There are various ways to access the history of a village like Norwich. It’s easy if you’re a student at the Marion Cross School, because Norwich history is a part of the curriculum there. New residents, on the other hand, can drop by the Norwich Historical Society (NHS), examine the maps and exhibits, and purchase a copy of Norwich, Vermont: A History. In the summer, NHS offers historical walking tours around the village. Visitors (and residents!) can learn more by listening to a historical podcast as they cruise the back roads of Norwich. Now, as supplements to the school curriculum and podcasts, there are four new illustrated histories of our town – a creative collaboration between artist Emily Zea, NHS Director Sarah Rooker, and retired Marion Cross School teacher Wendy Thompson.

Zea, who grew up in Norwich, credits her elementary school art teacher, Tracy Smith, with the inspiration to become an artist. “I still have a lot of the projects from her classes. I turned one watercolor flower that I completed in class into stationary,” Zea says. After high school and college, Zea returned to the Upper Valley and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction. Along with a passion for art, Zea grew up in a family that valued history. “During my childhood, my parents worked at many different museums. My brother and I were raised as ‘museum kids’,” she says.

Since she earned her master’s degree in 2020, Zea has created two illustrated town histories along with several pocket-sized history guides. One guide is about engraving a powder horn (a personal piece of equipment that held black musket powder and was worn by the owner), which includes the art process that goes into making them and the museums with the best collections. According to Zea, “Powder horns were used to tell the stories of their owners… It is fascinating to discern their stories through the pictographs they carved.” She also developed a New England graveyard art pocket guide that can be used to decipher the meaning of all the art carved into gravestones. “Every carving is purposeful and has a significant meaning,” she says. “With this pocket guide, you can learn even more about the people buried in our small-town plots, what was important to them, and what kind of lives they led.” At the end of the day, Zea admits that she is more of an artist than a historian. “But my love for history is undeniable!” she says. “I love using my art to teach myself about new topics.”

In 2019, Zea, Rooker, and Thompson brainstormed topic ideas for a series of illustrated histories of Norwich. Entitled The Early Years and Rivers and Mills, they were created to be podcast companions for two of the NHS driving tours. Next, they matched up several critical issues in the world today with events in Norwich’s history.

“We wanted to share more about Abenaki history than the fact that they were simply here before us,” says Rooker. “In the histories, we talk about how the Abenaki people and the first settlers from Connecticut interacted with and supported one another. We also wanted to have stories of women and people of color. That’s why we focused on the stories of Lucy Terry Prince and Lydia Brigham.” In Norwich Town Meeting and The Women of Norwich: Change Makers, the focus is on civic duties. “We had so many new people coming to town during Covid,” Rooker adds, “that town meeting might be a new concept for some people.”  

Along with introducing newcomers to local history, the illustrated histories connect to topics taught at Marion Cross. “It’s been a perfect way to get kids excited about history,” says Zea. “The graphic histories provide visual information while one is reading and create two different avenues to get the topic across at the same time. It makes history very accessible.”

Several steps were involved in the process of creating the illustrated histories. First, Rooker and Thompson selected topics and a script was outlined. Next, Rooker created digital folders with historical photos for Zea, who selected the information that would best translate visually on the page. The illustrations of architecture, geography, and clothing had to be carefully drawn. “Every little detail had to be historically accurate,” says Rooker.

Zea drew a thumbnail sketch for each page. Then she edited the page so the image and text fit together. From there, Zea made pencil drawings of each page, followed by a pen-and-ink version. She then scanned the drawings and incorporated the text. Zea admitted that she faced several challenges, and the photos were difficult to draw. “Transportation with the interstate took a long time,” she says. The two-page drawing contained a rope ferry, railroads, and bridges. As Zea points out, “It’s a mix of times. But when you read it, it goes in order.” Some of the histories took six to nine months to complete. The Rivers and Mills booklet took a year.

The overriding goal for all of the illustrated histories is to encourage students and newcomers to get involved and engaged in Norwich. According to Rooker, the histories are designed to build “a strong sense of place and attachment to the community… When you become more involved you become more attached, so it’s circular.” Knowing the history “creates a tighter, more cohesive community,” Rooker points out. “We all want to feel like we belong and these books are geared for that.”

