Category: Miscellany

Postcards from Falmouth: Greetings from Camp Cowasset

Posted on by K.C. DeWall
Before there was Wild Harbor Estates in North Falmouth, there was Camp Cowasset, a girls’ summer camp.   
 
According to The Book of Falmouth, the camp offered horseback riding, sailing, swimming and crafts to about 100 girls each summer, including Robert Frost’s daughter.  The campers slept in tents, and were required to bring “two pairs of black serge bloomers and six pairs of black stockings.” Activities also included dinner at the “French  table,” where only French was spoken and where Madame Mensendieck stressed correct posture, which  was thought to bring “health and poise to the growing girls.”
 
Featured in the Falmouth Historical Society’s Legendary Locals of Falmouth, the camp was owned and managed by Beatrice Hunt, or “Miss Bea,” from 1915 to 1962.  In fact, the Historical Society acquired a collection of Camp Cowasset memorabilia in 2016.  The collection includes the personal diary of camper, Miriam Thomas, who describes “her struggles with horseback riding and hijinks with her cabin-mates.”
 
Nous ne pouvons pas attendre l’été! 
 
Do you know anyone who was a Camp Cowasset camper? Contact us!
 
To see more historical postcards of Falmouth, visit our digital collection.
 

Library Land Guys Visit Our East Falmouth Branch!

Posted on by Library User

Recently we were delighted by the unexpected appearance of the Library Land Guys at our East Falmouth Branch. Who are the Library Land Guys? Since late 2017, they have visited more than 200 libraries across Massachusetts – a strong start to their goal of visiting every library in the state. So they stopped by at East Falmouth, and their first thought was:

“The main room is sunken and has a lovely stone fireplace to one side. You can imagine that it was probably the scene of some swell parties back in the day!” We imagine that it was! 

They also took note of a unique feature at our East Falmouth Branch:

“One especially nice feature – and one we haven’t seen elsewhere – is curbside service. For patrons with mobility issues, the staff will run materials out to a special parking area. It doesn’t get a ton of use, but it’s a nice example of a library finding another way to meet patron needs.”

To read the entire story, as well as their impressions of the Woods Hole Library and the Bourne Public Library, head over here. We were so happy they visited our East Falmouth Branch, and hope one day they will stop by 300 Main Street as well!

Teaticket Inn: Best Cooking on Cape Cod

Posted on by K.C. DeWall

“Long before there was Falmouth there was Teaticket.  ‘Tataket’ was the name the Wampanoag Tribe gave the area.  It translates roughly and appropriately as ‘at the principal tidal stream.'”  The Book of Falmouth

…and some might say that the Teaticket Inn was the “principal” inn for many traveling gourmands.  Owned by Joseph and Margaret (Pherson) Fish, the Inn was “a favorite stopping place” for travelers and drummers [sales people] who made the Inn their “home,” and who “greatly relish[ed] the good things prepared by ‘Aunty’ Fish as she was affectionately called.” In fact, Mrs. Fish was described in The Enterprise as the “best cook on Cape Cod,” who was “reputed to serve a hearty meal and plenty for seconds or thirds or more.”

Do you know any stories about Tataket back in the days of the Teaticket Inn?  Contact us!

#postcardsfromfalmouth

Books About Insects on The Point

Posted on by Library User

Who knew that this month’s book show topic on The Point with Mindy Todd would bring us so many listeners calling and emailing to tell us about their favorite books about insects?! Of course, every month I do the book show, and every month I prepare as if  not a single person will call us, as we want to be able to fill an hour of air time if no one calls. So, as usual, I had a pile of books about insects, and today’s co-booktalker, Dennis Minsky, had a pile of books about insects, never imagining that this would be the book topic for which, apparently, the listeners of the book show deeply care about! The titles were arriving so fast and furious that Mindy and I are not even sure that we have all the suggested titles written down! If we happened to have missed yours, do send us a note, and we will be happy to add your title to our list. 

Because there were so many titles that neither Dennis nor I had time to talk about, our lists this month include everything that we brought along even if we didn’t actually get a chance to say anything about the book. I did have a moment to mention the spectacular digital Biodiversity Heritage Library, and I recommend you all take a look! Thanks so much for all of your suggestions, and it looks like we clearly will need to do another show on insects sometime in the not too distant future!

Mindy’s Picks

The Smaller Majority: the hidden world of the animals that dominate the tropics by Piotr Nasrecki. (A shout out to the Edgartown Public Library, as the only library in CLAMS that owns this title! Do remember you can request books, using your CLAMS card (or whatever network your town belongs to) in order to request titles CLAMS does not own. Check out the Commonwealth Catalog, which you log into using your library card and your pin number, and they will send a book right to your library.)

Ant and Bee stories.

