Woods Hole Historical Museum

WHPL Annual Fabric and Fiber Sale
2022-03-13 10:00 - 14:00 (America/New_York) | MA
The background to this event is tied to Falmouth’s recent history and the now non-existent store, The Fabric Corner. That shop, Falmouth’s only fabric store, held a big sale every Super Bowl Sunday, inviting women whose family members were glued to the football game on the TV, giving the family a chance to delight noisily in the game and the women a chance to plan sewing projects. After the store burned down, the Woods Hole Library picked up the idea of continuing the sale, selling donated fabric and yarn for extremely low prices, all on one day in the winter. To tie the event even closer to the Fabric Corner’s history, the Library always holds the sale on Super Bowl Sunday, continuing the tradition of providing an escape from the roaring TV. People have always flocked in, resupplying for winter sewing and knitting projects.

WHHM Participates in OneFalmouth Community Fundraiser
2022-02-16 18:00 - 20:00 | MA
The Woods Hole Historical Museum is proud to be part of OneFalmouth, a collaboration of 14 local nonprofits working toward a common goal of raising funds together so everyone can benefit. Save the date to watch our telethon on FCTV Channel 13 on February 16, 6pm – 8pm. Donations are welcome at any time at www.onefalmouth.org.

WHHM Conversation: Meet Jacquelyn Hartman, Falmouth’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer
2022-02-09 19:00 - 20:00 | MA
February 9th, 2022
7PM, Zoom

Introducing Jacquelyn Hartman, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer for the town of Falmouth. Ms. Hartman will be interviewed by George Liles (NOAA Fisheries’ Director of Academic Programs and co-founder and director of the Partnership in Education Program (PEP) and will answer questions from the audience at our February 9th conversation.
Watch the video of this conversation:

WHHM Conversation: Filming with Drones, in Paradise
2022-01-12 19:00 - 20:00 | MA
January 12, 2022
7PM Zoom (Registration link to come.)
Brian Switzer, Woods Hole resident, former public school teacher, and FAA commercial drone pilot, will share his experiences filming Woods Hole, Falmouth and the area using drones at our inaugural 2022 Conversation.
Brian says “It’s all about the subject matter” — in reference to our region’s breathtakingly photogenic aerial views. During the Conversation, Brian will show some of his videos, share his filming process and answer questions from the audience.
Watch the video of the Conversation on YouTube

12/15/21: 2021 Members’ Holiday Party
2021-12-15 17:00 | Virtual Event
Join us for our Museum Holiday Party!
December 15, 5 PM (zoom)

Wear your holiday sweaters, hats, jewelry, and join us in our trivia competition! We will have signs from old Woods Hole and Falmouth businesses that are currently displayed in Grumpy’s Pub, and we will test your knowledge of these institutions! Prizes for the top three winners.
Bring a holiday drink or snack, and we’ll toast to a happy holiday season!

Some Falmouth signs from Grumpy’s Pub. Our trivia quiz will highlight mostly Woods Hole!
Sign up now here
Happy Holidays!

WHHM Conversation: Wampanoag Homelands on Cape Cod by Fred Dunford
2021-10-13 19:00 - 20:00 | MA
“10,000 Years by the Rising Sea: Wampanoag Homelands on Cape Cod” is the topic of Woods Hole Historical Museum’s conversation by anthropologist and archaeologist Fred Dunford
October 13 at 7 PM, via Zoom.
Dr. Dunford will focus on the manner in which post-glacial sea level rise defined prehistoric ways of life on the Cape.
In his 1997 book, “Secrets in the Sand: The Archaeology of Cape Cod,” Dr. Dunford wrote “When native peoples arrived at Cape Cod about 10,000 years ago, moving northward from the south, they found an environment entirely different from that of today. The land stretched as far south as the present day islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, a gently rolling landscape of open pine forests and grasslands that had succeeded the early post-glacial forests and tundra. The area that is now Nantucket Sound was a vast expanse laced with rivers and bogs, soon to be drowned by the rapidly rising Atlantic.
A graduate of Harvard University, Dr. Dunford earned his doctorate in anthropology at University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is currently at the Plimoth Patuxet Museums in Plymouth. He was the resident archaeologist at the Museum of Natural History in Brewster.
Watch the talk here:

