The Town Hall Heritage Center is now open for in-person visits on Saturdays and Wednesdays! 

Stop-by any Saturday between 10am and 1pm or Wednesday afternoons 3:00pm-6:00pm 

to view our  Summer 2024  Historical Exhibits &  Glass Plate Negative exhibit and other historic treasures! 

New Hampshire Magazine

Idyllic Orford on the Connecticut: A textbook example of a New England small town*

*The Orford Historical Society did find two errors in the article - 

Robert Fulton "stole" Morey's steamboat ideas, not Eli Whitney and 

the soapstone (really mostly slate) quarry was behind the Ville school, not the Town Hall!

Mission

The purpose of the Orford Historical Society is to assist the residents of the Town of Orford in preserving their history and heritage for their appreciation and understanding, as well as for that of future generations.

Established in 1996, the OHS is a self-supporting, non-profit educational organization, with membership open to all who are interested in the history of Orford. We regularly present five programs each year, including walking tours and other home grown events drawing on the knowledge and experience of local residents. Working with students, we published an historical guide to the town, and more recently an illustrated collection of Orford-based poetry by Dot Pierson. Our growing collections include artifacts, photographs, letters, and documents.

"Photo of the Week" Series 

Each week we will post a photo(s) from our collections on our Facebook page.

(You can also see closer up views of the photos on Facebook page - please note, you do not need to be a member of have a Facebook Account to do so!)  

Check our Photo of the Week page here for additional photos and content! 

Our next photo series will focus on selections from the Orford Historical Society Glass Plate Negative Collection

The Orford Historical Society is very fortunate to have a collection of over 800 glass plate negatives primarily from a collection from the Harry Morrison family (Marston Stock Farm) who lived on the Mt. Cube road; now owned by the Schwarz family.  There are also smaller amounts of images from other families.  

Our first installment in September/October 2021 was titled, “Views around Orford” all of which were in Orfordville and the Mt. Cube area.  

Our second installment in November/December 2021 was titled, "Barns and Other Farm Buildings". 

Our third installment in Winter 2022 was titled, "Orford in Winter".

(To see the previous installments, please go to the "Photo of the Week" page.). 

We now move on to our fourth installment featuring photos of Orford's children.

Glass plate negatives have to be made into positive images and all of them have been converted to digital images for us to present them to you. While we will be featuring a few of these images in a virtual display in small segments.  Going forward we hope to do an actual display in the Heritage Center as soon as it is safe to gather there.

To learn more about the process of creating Glass Plate Negatives, please see this article from the "Greenfield Recorder" about the process.

Please provide us with your feedback and any information you might have about the images displayed by emailing orfordhistory@gmail.com. 

This week: "The Sanborn/Blake Family"

Not a Member of the Orford Historical Society Yet?

Annual membership fee is $25 and can be sent via cash or check (made out to the “Orford Historical Society”) 

with your name, email, and phone number to: 

Orford Historical Society 

P.O. Box 44

Orford, NH, 03777 

Your contribution will help us to continue our legacy of bringing Orford history to the community!