To follow up on this theme, at the end of each history booklet there is a page that offers ideas on how to become more involved in the community. Rivers and Mills suggests you go canoeing on the Connecticut River and imagine what it would have been like when the area was largely a wilderness. In The Early Years history, readers are encouraged to find Norwich’s town charter – signed by New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth – at Tracy Hall.

Talking to Zea and Rooker underscores that the creation of the illustrated histories was much more than a simple art history project. “I do think it’s an incredible story,” Rooker says, “about a youth growing up in our community as an artist and coming full circle and helping others connect to the town. Zea has a strong sense of place, as you can see in her drawings”

“My mom was very involved in the history of our town,” notes Zea. “And it’s important for me to continue that work.” Zea’s mother, Kim King Zea, was a curator at NHS and championed the move to Lewis House as a new home for the society in 2003. Rooker appreciates the connection.  “There’s something very special about having Zea working on projects at the historical society. It feels good to continue the history of Norwich with her. It feels good having her here.”

Soon all four illustrated histories will be assembled into one book. In addition, later this spring a new exhibit at Norwich Historical Society will display all the drawings, showing the steps that Zea went through to create the histories, as well as the artifacts and archival documents that were used in the research, writing, and drawing.

There’s a lot to learn about a place by its history. For Sarah Rooker, this means digging into the rich history of Norwich – to appreciate the past, and also to better serve the future.

“Citizen historians” – or residents who are taking an interest in learning about and investigating their local history – are on the rise in Norwich, Rooker says, who became the director of the Norwich Historical Society (NHS) in 2016. “We need to continue to tell the story of Norwich and help people understand what makes a strong community and what the aspects are that make them love it so much.”

Norwich, chartered in 1761 by Benning Wentworth – the Royal Governor of New Hampshire – is a town with a rich history and a strong community that continues to thrive. When Rooker moved to Norwich in 1994, she learned this quickly.

As the director at NHS, Rooker’s main responsibility is to fulfill the society’s mission of preserving local history and promoting community engagement in local history education. Depending on the day, this could mean working with trustees and volunteers, curating new exhibits, organizing community projects and school programs, or caring for the artifacts in the society’s collections.

When it comes to history, “I really like all of it,” Rooker says, though architecture and landscape history are some of her favorite topics. Growing up in a family who appreciated local history played a big role in Rooker’s interest in New England culture. Rooker spent much of her childhood reenacting at Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, where her mother was the museum curator. “I learned a lot there about history,” Rooker says. “I would spin and weave and do hearth cooking… I just really connected deeply to it.”

As an undergrad student at the College of William & Mary, Rooker completed a degree in American Studies and worked at the nearby Colonial Williamsburg settlement where she trained to become a museum educator. Since then, Rooker’s career focus has always been on history education. Over the years, Rooker has worked as an educator for the Vermont Historical Society and as the director of the Vermont Museum and Gallery Alliance. Along with working at NHS, she also leads the local non-profit “The Flow of History” – a place-based history professional development resource for grade school teachers in Vermont and New Hampshire.

Now, Rooker has just finished putting the final touches on NHS’s “Becoming Norwich” exhibit – a collaboration with Norwich cartoonist Emily Zea, featuring a series of illustrated histories of Norwich, which just opened in May. Between Zea’s artistic contributions and Rooker’s writing, the exhibit covers Norwich’s history from its early years to today, with an emphasis on the importance of small-town government. The exhibit will run through 2023.

The historical society’s last exhibit showcased an old pulpit Bible from Norwich which had been vandalized by “rogues” in 1848. The Bible had been in NHS’s collections, and when Rooker opened it, she discovered that “it had been cut all the way through almost like a book safe,” to reveal a note written by the church deacon exposing the vandals “for all generations yet to come.” “It gave me the shivers,” Rooker remembers. “I [had] just got a note from the past. He wanted us to know what had happened.”

This exhibit and all NHS offerings aim to engage community members in learning about their own history. Rooker sees it as a way of “taking the history and thinking about ways to make it connect to the present,” she says. For the vandalized bible project, Rooker invited community artists and poets to respond to the exhibit with their own interpretations of the story. This blend of curiosity and creativity is at the heart of NHS and Rooker’s mission.

A current NHS project – “The Weather Diaries” – presents monthly reports from two Norwich diaries written 150 years apart – one in 1873 and one in 2023. The diary entries focus on the weather, and when viewed in comparison, “[It’s] really interesting – especially with climate change – to look at the differences in snow cover, frost dates, planting dates, and sugaring,” Rooker says.