08/04/21: Annual Meeting
2021-08-04 17:00 - 19:00 | MA
Join us for our (virtual) Annual Meeting on August 4th, at 5pm, featuring a talk on: “Cape Cod Archaeology: Past, Present, and Future,” by Holly Herbster, senior archaeologist with the Public Archaeology Laboratory in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
The museum’s business meeting will take place at 5 PM, and Ms. Herbster’s talk will start at 5:30 PM.
The Cape and Islands have a long history of amateur, academic, and professional archaeological investigation, examples of which are highlighted in the current Museum exhibit. Ms. Herbster will talk about how archaeological study has changed over time, what it can add to our understanding of human land use across the Cape, and how it might help tell new stories in the future.
Ms. Herbster worked with the Woods Hole Historical Museum to develop its exhibit, “Left Behind: Clues to Life in the Past,” a display on Native American archaeological sites, ranging from approximately 12,000 to 450 years ago, along with artifacts and images that tell more about the culture of the earliest inhabitants of the region.
Both members and non-members are invited to register for the meeting on the museum’s website, woodsholemuseum.org. Non-members are reminded not to vote in the museum’s business meeting.
Zoom link registration: https://forms.gle/EEEDcJKrx2toMxk56

WHHM Conversation: “Ocean Solutions for a Warming World”
2021-07-07 19:00 - 20:00 | MA
By Peter B. de Menocal, president and director, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
July 7 at 7 PM
See video of Conversation here.
The world’s oceans are fundamentally important in both understanding and responding to the climate crisis. The oceans have absorbed over 90 percent of the excess heat trapped by decades of carbon emissions and have absorbed roughly a third of those emissions, thereby greatly reducing their full climate change impacts. At the same time, these ocean changes are primary drivers of rapid changes in extreme heat and rainfall events, crop yields, fisheries, coastal inundation. These ocean changes directly impact nearly every aspect of future human sustainability. Dr. Menocal will review how and why the oceans and global climate are changing. He will discuss the new ways in which today’s global ocean research community is mobilizing to drive disruptive, high-risk, high-value research to accelerate viable climate adaptation and mitigation solutions.
Peter de Menocal is the eleventh president and director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. A marine geologist and paleoclimatologist, Dr. de Menocal’s research uses deep-sea ocean sediments as archives of how and why Earth’s ocean and climate have changed in the past in order to predict how they may change in the future.
Prior to assuming leadership of WHOI, Dr. de Menocal was the Thomas Alva Edison/Con Edison Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. He served as Columbia’s Dean of Science for the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and founded Columbia’s Center for Climate & Life, a climate solutions research accelerator.
He has received numerous awards and distinctions, including Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, AGU Emiliani lecturer, a Columbia Lenfest Distinguished Faculty award, and a Distinguished Brooksian award. He earned a doctorate in geology from Columbia University and a master’s degree in oceanography from the University of Rhode Island, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from St. Lawrence University.

WHHM Conversation: Celebrating 150 Years of Science at the Woods Hole Fisheries Lab
2021-06-09 19:00 - 20:00 | MA
By Jon Hare, Science and Research Director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, Woods Hole
Jon Hare has been the Science and Research Director of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center since October 2016. He oversees science activities related to the NOAA Fisheries mission in the Northeast region, including fisheries, aquaculture, protected species, habitat, and ecosystem science. Hare received a PhD in Coastal Oceanography from State University of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook. He was awarded a National Research Council Research Associateship in 1994 to work at NOAA’s Beaufort Laboratory and was hired by NOAA in 1997.

