Category: History

An Illustrated Tour of Falmouth Cemeteries

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Join the Falmouth Public Library, Oak Grove Cemetery Association of Falmouth, and Falmouth Genealogical Society for a ‘Welcome to the Graveyard: An Illustrated Tour of Falmouth’s Cemeteries’ presentation by The Gravestone Girls on Wednesday, October 19th from 6pm-8pm in the library’s Hermann meeting room! (Photo Credit: “Oak Grove in Winter” by Carol Knox)

‘Welcome to the Graveyard: An Illustrated Tour of Falmouth’s Cemeteries’ is a 90 minute illustrated ‘virtual tour’ chronicling cemetery art, history and symbolism. From the colonial New England burial grounds of the 1600s and 1700s, through the nation-wide rural cemetery movement of the 19th century and into 21st century locations, this program examines why we have cemeteries and gravestones, why they look like they do and how styles and art have evolved over almost 400 years. Prior to the show date, The Gravestone Girls will hit the road and go through the cemeteries in Falmouth, taking pictures for use in building the presentation with as much local content as possible.  Q&A to follow.

The Gravestone Girls “create decorative artwork using the beautiful and primitive images carved on olde New England gravestones; give lectures and tours on cemetery art, history and symbolism as well as teach gravestone rubbing classes! Their work aims to entertain and educate on the historical perspective of old cemeteries by documenting and preserving the beautiful art they contain.”

Registration is required.  To register, click here or call the library at 508-457-2555 extension 7.

This program is co-sponsored by the Trustees of the Falmouth Public Library, the Oak Grove Cemetery Association of Falmouth, and the Falmouth Genealogical Society.

Bounty Film Screening and Panel Discussion (Virtual Event)

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

To honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day, on Saturday October 15, from 4-5:30, we are co-hosting a virtual film screening and panel discussion of the film Bounty. This 9-minute documentary features Penobscot parents and children commemorating their survival by reading and reacting to the Phips Proclamation, a government-issued proclamation that motivated colonial settlers to hunt, scalp, and murder Indigenous people.

The film will be followed by a panel discussion with Mishy Lesser, the learning director of the Upstander Program; Gkisedtanamoogk, Mashpee Wampanoag, co-chair, Maine Wabanaki State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and Linda Coombs, Aquinnah Wampanoag, museum educator and historian.

This event is presented by the Falmouth Public Library with the support of the Friends of the Falmouth Public Library; the Woods Hole Public Library; the Mashpee Public Library; and LINK. LINK is a local group dedicated to the belief that when we can come together in respectful, trusting, and committed relations we can link Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge in a way that can move all of life towards a safer, more balanced, and wholesome future.

To register to attend this Zoom event, please sign up at the Mashpee Library’s site: https://tinyurl.com/bountyfilm .  After registering, you will receive an email with the Zoom link. 

Sea Captains of Cape Cod!

Posted on by Sue

We are excited to welcome Dr. Michael Pregot on Tuesday, August 23rd at 6:30 pm, for a reading, talk and book signing! Registration is required-please do so by clicking here! Books will be available to buy at the event from Eight Cousins books.

 Cape Cod is surrounded by water on all four sides, jutting out prominently into the Atlantic Ocean. This characteristic accounts in large measure for its history, its economic development, its aesthetic beauty, and its maritime legacy.

This narrative explores the connection that each Cape Cod town has to the sea as demonstrated through its seafaring residents. It provides a glimpse into heroic maritime adventures, entrepreneurial brilliance, and an appreciation of the resolve needed by captains to thrive in a hostile seaside environment.

Dr. Pregot has served as a secondary school administrator and as a P-12 school superintendent. During his tenure as a practicing school leader, he has taught adjunct educational leadership courses at Boston College, Keene State, Franklin Pierce, Fitchburg State and Worcester State College. Prior to his appointment to the faculty at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, he taught educational leadership courses at Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y. 

His latest interest is in maritime history for which he has written Sea Captains of Cape Cod and Meet the Captains of the Captains Golf Course.

 

 

Postcards from Falmouth: The College Light Opera Company

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

The College Light Opera Company, Falmouth’s historic summer stock theatre company, is in the midst of its 2022 season. Its deep roots connect it to some of the biggest names in Falmouth history, and its company members carry those roots with them as they strike out into the performing arts world.

Join Executive and Creative Director Mark Pearson for a look into that shared history and the connections that grew from it. “The original intent was more entertainment,” he says, “but our mission has sort of shifted over the years as we became one of the last organizations to do this—to really focus on the educational aspect.”

See the CLOC 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.

Contribute Your Memories of the Falmouth Road Race

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

This year on August 21 Falmouth will host the 50th running of the Falmouth Road Race. As thousands of runners race from the starting line, in front of the Captain Kidd on Water Street in Woods Hole, they wind past Nobska Light, up Surf Drive, around Falmouth Harbor, to the finish line in Falmouth Heights.

