Nora Oakes Howard - Town Historian

Nora Oakes Howard was named Town Historian in 2000. The Town Historian helps answer questions from the public and works closely with historical partners at the Avon Historical Society and at the Avon Free Public Library’s Marian Hunter History Room. The Town historian also helps obtain items of historical interest for the collections of these organizations.

Nora is also the historian of the Avon Congregational Church. Her publications include Avon, in the Images of America series of photographic histories; Catch’d on Fire: The Journals of Rufus Hawley 1763-1812; A Tale of Two Meetinghouses: The West Avon Congregational Church and the Avon Congregational Church and their Communities, 1746-2019; and Stories of Wethersfield. She has written historical articles for local newspapers and is a contributor to Today Magazine.

She grew up in Avon and attended Renbrook School and Westledge School. Nora has worked at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and was executive director of the historical societies in Avon and in Wethersfield.

Her B.A. is from Hampshire College, and her M.A. in American Studies is from George Washington University.

You can email Nora at: [email protected]