Jon Hare moved to NOAA’s Narragansett Laboratory in 2005, was appointed Oceanography Branch Chief in 2008 and Lab Director in 2012. Before becoming Center director, he served as a Supervisory Research Oceanographer and Acting Ecosystems Processes Division Chief, managing division research while also managing personnel and research resources at five different locations in the center.

As Northeast Fisheries Science Center Director he is now located a NOAA’s Woods Hole Laboratory, one of the five research facilities in the Northeast that make up the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. NOAA Fisheries, founded as the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries in 1871, is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. The Woods Hole Laboratory is the nation’s first marine research station, and is the founding laboratory of NOAA Fisheries, formally called the National Marine Fisheries Service..

Jon Hare’s research has focused on fisheries oceanography: understanding the interactions between the ocean environment and fisheries populations with a goal of contributing to assessments and management. He is also an expert on the effect of climate change on marine fisheries and the implications to coastal communities.

Watch the video of the June 9th conversation here:

WHHM Conversation: "Influencing the Influencers: An Evolving Approach to Driving Climate Action"
2021-04-14 19:00 - 20:00 | MA
April 14, 2021 at 7 PM (Zoom)
Woodwell Climate Research Center director Philip Duffy
and chief communications officer, Heather Goldstone
Woodwell Climate Research Center was founded in 1985 as the Woods Hole Research Center, and adopted its current name in 2020 “to recognize the urgency of the climate crisis and the importance of the founding principles that continue to guide the center’s work.” From playing a leading role in the launch of the United Nations climate change negotiation process to shaping the first corporate guidelines on climate risk disclosure, the center has impacted societal decision-making. The approach has evolved and expanded from a focus on international policy to encompass work with municipalities, Indigenous communities, faith leaders, and private sector partners.
Watch the video of the April 14th Conversation here:

WHHM Conversation: Marine Biological Laboratory’s 133 Years of Scientific Discovery
2021-03-10 19:00 - 20:00 | MA
“Marine Biological Laboratory’s 133 Years of Scientific Discovery” was the topic of the Woods Hole Historical Museum’s virtual conversation by MBL Director Nipam Patel on March 10 at 7 PM.
A video of the Conversation is here:

Dr. Patel shared the history of the MBL, an international center for research and education in biological and environmental science that was founded in 1888 and was the second scientific institution established in Woods Hole. The laboratory is now affiliated with the University of Chicago.
In addition to the lab’s history, Dr. Patel discussed how the MBL is working to expand the resident and the visiting scientist research programs, creating new educational offerings, including opportunities for undergraduates and high school students as well as other goals focusing on advancements in two major strategic research areas—imaging and new research organisms.
Dr. Patel was appointed MBL director in 2018. Prior to his appointment, he was Professor and Co-chair of the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. His scientific expertise encompasses the development of novel, genetic model organisms for biological study, which can reveal much about human biology; and the application of advanced imaging technologies to probe the fundamental dynamics of living systems. A longtime member of the MBL community, Dr. Patel has taught in the MBL Embryology course for more than 20 years. He and his wife, Edith Copenhaver, live in Woods Hole.

WHHM Conversation: 30 Years of the Woods Hole Film Festival: Celebrating the Past and Looking Towards the Future
2021-01-13 19:00 - 20:00 | MA
This event has passed but you can watch the video here:

To view the video, and all of our videos, on our YouTube channel click here.
Woods Hole Historical Museum will host Judy Laster, founder and director of the Woods Hole Film Festival, on January 13 at 7 PM for a museum virtual conversation about 30 years of the Woods Hole Film Festival. She will give a historical overview of the festival and discuss how it has grown and adapted over the past three decades. We will also get a glimpse of what the future holds for not only this festival, but the world of independent film and film festivals in a fast-paced, ever-changing landscape.