After spending the past few months bringing “Becoming Norwich” to life, Rooker will soon turn her attention to the busy summer season at NHS. Now that the warmer weather has kicked in, history walking tours and other community events are just on the horizon. Most of these NHS-sponsored events are fundraisers to support the continued success of the historical society, which “[raises] everything that [it spends] every year,” Rooker says.

Walking and bicycle tours are some of the most popular event fundraisers, which cover all time periods of Norwich history, generally anywhere from 1700-1960. “People in Norwich, they’re active; they like to bike and hike and get out,” Rooker says, who plans to continue developing NHS programming that incorporates nature and exercise. “We want to meet them where they’re at.”

Walking tour offerings include mid-century modern house tours, home and garden tours, stone wall and cellar hole walking tours, a Union Village tour, and a Civil War and slavery history tour at the center of Norwich. “Any kind of fundraising thing we do, I like to have it have a history piece to it,” Rooker says. “Those walking tours are an incredible way to connect to the Town.” Pre-recorded podcast driving tours are also available year-round and can be accessed for free through the NHS website.

Tour participants receive a laminated packet of documents and resources specific to the tour (these might include things like historic photos, diary entries, or other archival materials), and they’re encouraged to make observations and comparisons and to ask questions. “When you walk up and down a street and you can look at a house and imagine who lived there and how it was built and know stories, you feel so grounded, and it makes you happier,” Rooker says. “I see that over and over again, and it just brings me great joy to help people discover that.”

An Antique show in September is another annual fundraiser that supports NHS, and through the winter, a series of Zoom lectures – “Discover Norwich” – helps bring donations in during the colder months. Between these fundraisers and volunteer support, NHS would not be possible without support from the community of Norwich that it serves.

With an influx of people moving to the Upper Valley, Rooker takes special care to welcome any new Norwich neighbors to learn about the community using NHS as a guide. “We have constant work to do to help people learn about and value the historic houses and their historic barns and their historic landscape,” Rooker says. “And [to] understand that all those pieces come together to make this beautiful town what it is.”

Finding a balance between historic preservation and modernization can prove tricky sometimes, but Rooker is determined that Norwich can keep up with the times while still “[retaining] the historic character [of Norwich] that we all love,” she says. For the historical society, part of finding this balance is keeping records to help preserve history (like photographs, diary entries, or other artifacts), while also embracing progressive attitudes and a growing population. For example, NHS offers educational resources for homeowners on the care and maintenance of old buildings, so that their history can be honored while also accommodating concerns about energy efficiency – an increasingly common focus of modern construction.

Another way NHS connects with the community is by providing an interactive and easily accessible array of digital history resources, which can be found on the historical society’s website, norwichhistory.org. The website contains updates on NHS news and events, along with information on historical society exhibits, an online collections catalog, resources for historical research, and even a list of activities for families with children. NHS also connects with patrons and community members via a mailing list and the local listserv.

“At the heart, historical societies are community institutions,” Rooker says. “It’s a busy hive of activity all the time.” Even though the historical society’s official hours are Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, students, volunteers, and community members stop by daily for one reason or another. Community members – typically high school students and elders – are drawn to volunteering at NHS and are involved in a variety of ways, anywhere from setting up exhibits to putting on fundraisers.

NHS memberships, which renew every summer and start at $15, are another large piece of the support that makes the historical society possible. NHS members directly support the programming that the society provides to the community, most of which is offered for free. “Really, what you get by being a member is knowing that you’re a steward of your community,” Rooker says.

For the community of Norwich, the historical society is a vital resource for keeping the Town’s history alive – helping people answer questions about their past and learn from history as they make decisions for the future. For Rooker, some of her most important work is giving citizens the tools they need to stay engaged in their own history.

“I like seeing how history can connect people to where they live,” she says. “If a town is going to have a strong identity, it needs to know where it comes from.”

Tillie Walden of Norwich was sworn in by Governor Phil Scott during a legislative meeting as Vermont’s Cartoonist Laureate. In attendance were representatives from Norwich and Thetford celebrating the appointed Norwich resident as the fifth person ever to hold this prestigious title. The Cartoonist Laureate title is very special to Vermont, as it is the only state to regularly appoint someone to this role that includes a three-year term of creating art for the state.

