Going a little stir crazy with all this snow? If you can manage to shovel your way out of your house and you are looking for something fun to do, a trip to the Cape Ann Museum is always well worth your while. With an incredible collection of Cape Ann art work and artifacts, the museum pays special homage to the fishing and maritime history of the northshore. As mentioned in a previous post, the Cape Ann Museum is currently featuring an exhibition entitled Portraits of a Working Waterfront: Photographs by Jim Hooper. This telling collection of photographs details the faces and families of what remains of Gloucester’s working waterfront. You can read more about the exhibit by visiting the following website: Portraits of a Working Waterfront
The Museum’s archives and historical photo collection hosts more than 100,000 photos of people, places and things all relating to Cape Ann. The collection features photos from 1840-present. Some 50,000 items in the collection have been digitized and are available for study by appointment; reproduction rights are available for a fee; prints can be purchased through the Museum Shop.
From the Cape Ann Museum’s website:
The Cape Ann Museum features seven main galleries and five ancillary ones, each exploring a particular aspect of the region’s history and culture through permanent and special exhibitions. The Cape Ann Gallery provides visitors with a glimpse back at the early history of Cape Ann from the Colonial period through the mid-19th century as well as an overview of how the Museum’s collection has grown and evolved over the decades. Two of the Museum’s galleries are devoted to Cape Ann during the heyday of the offshore fishing industry when Gloucester Harbor was a forest of sails and fish harvested by fishermen from the Canadian Maritime Provinces, the Azores and Sicily were shipped across the country and around the world.
Museum information:
Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Sunday, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Admission: Adults: $10.00; Cape Ann residents, seniors and students: $8.00; Museum members and youth (18 and under): FREE
Library and Archive Hours: Wednesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.; Friday 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. by appointment