WHHM Conversation: Getting History Correct: Telling Our Story from the Wampanoag Perspective
2020-11-19 19:00 - 20:00 | MA
November 19th, 2020, 7:00 PM (Zoom)
This event has passed.
Watch the Conversation here:

Steven Peters is the creative director and co-owner of SmokeSygnals with his mother Paula Peters. SmokeSygnals focuses much of its work on historical museum exhibits and cultural art installations. It’s the largest native-owned creative agency on the East Coast. Steven is responsible for the development of historical exhibits, content and interactive attractions that challenge historical myths. His work can be seen on Newbury Street in Boston, the Box Museum in Plymouth England, the Museum De Lakenhal in Lieden, and the Pilgrim Hall Museum and Provincetown Museum in Massachusetts.
In addition, Steve provided the creative direction for the traveling exhibit “Our” Story: 400 Years of Wampanoag History, an exhibit that has been featured in Time Magazine, New York Times, BBC Radio and many other national and international publications for its ability to correct historical inaccuracies.

08/22/20: 2020 Oyster Talk & Tasting Event
2020-08-22 17:00 - 19:00 | MA
Due to the coronavirus, the 2020 Oyster Talk and Tasting event is canceled.
Information about last year’s event can be found here.

WHHM Conversation: Pandemics: Living Forward by Understanding Backward
2020-08-19 19:00 - 20:00 | MA
The Museum hosted a virtual conversation, “Pandemics: Living Forward by Understanding Backward,” on August 19 at 7 PM. You can view the recorded talk below:

In this lecture, infectious disease epidemiologist Dr. Donald Burke of Woods Hole and Pittsburgh provided a historical overview of the emergence, spread, extinction, and re-emergence of virus disease epidemics: their origins from animal species, transmission in human populations, and post-epidemic outcomes. Starting with details of the 1918 influenza epidemic in Falmouth, he reconstructed the history of this past epidemic.
The lecture title is from a quote by Soren Kierkegaard.
Dr. Burke received his medical training at Harvard, then served 23 years on active duty at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research where he led US military research on virus diseases. In 1997 he transitioned to academia to become a professor and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Immunization Research. In 2006 he became Dean of the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh, stepping down a year ago.
Throughout his career, Dr. Burke has led research on prevention and control of epidemic infectious diseases of global importance. A world renowned expert on virus epidemiology, he has authored more than 300 scientific publications and has served in senior advisory positions to the CDC, NIH, and WHO. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and recipient of the John Snow Award of the American Public Health Association. Drawing on his deep knowledge of viral epidemiology, Dr. Burke first predicted the threat posed by coronaviruses in 1997, five years before the SARS epidemic.

WHHM Conversation: New Gardening Practices and Trends
2020-03-10 12:30 - 13:30 | MA
Woods Hole Historical Museum Conversation
by Terry Soares of Soares Flower Garden Nursery
March 10, 12:30 PM
Woods Hole Public Library Lower Level
Free and open to the public (but donations accepted)
Listen to the March 10th talk here.
Terry Soares, co-owner of Soares Flower Garden Nursery, will discuss gardening practices of the past and how more environmentally friendly landscaping trends are impacting how we approach gardening. There will also be a brief discussion on the landscape at the newly renovated Church of the Messiah Parish Community Center in Woods Hole, all done with an eye on aesthetics and sustainable landscape practices.

WHHM Conversation: How Migrants from Portugal Helped Make Falmouth a More Cosmopolitan, "Creole" and Cooperative Community
2020-02-06 12:30 - 13:30 | MA
Watch video of the February 6th Conversation here.
Woods Hole Historical Museum Conversation
by Miguel Moniz
February 6, 2020, 12:30 PM
Woods Hole Public Library (lower level)
Free and open to the public (but donations accepted)
This talk will explore histories of conflict and cooperation in Falmouth after the arrival of 2,000 migrants mostly from the Azores and Cabo Verde in the early 1900s.
Research from three historical events in Falmouth history will be presented:

Early 1900s debates in the town about Portuguese racial identities (including calls for migrants from Portugal to be placed in segregated schools.)
The work of migrants from Portugal in Falmouth over the first half of the century as agricultural field workers, in domestic service, care-taking and other manual labor, in light of patronage, economic cooperation and definitions of Portuguese racial identities; and how this shaped their social mobilities over the next 50 years.
Efforts in the 1950s to feature the Portuguese migrant community as part of a marketing campaign for tourism in Falmouth (which gave birth to the “Strawberry Festival”).