Walden is a cartoonist and illustrator who currently teaches at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction. The bulk of the lessons in her comics class are on how to make a ‘good comic,’ including writing and drawing techniques. Her sold-out 2023 summer class entitled “Queer Comics” is an in-person workshop where students not only will learn about creating comics but attend a workshop specifically for the design of queer comic stories. “It’s a really delightful class,” Walden said. 

Walden now succeeds Rick Veitch of West Townshend, who was appointed in 2020. Since the 2011 appointment of Vermont’s first Cartoonist Laureate, Burlington resident James Kochalka, the Cartoon Laureate has been tasked with creating comic depictions of noteworthy events happening in the state throughout their three-year term. 

Walden had heard of the Cartoonist Laureate position previously, noting that “There is a big drawing entitled ‘The Seal’ by Ed Koren (the state’s second official Cartoonist Laureate) at the Center for Cartoon Studies, so it sounded official but I never would have expected it [for myself].”

Walden was really surprised to be selected, and said, “It’s a huge honor and I am very excited about the next three years of cartoons, getting to collaborate with the VT Humanities and make comics about life in Vermont.”

Walden has been making comics for over ten years and has published more than ten books, many of which have been award winners or nominees for outstanding achievement. Some of her most notable graphic novels include Are You Listening?, which earned Walden the distinction in 2018 as the youngest winner of the Eisner Award – she was only 22 years old – the first of two Eisner Awards for her. This graphic novel was also nominated as a Harvey Award winner in 2020 for “Book of the Year”, one of the most prestigious awards in the comics industry.

Her professional works also include a trilogy entitled Clementine, which is set in the apocalyptic Walking Dead television series universe. The story finds a pair journeying toward an abandoned ski resort in Vermont (which may be our very own Killington!).

Another recent book project came about rather randomly, about four years ago, according to Walden. The Canadian indie pop duo, Tegan and Sara, were writing a middle grade graphic novel and asked Walden to illustrate the book, titled Junior High. “I said yes immediately!” Walden recalled. They began work on the story during the pandemic. “They were lovely to work with. Both Sara and Tegan really trusted me to do my thing, make edits, and interpret the words in my own way,” Walden said, “They made my job easy, though; their script was so full of heart and laughter.” Walden is now working on a second book with the duo.

One may be surprised to learn that Walden’s graphic novel and childhood memoir Spinning, published in 2017, has since been banned in some southern states, including Texas, where Walden was born. The book is a coming-of-age tale that chronicles Walden’s years as a competitive ice skater, navigating romance, bullying, trauma, and coming out. Walden expressed that “It’s disappointing, weird, and upsetting to keep these stories away from kids, especially since they have done well critically.” Referencing her own life as an open book, Walden has found a strong calling to create works highlighting queer themes and depicting queer characters. 

Walden wholeheartedly commends Norwich and Thetford for being such a wonderful and welcoming community for her growing family. Walden is married to cartoonist Emma Hunsinger and they are expecting the arrival of Walden’s first baby. The couple co-created and published a children’s picture book last year titled My Parents Won’t Stop Talking! So while Walden is preparing to take on a new role with the State as a working artist for the three-year term, she is also beginning the lifelong adventure as a parent.  

Awards

A collection of Walden’s awards to date also include Best Graphic Album-New A Chicago Public Library, Best of the Best Book of 2019 by National Public Radio (NPR), Best Book of 2019 by O Magazine (Oprah Magazine), Best LGBTQ Book of 2019, One of The Comics Beat’s Best Comics of 2019, A Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and also she has been a Harvey Award nominee for Best Book of the Year, On a Sunbeam.

Upper Valley Trails Alliance Builds Accessible Trail in Milton Frye Nature Area

With mud season having come to a close, it’s time to start hitting the trails! And one newly renovated trail that you may wish to choose is the accessible trail created by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance (UVTA) in the Milton Frye Nature Area next to the Marion Cross School.

Russell Hirschler, executive director of UVTA, says, “There’s been a big push over the last few years or so for putting in accessible trails for people with any kind of mobility issues, older people who just need more places to have a sure-footed kind of walk, or families with strollers and kids.”

UVTA, a regional organization based right here in Norwich that serves over 43 communities all throughout the Upper Valley, coordinated with the Marion Cross School and the Town of Norwich to create the new accessible trail, built on an existing trail.

