Author: Library User

Postcards from Falmouth: The Old Stone Dock

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The Old Stone Dock of today might be easy to overlook, but its past self lives on in our vintage postcard collection – and in our oral history from Kevin Doyle, former president of the Old Stone Dock Association. He takes us back to the days when the Dock was a cornerstone of Falmouth commerce, and from there to the transformations wrought by the arrival of the railroad on Cape Cod.

“If you were to go down to the shore today, there’s a sign that says it’s the kiddie pool,” he says. But as his oral history proves, there’s a lot more to the story than that!

 

Dive into our Old Stone Dock digital exhibit.

Explore the postcard collection here.

Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project of Falmouth Public Library, funded by a LSTA grant and administered by the MBLC.

Book Discussions for Juneteenth

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To celebrate Juneteenth, please join us at the library for one or all of the following book discussions!

Please join us for the monthly meeting of the Narrative Nonfiction Book Club as we discuss this month’s selection The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom.  Come pick up a copy of the book at the Reference Desk and join us, Thursday, June 2nd at 4pm, in the Hermann Meeting Room, to share your thoughts! Register Here.

“This is a story of a mother’s struggles against a house’s entropy, and that of a prodigal daughter who left home only to reckon with the pull that home exerts, even after the Yellow House was wiped off the map after Hurricane Katrina.”

 

 

Please join us for a special Book Club meeting to discuss On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed. Come pick up a copy of the book at the Reference Desk and join us, Wednesday June 15 at 6pm, in the Hermann Meeting Room. Register Here.

“As Juneteenth morphs from a primarily Texan celebration of African American freedom to a proposed national holiday, Gordon-Reed urges Texans and all Americans to reflect critically on this tangled history. A remarkable meditation on the history and folk mythology of Texas from an African American perspective.” ― Lesley Williams, Booklist, starred review

The FPL Fiction Book Club is currently meeting in person in the Hermann Room this month. June’s book is Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, and we’ll be meeting on Tuesday June 21st at 4pm. Register Here.

“Two half sisters, unknown to each other, are born into two different tribal villages in 18th century Ghana. Effia will be married off to an English colonial, and will live in comfort in the sprawling, palatial rooms of Cape Coast Castle…Esi will be imprisoned beneath Effia in the Castle’s women’s dungeon, and then shipped off on a boat bound for America, where she will be sold into slavery. Stretching from the 18th century to the present, this modern masterpiece moves through generations and places.”

Falmouth Reads Together: June Events

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We’ve got three public events scheduled for Falmouth Reads Together in June – two documentary films and a discussion of the book The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery. Read on for details and registration links.

Documentary film screening of My Octopus Teacher.

Watch as a filmmaker forges an unusual friendship with an octopus living in a South African kelp forest, learning as the animal shares the mysteries of her world. “One of the best nature documentaries I have ever seen. Absolutely beautiful and wonderfully narrated and educational–tremendous with its scientific breakthroughs on these amazing creature’s behavior and intelligence. “

  • Friday June 10, 2pm.
  • Location: Hermann Meeting Room. 
  • Duration: one hour; appropriate for most ages. Discussion follows (optional). 
  • Register here.

Book Discussion: The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, by Sy Montgomery.

You’ve probably read the book by now. If not, get in line for a copy. Then join us to discuss! 

  • Friday June 17, 2pm. 
  • Location: Hermann Meeting Room.
  • Duration: one hour; appropriate for adults or teens. 
  • Register here.

Documentary film screening of Octopus: Making Contact

 

Follow an Alaskan professor as he raises and studies a day octopus in his home, making remarkable discoveries about its extraordinary intelligence, personality and skills. 

  • Friday June 24, 2pm. 
  • Location: Hermann Meeting Room.
  • Duration: one hour; appropriate for most ages. Discussion follows (optional). 
  • Register here.

Postcards from Falmouth: Main Street

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How well do you know Main Street? Join Camille Beale and Nancy Eldridge on an insider tour, and learn about everything you could buy, browse, or admire on Falmouth’s main drag in the middle of the 20th century. Both longtime residents with ties to Main Street, Camille and Nancy have watched it grow and change from front-row seats. In conversation with Barbara Kanellopoulos, they recall lunches at the five and dime, Western films at the Elizabeth Theater, and the attractions popular stores used to entice customers, from the monkey to the x-ray machine.

 

Tour our Main Street digital exhibit here.

Explore the postcard collection online here.

Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project of Falmouth Public Library, funded by a LSTA grant and administered by the MBLC.

Celebrating 50 Years of Homebound Services

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In the 50 years since 1972, the Falmouth Public Library has delivered just shy of a quarter of a million library books, movies, audiobooks and magazines to Falmouth residents who were unable to visit the library due to illness, injury or other reasons through our Homebound Library Service.

Without interruption, FPL’s Homebound Service has continued through 8 US presidents, 5 library directors, 5 economic recessions and enormous technological changes. Despite the arrival of ebooks, most library users continue to prefer physical books and to make use of DVDs and CD audiobooks.

The Beginning

In 1972, recently retired Library Director, Hazel Atwood, envisioned a service for shut-ins and created a volunteer home delivery service to provide library books to local residents. Assisted by Laurie McNee, FPL’s now retired North Falmouth Branch Librarian, Mrs. Atwood delivered books in her own white Buick Skylark. Although Mrs. Atwood began winding down her volunteer commitment due to her husband’s illness by 1979, the delivery service was so popular that the Falmouth Public Library created a paid part-time position to continue it. Laura Wool, already a staff member at FPL, became the Library’s first Homebound Librarian.