In the talk, Dr. Moniz will discuss if Falmouth, after a century of having worked out difference and belonging through overlapping cooperation in internationally oriented community organizations and institutions among generations of migrant and non-migrant residents, has made the town a more cosmopolitan, “creole” and cooperative place? As a result, does this help the community today to reach across conflicts of class, economic disparity, social identity and lack of legal rights to forge convivial local relations?
Anthropologist Miguel Moniz, FLAD/Brown Visiting Professor, Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, Brown University and the Center for Research in Anthropology, ISCTE/IUL. A resident of Lisbon, Dr. Moniz grew up in Falmouth but has lived in Portugal (and been back and forth to New England) since the late 1980s.

WHHM Conversation: "Dan Clark: Marine Contractor and Woods Hole Legend"
2020-01-09 12:30 - 13:30 | MA
“Dan Clark: Marine Contractor and Woods Hole Legend” is the topic of Woods Hole Historical Museum’s Conversation on January 9 at 12:30 PM in the Woods Hole Library lower level meeting room.
Dan Clark, on right, with a member of his crew, Skip Norgeot, at work on a project in Eel Pond in Woods Hole in the early 1960s. (Photo: Woods Hole Historical Museum)
Listen to audio of the January 9, 2020 Dan Clark Conversation here.
Memories will be shared by Peter Bumpus, Tom Renshaw and Chip Shultz, who worked with Dan over the years. His major projects included building docks, repairing cables that supplied power to Martha’s Vineyard, dredging channels, and in 1965, constructing the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s R/V Lulu that served as the support vessel for the submersible Alvin.
Dan Clark, who was born in 1919 and died in 1999, also served as second mate on the WHOI research vessel Atlantis in the mid 1940s. According to the book, “Atlantis Stories,” published by the Woods Hole Historical Collection, “he quickly commanded respect as a gentleman and admiration as a skilled seaman…A mentor to many young men in town, he was a legend in his own time.”
At the Conversation, members of the audience are encouraged to share their stories and memories of Mr. Clark. The talk is free and open to the public.

09/15/19: Celebrating the Sea Around Us
2019-09-15 12:00 - 18:00 | MA
Maureen Nolan from the steering committee will represent the museum at the “The Sea Around Us” event on September 15 celebrating the legacy of Rachel Carson, presented by Woods Hole Business Association and the Woods Hole Science Community.

The festivities will kick off with kids’ activities at MBL Club and Waterfront Park at noon, followed by the Anything-But-a-Boat Race at 1 PM. After the race, the “Take Back the Beach Ball” village block party, hosted by Quicks Hole Taqueria and the Landfall, will feature free outdoor music by local bands. Luscombe Avenue will be pedestrian-friendly from 2 to 6 PM and closed to vehicular traffic for this event immediately following the race.

08/23/19: 2019 Annual Oyster Talk and Tasting
2019-08-23 17:00 - 19:00 | MA
Woods Hole Historical Museum will hold its
Annual Oyster Tasting Summer Fundraiser
on Friday, August 23, 2019 from 5 to 7 PM
on the museum grounds at 579 Woods Hole Road.
The first part of the evening will feature a talk by local oyster growers Pete Chase, Mary Murphy, and Eric Matzen of Sippewissett Shellfish Cooperative. They will explain how oysters are grown in this area and the results from the past year as well as answer questions from the crowd.
Pete could be considered one of the pioneers of modern oyster aquaculture in Falmouth, as he established his oyster growing operation in Gansett Cove. Now there are a host of people growing oysters in Falmouth, stretching from Waquoit to Megansett.
This event is your chance to learn about, and taste local oysters while you support your favorite Woods Hole museum!
$40 for members and $50 for non-members.
For more information, email whhmdirector@gmail.com.