Dennis’s Picks

Journey to the Ants: a story of scientific exploration by Bret Holldobler and Edward Wilson
Honeybee Democracy by Thomas D. Seeley
The Mosquito: a human history of our deadliest predator by Timothy C. Winegard
The Last Butterflies: a scientist’s quest to save a rare and vanishing creature by Nick Haddad (Also only an Edgartown Public Library copy!)
Buzz Sting Bite: why we need insects by Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson
Bugged: the Insects who rule the world and the people obsessed with them by David MacNeal
An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles by Arthur V. Evans and Charles L. Bellamy
The Infested Mind: why humans fear, loathe and love insects by Jeffrey A. Lockwood
Ant Encounters: interaction networks and colony behavior by Deborah M. Gordon

Jill’s Picks

The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden, illustrated by Garth Williams
Sex on Six Legs: lessons on life love & language from the insect world by Marlene Zuk
Edible: an adventure into the world of eating insects and the last great hope to save the planet by Daniella Martin
The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: how Maria Merian’s art changed science by Joyce Sidman
Archy and Mehitabel by Don Marquis (also a listener pick!)
Joyful Noise: poems for two voices by Paul Fleischman
The Collector by John Fowles
Nabokov’s Butterflies edited and annotated by Brian Boyd and Robert Michael Pyle
Thoreau’s Animals by Henry David Thoreau, eduted by Geoff Wisner (which includes lots of insects!) 
Angels & Insects by A.S. Byatt
Bug Music: how insects gave us rhythm and noise by David Rothenberg

Listener Picks

The Dancing Bees: an account of life and senses of the honey bee by Karl von Frisch
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
A Field Guide to the Ants of New England by Aaron M. Ellison
Ants of North America: a guide to the genera by Brian L. Fisher
For Love of Insects by Thomas Eisner
The Songs of Insects by Lang Elliot and Wil Hershberger
The City Under the Back Steps by Evelyn Sibley Lampman
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Bringing Nature Home by Douglas W. Tallamy
The Fisherman and His Wife: a brand new version by Rosemary Wells and illustrated by Eleanor Hubbard
Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (which is a film)
The Cockroach by Ian McEwan

What Laura’s Reading

Posted on by Library User
This blog entry is brought to you by Laura Ford, otherwise known as “Miss Laura,” the FPL Youth Services Librarian.
 
On New Year’s day I read a couple of fascinating nonfiction books: The Superpower Field Guide: Moles and The Superpower Field Guide: Beavers, both written by Rachel Poliquin and illustrated by Nicholas John Frith. 
 
Most of the time I read fiction…there’s nothing like a good story to take me away. But sometimes I like a good nonfiction book, full of facts. I love learning new things. These two books are full of fascinating facts, strung together with bits of humor. 
 
Fact: Moles have two-way fur. You can’t rub a mole the wrong way like you can a cat.
 
Fact: Some moles live their whole lives underground. 
 
Fact: Someone has been folding back the corners of the mole book. Please don’t do that, it’s not good for the books! You can pick up a free bookmark at the circulation desk every time you come to the library. 
 
Fact: Beavers have orange teeth. 
 
Fact: Beavers have fur lined lips.
 
Fact: The biggest beaver dam on record is visible from space! (There was some push back on this fact when I announced it to my family. I did a little poking around and found that the fact was corroborated by a few random articles i found on the internet, but that wasn’t good enough of course. So I looked it up in our Gale Power search database, and found it in The National Geographic for Kids magazine, cited here: Kiffel-Alcheh, Jamie. “Beaver dam visible from space.” National Geographic Kids, Dec. 2010, p. 11. Gale In Context: Science,. Accessed 1 Jan. 2020.) 
 
Both of these books have quizzes and a puzzle or drawing page in the middle. Please follow the author’s suggestion and “If this is a library book, DO NOT DRAW ON THIS PAGE! Your librarian isn’t going to like that. Not one bit.” <-True!!
 
Moles and Beavers are part of a four book series. Ostriches was published this year, and there is one copy available in CLAMS (and we’re ordering another one!) Eels will be published in June 2020, and it’s already on the purchase list. 
 
When I come across a book that I like, I often look the author up in the catalog to see if they have written any other titles. Poliquin has also a book called Beastly Puzzles : a brain-boggling animal guessing game that I have put on hold to look at. And just from looking at the entry in the CLAMS catalog, I’m interested in the illustrator, Byron Eggenschwiler. Oddly enough, Eggenschwiler also illustrated Operatic by Kyo Maclear. Which just happens to be sitting in my To Be Read pile, right next to me. 
 
Have I mentioned that I love books?

Our Favorite Books, 2019 Edition, on The Point

Posted on by Library User

This morning on The Point with Mindy Todd on WCAI we talked about a few of our favorite books that were published in 2019. We had a special NPR guest star join us this morning, Petra Mayer, editor at NPR Books! What a treat! Jill Erickson, reference librarian at FPL and Vicky Titcomb of Titcomb Books were also in the studio talking about their favorite books of the year. Miss the show? You can listen online!  And if you have a favorite book that was published in 2019 leave us a comment and we’ll add it to our list.