Today

Laura Wool visits patrons at home or in local facilities every three weeks. According to Laura, many new patrons find out about the Homebound Service through word-of-mouth from family, friends or neighbors. Service can be provided on a short-term basis in case of injury or surgery, or on an ongoing basis if needed. Residents can provide a specific list of titles, or Laura will also assemble a delivery based on specific interests and preferences. Just call the library to begin the process. Laura is available Monday-Fridays from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, when she isn’t on the road making deliveries.

Words of Appreciation

The Falmouth Public Library is both proud and grateful for the support of the town in providing this needed and much appreciated service for the past five decades to countless residents. We hope to continue it for many years to come!

Here are some words of appreciation from some residents who have benefited from the service.

” You have no idea how much you have enriched my life. In this time of all the stress and worry in this world you are a ray of sunshine…You have helped me out with a life line to the books that helped keep me on an even keel.”

“One never appreciated the convenience of a handicapped society until one has been there. I am so thrilled to have books delivered to my door as this is my main recreation and I can’t manage a trip to the library.”

“Thank you again for the variety of books which you’ve shared with Mom over the year. Your visits have meant a good deal to us!”

“Your service to shut-ins was invaluable to me and I am sure many others, and then to have it come in the delightful person of Laura Wool is an added bonus as she gives a great lift to the day.”

Our 50th Anniversary Celebration

On May 12th from 12:00 to 2:00 pm, the Falmouth Public Library will be holding an Open House to celebrate their 50 years of service. The public is invited to attend, to reminisce and learn more about FPL’s Homebound Services. Please join us!

Postcards from Falmouth: the East End Meeting House

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Built in 1797 as a Congregational church, the East End Meeting house has seen its fortunes grow and shrink over the years: from a generous bequest in 1842, to a decline in membership in the 1970s, to an unusual transfer in ownership in the early 1980s.

In this oral history, Rabbi Elias Lieberman walks us through that history to the current day, where the meetinghouse stands as the home of the Falmouth Jewish Congregation. Learn about the building’s origins and quirks, and about how the Falmouth Jewish Congregation updated, expanded, and made it their own.

 

 

Check out our East End Meeting House digital exhibit here.

Explore the postcard collection online here.

Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project of Falmouth Public Library, funded by a LSTA grant and administered by the MBLC.

Postcards from Falmouth: the Dwight Estate

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You’ve probably passed by the carriage house on Mill Road, with its distinctive arches, but how much do you know about the mansion it outlived, or the man who built them both? Check out Bill Swift’s oral history to learn about Arm & Hammer co-founder John E. Dwight, who put down roots in Falmouth in the 1880s, complete with winter and summer homes and other properties across town.

The estate has dwindled over the years, most notably when the mansion was lost to the 1944 hurricane, but this oral history will take you back to its early days, when horses raced at Trotting Park, Grover Cleveland summered at Gray Gables, and Mrs. Dwight sat reading on her tiny artificial island in Salt Pond.

Explore the Dwight Estate with Bill Swift here.

Explore the postcard collection online here.

Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project of Falmouth Public Library, funded by a LSTA grant and administered by the MBLC.

Worker’s Struggles: An International Poster Exhibit

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“Workers everywhere struggle regularly to the value of what their work has created, to receive adequate benefits and to have good and safe working conditions.  This is not easy.  Many workers around the world face repression when they try to improve their work lives.  This poster exhibit reflects some of the history of those struggles.”

Visit the Falmouth Public Library from March 30th through April 28th to view Workers’ Struggles: An International Poster Exhibit. “The posters are from a collection of more than 9200 of Stephen Lewis.  He is a long-time activist in the labor movement, and the former Treasurer of his union.”

 

Postcards from Falmouth: Falmouth Center

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If you’ve ever wondered what it was like to weather the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944, the late Donald Fish has a story for you. A student of Falmouth history, he recounts boyhood adventures alongside older stories of Falmouth’s modernization and development. He vividly recalls the chaos of the storms of 1938 and 1944: “As it got darker the wind picked up severely […] The water’s coming up, set yachts are foundering along the shore, raising hell.”

His four-part video series also touches on less-explored topics from our postcard collection: the Parthenon power plant, development along Shore Street, ice skating on Shiverick’s Pond, and even the long-gone era of the stagecoach. Follow along with his walk down memory lane, then check out the supplementary materials we’ve collected to complement the videos.

Explore Falmouth with Donald Fish here.

Explore the postcard collection online here.

Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project of Falmouth Public Library, funded by a LSTA grant and administered by the MBLC.

Postcards From Falmouth: Woods Hole Public Library and Historical Museum

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Join Rob Blomberg as he dons his tour guide hat and leads us through the history of two beloved Woods Hole institutions: the Woods Hole Public Library and its partner organization, the Woods Hole Historical Museum. As Vice President of the library Board and a longtime museum tour guide, he weaves his personal experiences into a retelling of the library and museum’s shared story. “The Woods Hole Library is a very important connection to me,” he tells interviewer Troy Clarkson. “The first time I was ever there, I was maybe two or two and a half years old.”

What it took to run a library in 1873 is somewhat different from what it takes today, and operating costs are only the start—no more $1 yearly membership fees! Over the years, the library and museum have adapted to the growth of their collections, the growth of tourist traffic, and most recently to the unique demands of the pandemic. They’ve established their own traditions, like the library’s annual Fabric and Fiber Sale (coming on March 13). “Come down and visit,” Mr. Blomberg says. “They would be happy to have you.”

Read up on the Woods Hole Library and Historical Museum here.

Explore the postcard collection here.

Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project of Falmouth Public Library, funded by a LSTA grant and administered by the MBLC.