WHHM Conversation & Tour: The Wonders of Dr. Yale's Workshop
2019-04-30 12:30 - 13:30 | MA
Tuesday, April 30, at 12:30pm
Woods Hole Public Library
Tour of Yale Workshop immediately following
The Yale Workshop
Dr. Leroy Milton Yale Jr. (1841-1906) was born on Martha’s Vineyard and lived in New York City, but his summer home was in Quissett, where he created his fascinating workshop. This workshop now sits on the grounds of the Woods Hole Historical Museum. It was the place where he pursued his many hobbies, including photography, etching, woodworking, fly-tying, and writing. As part of Art Week, Woods Hole Historical Museum volunteer Laura Reckford will take us on a virtual and then a literal tour of the Workshop, pointing out some of the treasures from the Museum’s permanent collection and giving insight into one summer resident’s life in Quissett more than 100 years ago.

2019 Model Boat Show
2019-04-13 09:00 - 16:00 | MA
Dock Yard Sales
This year’s Model Boat Show will continue the tradition of offering consignment sales for the benefit of consignors and shoppers alike. Known as Dock Yard Sales, this is a nautical flea market, operating both days of the show (April 13 – 14) in the lower level of Woods Hole Community Hall.
Model of Herreshoff S Boat; the design is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2019
For consignors, this is a great opportunity to sell any model boat-related items; for buyers, it offers the discovery of unexpected maritime gems.
Proceeds of Dock Yard Sales are split 50 – 50 with the museum so this is a nice way to support your museum and clear out your boat barn or house. Over 80 percent of consigned items sold during past Model Boat Shows!

Consigning at Dock Yard Sales is open to anyone—exhibitors, museum members, and non-museum members. We hope you and your friends will take advantage of this opportunity to consign (or donate) nautical items you no longer need. Examples of consigned items from past years include model boat kits, display models (whole or half), e.g., Herreshoff Buzzards Bay Boys Boat, Dark Harbor 17, Grand Banks Dory, Bluenose II, Boothbay Lobster Boat, HMS Beagle, how-to books, display cases, radio controls, and more.
Prospective consignors should contact Kathy Cooper with questions and/or to advance-register items to be consigned. This will streamline the process. Consignors should plan to drop off their items at the Woods Hole Community Hall on Friday afternoon, April 12th from 3 – 5 pm and reclaim any unsold items at the end of the show on Sunday afternoon.

For more information:
Kathy Cooper kathycooper61@comcast.net
Home: (508) 548-5036
Cell: (617) 371-6639

2019 Woods Hole Model Boat Show Sponsors
2019-04-13 | MA
The Woods Hole Historical Museum is grateful to the sponsors of the 2019 Model Boat Show:

Martha’s Vineyard Saving Bank
My Generation Energy
Quicks Hole Tavern
W. S. Shultz, Co.
TreehouseLodge
____________________
Brian Switzer Video
Captain Kidd Restaurant
Coffee Obsession
Hamel Roofing
Michael B. McGrath and Karen M. Murphy
Woods Hole Market

WHHM Conversation: Assessing the Value of Old and Rare Books
2019-03-26 19:00 - 20:00 | MA
Tuesday, March 26, 1:30 PM
Woods Hole Public Library
Kenneth Gloss, proprietor of the internationally known Brattle Book Shop in Boston’s Downtown Crossing, will give a talk on the value of old and rare books on March 26, at Woods Hole Public Library (581 Woods Hole Road). The event is co-sponsored by the Library and the Woods Hole Historical Museum.
Ken Gloss (left)
Mr. Gloss, who is also a frequent guest appraiser on PBS’s Antiques Roadshow, will talk in part about the history of his bookshop, which goes back to circa 1825. He is a second-generation owner.
He will also show some of his favorite finds and describe some of the joys of the “hunt,” as well as explain what makes a book go up in value. He has many anecdotes to share as well as guidelines for what to look for when starting a collection. There will be also a question-and-answer session before the conclusion of his talk.
Following the talk and question-and-answer session, Mr. Gloss will give free verbal appraisals of all books that attendees have brought with them.

