture’ to the website,” said Director Barry Webber. “We’re planning to expand on that, especially about the 18th-century houses, for the 250th anniversary of the country in 2026.”
“I’m starting public access to the portal for the collections database,” Webber said. “The database lists documents that people can come research.”
The new site allows visitors to explore a number of sections, including one focused on the town’s rich Colonial past. A downloadable walking tour includes descriptions of historic buildings and the families that once occupied them. There are other sections on the town’s early history, historic personages, historic maps from 1853 to 1902 and genealogy. “The maps are new, and users can zoom in on them and see where their house was in 1853,” Webber said.
Also included is a section summarizing the deeply researched exhibitions created each summer and displayed at the historical society’s headquarters on the village green. This year’s exhibition, “A New Birth of Freedom: Norfolk in the War of the Rebellion,” looks at Norfolk’s participation in the Civil War and the attitudes toward slavery in the community. The exhibit will be on view weekends, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., June 7 through October 12.