Community Corner

An Exhibit on Two Former Marblehead Mainstays: Fishing and Shoemaking

Learn the history of these occupations in Marblehead by attending the new exhibit at the Marblehead Museum.

 
Information for this article came from the Marblehead Museum and Historical Society

Fishing and shoemaking were the economic life blood of Marblehead in the early years. 

Learn about their beginnings, development and demise in the new exhibit at the Marblehead Museum: Fishing and Shoemaking in Marblehead.

The museum is located at 170 Washington St.

Photographs, illustrations and artifacts portraying the history of Marblehead's two most important occupations, fishing and shoemaking are on display.   
  
The exhibit utilizes resources from the Marblehead Museum's extensive photo archives, as well as artifacts used by fishermen and shoemakers. The exhibit is part of Marblehead 101, an ongoing program from the Marblehead Museum designed to expand general knowledge about Marblehead history.     

Visitors will enjoy the variety of nineteenth century shoes on display, as well as shoemaking equipment of the period. The process of making shoes is fascinating, as are its history and traditions.  

Fishing in Marblehead was essential to the formation of the town. Illustrations of fish, fishing, and the salting and drying process help to explain the industry.  

Images and tools are visual reminders of the hard work necessary to bring caught fish to the marketplace in the days before refrigeration. Both occupations, fishing and shoemaking, were demanding jobs that required long hours of labor and returned small wages.

Often they overlapped, with fishermen making shoes during the winter months to supplement their income. The exhibit illustrates the history of these trades in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The exhibit is open to all, and there is no admission charge.

Related lectures are on Thursday Evenings at the Marblehead Museum, sponsored by the Marble Harbor Investment Counsel. $10 members $15 nonmembers. Reservations are recommended.
Call 781-631-1768. 

October 3 Standley Goodwin "John Orne, Marblehead's First Shoe Manufacturer" 7:30 

October 10 Jay Michaud "Fishing Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" 7:30 

 October 17 Anne Barrett "Clairvoyant and Fortune Teller Moll Pitcher, Daughter of Marblehead7:30

The Marblehead Museum & Historical Society

170 Washington St., Marblehead, MA 01945

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(781) 631-1768

info@marbleheadmuseum.org

Find out what's happening in Marbleheadwith free, real-time updates from Patch.


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