WHHM Conversation: Woods Hole Whaling, by Dr. Jim Hain
2018-11-13 12:30 - 13:30 | MA
A Woods Hole Historical Museum Conversation about Whaling in Woods Hole
November 13th, 2018, 12:30 PM, Woods Hole Public Library
Candle House in Woods Hole in the early 1900s. Robert C. Hunt Jr. postcard collection, Falmouth Public Library.
The stone Candle House on Water Street, which now houses administrative offices for the Marine Biological Laboratory, is a reminder of a time 175 years ago when Woods Hole was home port for a number of whaling ships. In “Woods Hole Whaling: A National and Global Enterprise from a Small Village,” Dr. Jim Hain will present the history of whaling in Woods Hole.
Today, ships and researchers from the village sail the oceans seeking knowledge directed to the conservation of whales. In a past time, the ships and people sailed widely to harvest the whales. As with Texas and Louisiana today, the raw materials then were brought to a refinery or manufactory―in this case, the Candle House in Woods Hole, used for storing whale oil and manufacturing spermaceti candles.
Dr. Hain has assembled details from logbooks, account books, narratives, photographs, videos, cemeteries, and the work of other authors to paint glimpses of Woods Hole, whaling voyages, and the whaling related products manufactured and sold from the village.
Dr. Hain has worked at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Sea Education Association, and is currently affiliated with Associated Scientists at Woods Hole. He has done research from Newfoundland to Brazil. One of his current projects is studying and monitoring right whales and their calving in coastal waters of northeast Florida, where he works from December through April.
The conversation will be held at Woods Hole Public Library lower level meeting room and is free and open to the public.

A Talk about Cod and the Cape by John Cumbler
2016-06-28 13:00 - 14:00 | MA
The Woods Hole Historical Museum is honored to present Professor John Cumbler who will speak on June 28, 2016, at 1 PM. Dr. Cumbler, a popular and awarded history professor at University of Louisville. His fields of specialization are United States environmental history and economic history. He has recently published his seventh book “Cape Cod: An Environmental History of a Fragile Ecosystem”. The book is an economic and environmental history of Cape Cod. The subject of his talk in Woods Hole will be “Cod and the Cape”, a subject which will tie into the Museum’s new exhibit about historic cod fishing.
Dr. Cumbler is on phased retirement and splits his time between Louisville and Wellfleet. He is a trained and certified rescuer of large marine mammals and sea turtles.
The talk is free and open to the public and will be held in the lower level meeting room of the Woods Hole Public Library, adjacent to the Museum at 581 Woods Hole Road. There is metered on-street parking as well as small lots at the Museum and Library. The Museum exhibits will be open before and after the talk. For more information, call the Museum at 508-548-7270.

