Back by popular demand, even during a pandemic, the Norfolk Historical Society is please to present this years version of our popular Cake Auction.  Thou this event will be held entirely on-line we know it will be the great success it has alway been thanks to you our faithful followers!  Keep a lookout in your email in-boxes for the notice which will have all the details.  Cakes will be available for 2020 Holidays and beyond.  Thank you to all our bakers and all our past bidders who have made this such a successful event.

Please Join us Saturday December 7, 2019 5:00 – 7:00 PM. Drinks and Nibbles  and a live auction, beginning at 5:45 of delicious, festive, homemade cakes.

$25 at the door

Can’t make the event but would still like to make a donation or bid on a cake?  Email us at http://info@norfolkhistoricalsociety.org for further instructions and to receive a list of cakes.

Bibliomania Tour

The great book collections assembled and dispersed by Norfolk’s Battell,  Eldridge, and Robbins families in the period 1790–1930 contributed to the golden age of book collecting, a time period  described and celebrated by English librarian Thomas Dibdin in his 1809 “Bibliomania” (book-madness, or uncontrollable passion for books). Although Dibdin’s volume is a satire pretending to offer a “cure” for book-disease, his writing on the subject did much to popularize book collecting as a pastime. The exhibit will feature never-before-displayed items from the combined collections of rare books at the Norfolk Library and the Norfolk Historical Society, giving valuable insight into the lives lived by the Norfolkians whose cabinet collections contained these “imagined” antiquarianisms.

Please join us for an opening reception Friday, October 4 from 4:00 – 7:00 PM. A conversation with curator Lucy Mookerjee will begin at 5:00 PM

Museum open Saturday 1:00 – 4:00 and Sunday 1:00 – 4:00

Save the date for this year’s Historic House Dinner! Saturday, October 19th

To be held at Windolit, the family home of Dick Childs, founder and publisher of  ‘Modern Age Books’ (1936-1942).

Guests will enjoy cocktails and dinner and a special presentation by Childs’s granddaughter, Lucy Mookerjee, Ph. D. on the inner workings of America’s first paperback book publisher.

Invitations to follow, seating is limited so be sure to reserve early! Tickets $250 per person

Saturday, August 3, 2019

Industries Walk with Richard Byrne.  Meet at the museum at 9:45 for this two hour walk of our industrial past

Highlights of the Kendall Exhibition.  A Gallery Tour at the museum at 1:00PM

Sunday, August 4, 2019

Kendall’s Village Green, A walking Tour, meet at the museum at 12:00 for this 45 minute tour

Little Red School House, A Scavenger Hunt for children, pick up your list at the WIN Welcome center or the museum. Complete the list and check in at the Little Red School, Ashpohtag & Bald Mountain Rd. ,Sunday between 12:00 – 3:00

Our 2019 summer season featuring the exhibition An Extraordinary Legacy: The Photographs of Marie Hartig Kendall ~ Part II kicks off with a members opening on June 1 from 4:00 to 7:30 p.m.  Many new photographs and objects have been added to this year’s exhibition, which will engage both the returning visitor and those new to the museum.  These include a rare photograph printed on glass, which was made to hang in a window; dozens of Kendall postcards that were recently acquired from a local estate; and a look at the process of conservation period photographs. Also featured is the work of two female photographers, Carrie Smith Lorraine and Una Clingan Rand, both whom were working in neighboring towns during the 1890’s. The museum is open weekends from June 2 to October 13 from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.

The Great Ice Storm of 1898 hit Northwest Connecticut on February 20 – 22nd.  Marie Kendall, Norfolk’s intrepid 19th century photographer of the day, spent the week following the storm photographing the landscape in the village and beyond.  The Norfolk Historical Museum, in conjunction with Winter WIN, will be showing a short film highlighting these amazing photographs. A second exhibit, “Stuck Indoors,” will showcase some of the museum’s collection of children’s toys, including the magnificent Coffin Family Dollhouse. The museum will be open Feb. 23 & 24th with extended hours for WIN weekend: Saturday 10:00 to 4:00 and Sunday 12:00 to 4:00.

For More information on Winter WIN please visit:

https://weekendinnorfolk.org

The White City is Chicago in 1893, site of the World’s Columbian Exposition, organized to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s voyage to America. The devil, for the purpose of this slide talk, is electricity, and the players are Norfolk photographer Marie Kendall, Charles Albert Coffin, Thomas Edison, and Nikola Tesla. Travel back in time to find out how the lives of these four people intersected at the World’s Fair.

Save the Date!  December 1, 2018

Join the fun!  Our fourth annual Cake Auction,  a live auction of 12+ exquisite confections created by some of Norfolk’s most talented bakers.   A complete listing and instructions for absentee bidding can be found under our Blog button on the home page!  Hope you can join the fun!!!