Category: Postcard Project

Postcards from Falmouth: Falmouth Historical Society

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

Based right in the heart of town, the Falmouth Historical Society – also known as the Falmouth Museums on the Green – has a story for each feature of its historic campus, and a dedication to preserving those stories for future residents and visitors. Former director Mark Schmidt takes us on a tour through the Museums’ past, present, and future, with an emphasis on one important point: today’s events are history in the making.

 

 

“We tend to think that if it happened in our lifetime it’s ‘not cool,’ or just not that important,” he says. He points out that history doesn’t start and end with Colonial houses and 18th century French wallpaper: “We’ve gone through some pretty major things in our lifetime.”

Tour the Falmouth Historical Society with Mark Schmidt 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.

Postcards from Falmouth: Main Street

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

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.

Postcards from Falmouth: the East End Meeting House

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

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

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

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.

Postcards from Falmouth: Falmouth Center

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

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

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

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.

Postcards from Falmouth: First Congregational Church

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson

The First Congregational Church of Falmouth may be a downtown icon, but it didn’t start life on the village green. Its first iteration was built at the site of the Old Burying Ground, and it had several different incarnations before it arrived at its current home. In this oral history interview, Reverend Jonathan Drury charts the course it took and highlights the details of the church we know today, from the Falmouth granite in its foundation to the bell in the steeple, cast by none other than Paul Revere.

While the First Congregational Church has deep roots in Falmouth’s past, Reverend Drury also emphasizes the way it looks toward the future. “Our congregation should be open and available,” he says, “as a place where people can feel not the divisiveness but the potential that exists in harmony.”

Visit our First Congregational 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.

Unearthing Local History & Scientific Samples

Posted on by K.C. DeWall

There are plenty of gems in our historic postcard collection, from views of old Falmouth industry to vacation spots that survive only in memory. Even among them, this 1984 membership postcard from the MBL is unusual! The front image of this postcard is an 1897 photograph of MBL students performing fieldwork at Quisset Harbor, and the woman in the center is Gertrude Stein. Her brother Leo holds a sample jar up beside her.


Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) is best known as one of the central figures of the Lost Generation: an unconventional poet, writer, and artist who pushed the boundaries of her arts during the chaos of the World Wars. But before she became the Gertrude Stein the world remembers, she considered a career in medicine. In the summer of 1897 she came to Woods Hole to take an embryology course at the MBL. (Read more here!)


She never did receive her medical degree. Instead she left the United States for thirty years, and went on to publish, provide wartime medical aid, and befriend and inspire the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Henri Matisse, and James Joyce.


Between their pictures and messages, postcards unearth some unusual samples of history. Take a look at our collection and see what you can discover about Falmouth!

A Gertrude Stein reading sampler from FPL:

The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, by Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein: Selections, edited by Joan Retallack
Gertrude Stein Has Arrived: The Homecoming of a Literary Legend, by Roy Morris

 

Postcards from Falmouth is made possible through a LSTA grant administered by the MBLC.

Falmouth At Home

Posted on by Phoebe Acheson
We miss you, our patrons, and decided we would like to try to connect with you in a different way while the building is closed. So, we are introducing two new programs that we hope you will enjoy, and participate in. One involves photographs, and one involves postcards. Please share this with all of your Falmouth friends, neighbors, and family. 
 
The first project is what we are calling “Falmouth at Home” … as a way to document some of what is happening in the town during the pandemic. We are beginning by asking you to send us a photo of your home bookshelves or magazines you are reading or what you are streaming or what podcast you are listening to.  You could even send us a photo of the library books, dvds, or cds that were the last things that you checked out from FPL before we had to close our doors. And, if you would like to tell us the story behind what you are reading or listening to or watching, we’d love to hear it. You can send your photos to fpldigital@falmouthpubliclibrary.org. Please make your subject FALMOUTH AT HOME.
 
The second is a Postcard Project. We have been thinking about all of the people who are alone or who don’t have the internet at their homes or who are just bored with staying inside, and decided what we could do is send them postcards! (And maybe they would even send us one back.)
 
Linda Collins, our director, and Jill Erickson, Head of Reference & Adult Services (and once a month book talker on WCAI, and your author)  participate in something called Postcrossing.  This was part of the inspiration for our project. The library also got a grant that involves historic postcards of Falmouth, which you can read about here. So it seemed like a great idea.
 
We have started with a pile of postcards, stickers, and stamps, and we are  sending out postcards this week. I kicked it off by sending out three postcards last Friday, so check your mailboxes! We just want to say hi, ask you what are you reading or watching or listening to, and wish you well. If you know someone that you think would like a postcard or you would like a postcard, just send us the mailing address to fpldigital@falmouthpubliclibrary.org. Please make your subject POSTCARD PROJECT.
 
We look forward to the day that we can reopen the doors of our libraries, and see you in person, but in the meantime we thought sharing postcards and photographs would be a way to stay in touch. Be well. 
 
If you need to talk to someone, we have limited staff in the building Monday – Friday from 9-5. You are welcome to call us during those times. Please call our regular number 508-457-2555.