A Conversation About Shellfishing
2016-05-24 13:00 - 14:00 | MA
The next “Conversation” sponsored by the Woods Hole Historical Museum will be a historical look at shell-fishing in Falmouth. The Conversation is scheduled for Tuesday, May 24 at 1 PM in the meeting room in the lower level of the Woods Hole Public Library, 581 Woods Hole Road, adjacent to the Museum.
The speaker will be Matt Weeks, who comes to the subject with not only a lot of on-the-water knowledge, but also a deep curiosity and skill in searching historical documents. Matt was the fisheries technician for the Town of Falmouth for two years, and helped oversee the creation of oyster rafts in Little Pond, among other duties. Since then, he has moved on to become a self-employed shellfisherman, with an oyster grant just outside Waquoit Bay. He works that grant, and also participates in wild harvest.
He has found the time and energy to do serious research in the historical records in the Falmouth Historical Society archives and the Falmouth Public Library, gleaning information about shellfishing dating back to 1770s. He will talk about the results of that effort.
Matt will share his findings relating to Falmouth’s shellfish resources for more than two hundred years starting in the 1770s. He will touch on past management of the resources, showing images of the historical records and ledgers, including early concerns about Oyster Pond’s oysters starting in in 1773, the first oyster grants awarded in 1852, and seeding local ponds. He will include details on aquaculture and natural resources and their changes through time.
In trying to clarify and analyze oyster grants, he has created tables showing location of grant, date, and the grantee, stretching all the way from 1852 to present, and for the first time providing a historic and comprehensive look at the Town’s grants. He has also studied the more recent official town records relating to shellfish up to the present and will present an overview of those reports.
As he says of his research “My goal was to build some institutional memory that could shed some light on what has been done in the past and how we got to “now”. I also hope to glean from the documents some reflection of the ecological history of our resources and how they were utilized and changed. This would hopefully help put current management into a long- term historical perspective.”
As he studied the records, he also found interesting bits about other fisheries, which he will also share, including the first scallop permits in 1898, and concerns in the 1920s about fish weirs, seines, and a herring house.
It all promises to be an informative and very interesting presentation, proving, as the Museum’s Director Jennifer Gaines says “Matt proves how important and vital a study of the historical documents can be, enlightening us about our lives and town today.” She adds “This is great; it is as if we all are looking right at those documents; it’s fascinating!”
For more information, call the Museum at 508-548-7270.

Underwater Archeology: A Talk by Raymond Hayes
2015-10-15 13:00 - 14:00 | MA
The Woods Hole Historical Museum marked Massachusetts Archeology Month (October, 2015) with an illustrated talk by Raymond L. Hayes, Ph.D. about his underwater archeological survey of Great Harbor, Woods Hole.
Dr. Hayes, who is a research associate at the Institute of Maritime History in the Smithsonian Institution, finds Great Harbor particularly interesting because it has several unusual features for Cape Cod: a very deep area in its south-east quadrant, providing a deep-water anchorage, historical docks on the south-east edge, as well as the Pacific Guano Company docks farther north into the harbor where ships would tie up when returning laden from the Pacific islands. He will share the results of his surveys both under-water and on the shores.
Old bottle found in Great Harbor (Raymond Hayes)
Ray Hayes is Professor Emeritus and former Assistant Dean for Medical Education, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC. He completed his college education at Amherst College and holds post-graduate degrees from The University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). He has served on faculty at several medical schools, including Harvard, the University of Pittsburgh, Morehouse, Howard University and the University of the West Indies (Mona, Kingston, Jamaica).
He is former Vice-President, distinguished honoree and a life member of the Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean, a member of the MBL Society (Woods Hole) and a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Global Coral Reef Alliance (Cambridge). He is also a Fellow and lifetime member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Ray holds licensure as a NAUI SCUBA instructor. He has served as an Associate Member of the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology and is currently on the Ethics and the UNESCO Committees for the Society for Historical Archaeology. He is on the Board of Directors for two international maritime archaeological societies, the Institute of Maritime History and the Stichting Marien Archeologie Curaçao (STIMACUR). He is also a research volunteer and consultant at the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, Underwater Archaeology Division, D.C. Navy Yard.
Milk bottle found in Great Harbor. (Raymond Hayes)
He has co-authored chapters in two books on Caribbean Maritime Archeology, edited two textbooks on Underwater Archaeology and presented research papers before the World Archaeological Congress, the Society for Historical Archeology and the Mid-Atlantic Archaeological Conference. Within the past year, he co-authored a book on the underwater archaeology of a British steamship, SS Mediator (1884, Curaçao) and published results of historical anchorage surveys on the Caribbean islands of Dominica and St. Kitts. Ray is a resident of Woods Hole, MA and Silver Spring, MD. He is married with three adult children and four grandchildren.