Mindy’s Pick

Fall and Rise: the story of 9/11 by Mitchell Zuckoff

Petra’s Picks

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Gods of Shade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
One Day: the extraordinary story of an ordinary 24 hours in America by Gene Weingarten
Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles
Mudlark: in search of London’s past along the River Thames by Lara Maiklem
Midnight in Chernobyl: the untold story of the world’s greatest nuclear disaster by Adam Higginbotham

Vicky’s Picks

Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead 
Exhalation by Ted Chiang
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
This land is their land : the Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the troubled history of Thanksgiving by David J. Silverman
The pioneers : the heroic story of the settlers who brought the American ideal west by David McCullough
Shouting at the Rain by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
The Line Tender by Kate Allen

Jill’s Picks

Bibliostyle: how we live at home with books by Nina Freudenberger
Say Say Say by Lila Savage
The Binding by Bridget Collins
Born to be Posthumous: the eccentric life and mysterious genius of Edward Gorey by Mark Dery
Figuring by Maria Popova
Spring by Ali Smith
River by Elisha Cooper
Small in the City by Sydney Smith

Listener Picks

Charlotte Bronte Before Jane Eyre by Glynnis Fawkes

Adult Fiction Book in January-The Hate U Give

Posted on by Sue

Come join us on Tuesday, January 21st at 7 p.m., as our fiction book club at the Main branch returns! To kick off our Young Adult book theme, we will be reading The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. All are welcome-come pick up a copy at the Reference Desk!

“This stunning debut is about a prep school student from a poor black neighborhood, whose friend gets shot by a police officer, and the aftermath. It is a long-running New York Times best-seller, and also a critically-acclaimed movie. A timely story for our era.”

Plays on The Point

Posted on by Library User

Today on The Point with Mindy Todd, Jill Erickson and Nelson Ritschel, humanities professor at Massachusetts Maritime Academy, talked about plays to read by yourself or to read aloud with your Thanksgiving company! If you missed the show, you can always listen online. Thanks to those of you that called in, and you can always add your choices to this list by leaving us a comment. I highly recommend your reading two great articles about the joy of reading plays. One is by Dan Kois, where he talks of the deep and unique pleasure of reading plays, and the other is an article by Dwight Garner, “Submitting to a Play’s Spell, Without the Stage.”

Nelson’s Picks

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
The Little Foxes by Lillian Hellman
Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neill

Not enough time for:
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
The Price by Arthur Miller

Jill’s Picks

The Gabriels: election year in the life of one family by Richard Nelson
Red by John Logan
Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein by Marty Martin
The Clean House and other plays by Sarah Ruhl
100 Essays I Don’t Have Time To Write: on umbrellas and sword fights, parades and dogs, fire alarms, children, and theater by Sarah Ruhl
The Flick by Annie Baker

Not enough time for:
The White Card by Clauria Rankine
Betrayal by Harold Pinter

Listener Picks

Shirley Valentine by Willy Russell
The Zoo Story by Edward Albee

POSTCARDS FROM FALMOUTH: Falmouth Center’s First Post Office

Posted on by K.C. DeWall

Falmouth’s first post office was established in 1795 in the home of the Palmer family (built in 1768). According to The Enterprise, the first postmaster was Jonathan O. Freeman, followed by Joseph Palmer.  (Palmer Avenue is named after Mr. Palmer’s father, the Reverend Samuel Palmer.)  During this time, the mail arrived in town by a stage coach and was heralded by a trumpet.  Residents would “stroll by the postmaster’s home and glance at the front window to see if letters awaited them.” 

The historic postcard, pictured here, of the first vine-covered post office was mailed in 1913 for a penny. At that time, E.C. Swift was the postmaster, and the post office was located in the old Masonic building on Main Street.  The greeting on the back of the postcard reads as follows: “Dear Mother–Time goes so fast the week is [almost] gone.  Every one is well.  Auntie says you must come down.” 

Subsequently, Falmouth’s central post office had several locations around the Main Street area but ended up at its current location at 120 Main Street in 1940. In celebration of the new building, the postmaster, Charles E. Morrison, announced that there would be tours of the building and a parade down Main Street.  The festive occasion was followed by a banquet at the Village School cafeteria that offered an “elaborate menu” from a Boston caterer.  Tickets were limited to 300, and were being sold for $1.50.  The celebration culminated with a dance in the Hall School gymnasium.

Click here to view the full collection of historic postcards.

 

 

 

Postcards from Falmouth is a local history project awarded to the Falmouth Public Library through a Library Services and Technology Act Grant, administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.  The project is based upon the Anita Gunning Postcard Collection and theRobert C. Hunt, Jr. Postcard Collection.