Hirschler says, “In order to do any kind of trail, you need willing partners.” And in this case, Marion Cross School and the Town (which owns the conservation land but has a cooperative use agreement with the school district) were excited to be a part of this project and brought the idea to the UVTA, who are known as a leader in the field for creating affordable and accessible trails – especially near schools.

Hirschler is finding more and more accessible trails being installed near schools. “Schools are always trying to get their kids outside, especially during the time they were utilizing the outdoor classrooms to a tremendous extent,” he says. Not only was an easily traversable trail to an outdoor classroom important for all students, but with a recent influx of families to Norwich – some with children who have mobility issues – the accessible trail has been particularly vital.

The school district raised the money to create the trail and worked in tandem with the Town to bring the project through the Planning Board and Development Review Board phase. The permits were issued, and about a year and a half from the initial idea and site visit, the team was getting to work on creating the trail.

While the process to approve the trail took some time, the actual build took around a total of two weeks. “It’s a lot of moving rock,” Hirschler laughs.

The UVTA staff – a team of four including Hirschler – worked together to build this trail. In the summers, UVTA runs a program called the High School Trail Corps, which recruits and works with students from high schools all over the Upper Valley. However, as this was a fall build, this trail was a four-person project. “Oftentime, our small staff is scattered in every direction doing lots of different things, and this was one of the few trail projects where all four of us were out there working together. It was a really great team effort,” Hirschler says.

Part of that effort was to get the trail down before they had snow and frozen ground, which created a good team challenge, Hirschler says. Sure enough, the trail was completed just before the first snowfall in November of 2022. “We scraped the last bits of gravel off the edge of parking log, pulled our machines out of there, and then it snowed,” Hirschler recalls.

The accessible trail created by Hirschler and his team converted a dirt trail into what they call a “hardened trail” that has a stone dust or hard-pack on top. The trail is created with three layers. First is a base layer of course gravel that gets compacted down to make it tight. “With stones that are all angular and jagged, when you push them down next to each other, they lock in place,” Hirschler notes. Next comes a middle layer of geotextile cloth, which separates the bottom and top layer materials. The cloth keeps dirt and mud from coming into the upper layer of the trail and keeps weeds and other plant life down. Finally, a top layer of the aforementioned hard-pack. This is also compacted down, and the result is an easily navigable surface that is still permeable so water can run through it, unlike with asphalt or concrete where water runs off the surface.

In addition to a more easily traversable surface, an accessible trail must have limited slopes (the team aims to have slopes of 10% grade or less). The guidelines for these trails are similar to those found in the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Hirschler and his team have just recently been back to work on the trail this spring, having asked folks to primarily stay off the trail during mud season. As the trail is right next to downtown off of Main Street, they’re very excited to have people using the trail regularly. “There’s a sense of joy,” Hirschler says, “You build a trail that’s also accessible to a certain segment of the population – anyone who normally wouldn’t be able to go on a footpath with rocks and twigs, branches and roots, or that has uneven ground or is too steep, and then to see those persons using the trail with a smile on their face… To put these trails in place for people is a joy.”

On top of this, it’s always wonderful to see elementary school kids out in the woods in a wild area with lots of big trees and wildlife, Hirscher says.

While the building of the actual trail isn’t all that difficult, getting all the pieces together to be able to build them is much harder, Hirschler says. And the fact that more communities – such as the school district and the Town of Norwich – are investing in these trails is tremendous and shows the value in it.

Equitable access is one of the fundamental principles on which UVTA is built and guides their work: “No matter what kind of trail user you are and what physical abilities you have, there’s a trail for you somewhere close to home,” Hirschler emphasizes. 

The investment in trails and recreation infrastructure that saw an upward trajectory during COVID has by no means slowed down, Hirschler says. The UVTA currently has lots of ongoing projects where they’re implementing the building techniques they’ve learned creating accessible trails. “With more heavy weather-related events – windstorms and rainstorms and all those kinds of climate-change related activities – the better and more sustainably you build the trail initially, the longer it’s going to last.”

The thing that makes Hirschler and the UVTA the most excited is the community investment in improving local trails: “We always say it’s great to have aspirations to hike in the Notches in the White Mountains or summit Mt. Mansfield or Camel’s Hump in the Greens, but really the most important trail is the one outside your back door or down your street. That’s the trail you’re going to use the most.”

UVTA is busy building and has no plans to slow down. Hirschler says, “We’re going to build trails and we’re going to get young kids and older people and anyone in between who needs helping getting into the woods to get out there.”