Tag: oral history

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.

An Update on “Postcards from Falmouth,” a Local History Project

Posted on by K.C. DeWall

It was just about one year ago that Library staff kicked off the creation of an oral history grant and began recording local historians discussing landmarks and locations inspired by the Library’s collection of historical postcards of Falmouth. Although recording remains suspended in an effort to keep our community safe during the pandemic, work on the project carries on in various ways.  

First, we wish to introduce Mary Loftus, our grant assistant, who has hit the ground running and brings much experience to the project as well as a  neighborly manner and a keen interest in local history. Welcome on board, Mary!

Aside from planning more programs with speakers on local history topics, we are also completing post-production work on the oral histories we have recorded.  These recordings not only include Revered Jonathan Drury,  Reverend Will Mebane, and Rabbi Elias Lieberman; but they also include locals Donald Fish, Bill Swift, and Kevin Doyle. 

On an unhappy note, however, we were very sad to learn that one of our historians, Dick Kendall, recently passed on. Mr. Kendall grew up in Falmouth and served the town in many ways.  His account of playing baseball on the Falmouth Heights ball field is not only priceless but illustrates perfectly the exact goal of the project—preserving Falmouth’s history as told by its residents.

While we have many more local historians on deck to record as soon as we can get back into the studio at FCTV, we invite all of the community to contribute in our effort to capture and preserve memories of our beautiful town!  Here are ways you can help take part in the project:

  • Visit the Postcards from Falmouth digital exhibit and share your memories in the comment sections.
  • Interview your favorite Falmouth local historian about Falmouth “back in the day,” or share your own recollections with the Library.  Send submissions to postcards@falmouthpubliclibrary.org . Submissions may be included in the Library collection or shared through our social media.

Be sure to contact Mary if you have any questions at postcards@falmouthpubliclibrary.org or call (508) 457-2555 ext. 2951.

Celebrating the Postcard!

Posted on by K.C. DeWall

Starting this October, the postcard celebrates its 150th year and what better way to celebrate than to introduce POSTCARDS FROM FALMOUTH, a special local history project of the Falmouth Public Library that is based upon our historical postcard collection of noted buildings, landmarks, and locations within the town of Falmouth.

Introduced in 1869 as a way of sending a simple message, postcards quickly evolved beyond their practical purpose to become the universal souvenir that brightens everyone’s mailboxes.  Today, however, postcards also provide us with rare glimpses into the past and serve as a way of documenting history.

That is why we jumped at the chance when we saw the opportunity for a grant to develop projects that use historical documents–such as our historical postcard collection–to discover unknown facts and stories about Falmouth during days gone by.  After all, to collect, preserve, and share such resources is what the Falmouth Public Library has been doing since 1792!

Over the next two years, the Library will be working on creating an oral history based upon the two postcard collections generously given to the Library by Anita Gunning and Robert C. Hunt, Jr..   

So take a look at the postcards and be sure to follow the project on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

Just search #postcardsfromfalmouth 

We’ll keep you posted!

 

POSTCARDS FROM FALMOUTH is made possible through a Library Services and Technology Act grant,  which is administered through the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.