At the Falmouth Public Library we have large collections of postcards of local landmarks along the path of the Road Race. We’ve created a Map so you can follow the runners’ route, with a glimpse at past views of the buildings and seashores they’ll see as they run.

Many Falmouth residents and visitors have run the Road Race over the years. The Falmouth Road Race web site has a wonderful year-by-year recap of the 49 races to date. Does it spark memories in you?

We’re building a digital archive of Road Race Memories at the library, and we’d love to hear your story.

Dig out your old photos, or take a picture of your collection of mugs and t-shirts, and write us a few lines about the years you ran, or watched, or got stuck in traffic! Library Director Linda Collins shared the following memory:

In 1999 race day was complete with torrential rains. Waiting at the the start,  I remember seeing runners with plastic bags taped over their shoes in an attempt to stay dry. As we came out of the woods along the beach we were running through ankle deep puddles. I wondered how the plastic bags were holding up. I turned to the runner next to me and he had the biggest smile on his face. We agreed, we were doing all the things our mothers taught us not to. We were running in the middle of the road, soaked to the skin, jumping in puddles, and talking to strangers. It doesn’t get any better.

She also found a page in her scrapbook about that year! You can see how wet it was even at the finish.

You can upload an image or type in a story without an image attached at our Contribution Link. Be sure you include your name and email address, and give us permission to publish your contribution at our web site. If you don’t have computer access, please feel free to stop by the Reference Desk and we can take down your story or snap a digital image of your old-fashioned paper photograph!

We look forward to hearing from you!

Postcards from Falmouth: St. Barnabas Church

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

By any measure, St. Barnabas Church is distinct. Reverend Will Mebane, Jr. recounts the history of its founding: how the Beebe family pushed to establish the parish, and chose Gothic Revivalist architect Henry Vaughan to build a church unlike any other in Falmouth. 

“We like to be known as the parish of the community,” he says, “so we are constantly opening our doors and welcoming nonprofit organizations and other entities to use our beautiful campus.” In the summer months especially, that campus is a hub of activity – for example, did you know that the 70th annual Strawberry Festival was celebrated this June? 

Explore the oral history and digital exhibit, and learn for yourself how St. Barnabas became part of the fabric of Falmouth’s community!

See our Saint Barnabas Church 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 Old Stone Dock

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

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

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

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.”

Pseudoscience & Archaeology

Posted on by Jessica O'Connor

Pseudoscience & Archaeology

How the Media Blends Fact & Fiction: ‘The Indiana Jones Effect’

Join the Falmouth Public Library on Wednesday, May 18th via Zoom from 7pm-8pm for the online lecture of Pseudoscience & Archaeology: How the Media Blends Fact & Fiction ‘The Indiana Jones Effect’ by Marie Zahn.  Registration is required.  To register online click here or call us at 508-457-2555 x7.

Marie will discuss how the evolution of science fiction has affected the public view of archaeology. Throughout the history of sci-fi, archaeological plot lines have become more popular in recent times. While this has furthered public interest in archaeology, the science fiction origins of the “ancient alien theory” have tarnished the view of legitimate archaeological studies. From H.P. Lovecraft to Indiana Jones and Doctor Who, the impact of the entertainment industry on archaeological research is examined.

Marie Zahn, a Cape Cod native, is the Director of the Brooks Academy Museum and A. Elmer Crowell Decoy Barn Museum for the Harwich Historical Society, as well as serving as the Administrator for the Historical Society of Old Yarmouth. Prior to this, she spent several years working on an early 18th century shipwreck as an archaeologist, conservator, and science education coordinator.

This free, online lecture is sponsored by the Trustees of the Falmouth Public Library.

Understanding your Cat

Posted on by Sue

We are delighted to welcome Cat Behavior and Retention Specialist Rachel Geller on Monday afternoon, March 28th at 2 pm, for a Zoom presentation by the Falmouth Public Library. She will talk about what a cat behaviorist does and the most common problems she encounters, and then answer some cat behavior questions from the audience! Click here to register and get the Zoom link.

Rachel Geller, Ed.D. is the Founder and President of All Cats All the Time, Inc. which is a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to promoting the adoption of cats and preventing their surrender and abandonment by helping cat/animal shelters and cat access cat behavior counseling free of charge.

Rachel is currently a cat behaviorist for cat/animal shelters all over the world, including working with adopters, training shelter volunteers and instituting surrender prevention programs. She also provides individual cat behavior help to cat parents. She is certified as a Cat Behavior and Retention Specialist, Humane Education Specialist, Pet Chaplain®, Fear Free Shelter Specialist, American Association of Feline Practitioners Cat Friendly Veterinary Advocate and RedRover Reader.

She is the author of Saving the World, One Cat at a Time: What I Know about Cats, and Why You Should Know It Too, which is available at the library and at Eight Cousins Books-Rachel donates 100% of her proceeds from the book to cat shelters.

This event is free and appropriate for adults and teens.