NORWICH — The Norwich Historical Society did not set out to do a 1990s-themed presentation for its annual meeting this month.
But when the opportunity presented itself in the form of close to 200 photo slides donated by the town’s planning and zoning department, the nonprofit organization jumped at the opportunity.
“We really didn’t have much in our collection from the ’90s,” Norwich Historical Society Director Sarah Rooker said in a phone interview. “Historical societies frequently have items hundreds of years old, not 30 years old.”
Now, Historical Society board members are asking for the public’s help in identifying some of the people in those photos during an online program titled “Norwich in the ’90s” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 29. A brief business meeting will take place at 6:15 p.m. People can register for both at norwichhistory.org/2026-annual-meeting.
“This program is something of a crowdsource program,” Rooker said, adding that as of Thursday afternoon about 50 people had already signed up to attend. “A lot of people remember these days in the ’90s so I think they’re going to have fun seeing their neighbors, their kids, their former teachers, the places where they went to get their groceries.”
The Planning and Zoning Department donated the slides to the historical society almost a year ago, Rooker said. A volunteer spent hours scanning the slides digitally, going through them and trying to identify places and people in them. All told, the historical society added 60 to its collection, which were printed out on archival paper and also will be added to its online catalog within the next year.
“There were quite a number of slides that were just of the woods or unidentifiable trails or places that didn’t really say a lot about the community,” Rooker said of the photos that didn’t make the cut.
What remains, though, is a portrait of a town in transition. King Arthur Baking Co., then known as King Arthur Flour, expanded its Route 5 location. Norwich Square — which houses the Norwich Bookstore and the town’s post office — was also rebuilt.
“It was really interesting for me to think about how many big building projects there were in this community,” Rooker said. “The quality of the images are not fabulous, but it does document a big time of change.”
The playground at Marion Cross School was also rebuilt during that time and Rooker learned from volunteer Milton Frye, the school’s former principal, that the student population had increased in size. Rooker started researching Norwich census figures from the 1980s-1990s and found that the town’s population increased by 30% during that time frame.
Norwich had 2,398 residents in 1980, according to a population spreadsheet posted on the historical society’s website. By 1990, that number had increased to 3,093 and by 2000, there were 3,544 people living in town.
“I started thinking what’s all that about?” Rooker said. Her hypothesis: Mary Hitchcock Hospital moved from downtown Hanover to Lebanon in 1991, where it expanded, hired more staff and was renamed Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. “I think that has to be a big piece of why the population jumps.”
She’s looking forward to hearing what insight attendees may have when they see the photographs.
“I think people are going to enjoy a little trip to the recent past,” Rooker said.