Northfield Historical Society

On August 10, 1781, Vermont Governor Thomas Chittenden granted a charter for 18,515 acres of land in central Vermont to be called Northfield. The town developed as more settlers moved in, coming down from the hill (now Exit 5 on the I-89 interstate) into the valley, starting with South Northfield, and then moving north into what became Center Northfield, with more expansion into what became known as Depot Village, and even farther north into what is now Northfield Falls.

Artifacts, photographs, manuscripts, ephemera and postcards in the collections of the Northfield Historical Society allow us to see what early Northfield was like.

Postcards, like those presented here, produced from the 1870s until recent times, are a useful way to document the history of Vermont towns. “Real photo” postcards especially provide the best scenes of the early twentieth century since many were taken by professional photographers, or at least by people who knew how to handle the oftentimes awkward and time-consuming “new” technology of early cameras. There appeared to be nothing that was not suited for a postcard, including fires, floods, family portraits, house portraits, bucolic scenes, school children, and humorous imaginings.