The Martha’s Vineyard Museum is committed as a museum to inspire interest and understanding of the island’s unique history, culture and physical characteristics by collecting, preserving and presenting relevant materials and information to a wide audience. In order to achieve these goals the Museum will:
- Present
educational programs
- Add to its museum, library, and archive collections
- Actively involve the people of Martha’s Vineyard
- Mount exhibitions on a variety of topics
- Support scholarly research
- Produce publications
The Martha's Vineyard
Museum was originally known as the Dukes County Historical Society. It was founded
in 1922 and incorporated the following year. The first acquisitions of collections
for the DCHS were revolutionary era documents. The founders of the DCHS devoted
a great deal of their time, energy, and resources in the documentation of the
Island's role in American history and the community's involvement in the maritime
industry. In 1996 the name was changed to the Martha's Vineyard Historical Society
to reflect the main emphasis of the institution's collections which are strictly
those concerning Martha's Vineyard. The only other town within Dukes County is
Gosnold on the Elizabeth Island of Cuttyhunk, which now has its own museum and
historical society.
In the early years of the organization, libraries,
churches and private homes were all used as meeting places for the Society. In
1932, the Cooke House in Edgartown was acquired and served as the permanent headquarters
for the Society. While retaining its architectural integrity, this colonial structure
(c.1740) was converted into offices and exhibition space.
Open every
summer, the Society's collections and membership grew. As a result of a space
crunch, the DCHS purchased the property adjoining the Cooke House in 1947. Several
new structures were built on this acquired land. The first new structure was a
small tower built to highlight an original 1854 Fresnel lens.
The lens
had been removed from the Gay Head lighthouse and was given to the Museum by the
Coast Guard. The second new structure was a library building opened in 1954. As
the collection continued to expand, a new wing was added to the library (1978)
to house a permanent maritime exhibit as well as provide archival storage space.
In 1989 the Captain Francis Pease House (c. 1840) adjacent to the library was
purchased. This building provided space for offices, collections storage, exhibitions,
a conference room, and a museum shop. The present Edgartown campus is about one
acre in size, and is located two blocks from the Whaling Church and the shops
on Main Street.
Beyond our on-campus buildings and exhibits, the Museum
was given the stewardship of the Gay Head, East Chop, and Edgartown lighthouses
in 1995. The Museum offers interpretive sunset tours of the Gay Head and East
Chop lights on summer weekends. The MVM also owns a Catboat. This beautiful sailboat
represents a time when Island families relied on these boats for their economic
livelihood. The MVM offers charters of the boat during the summer months.
In 2006, the organization decided to change its name from the Martha's Vineyard
Historical Society to the Martha's Vineyard Museum. The new name is intended to
better reflect the organization's mission and its extensive holdings of three-dimensional
objects, archival documents, historic books and photographs, paintings, and museum
exhibits. Indeed, the MVM is also seeking to expand its existing outreach programs.
The MVM remains committed to aiding in the education of Island school children
as well as in offering Island residents adult education programs. The organization
is also committed to the documenting of the Island's history through its Oral
History Center.
Today, the Museum has 1100 individual, family, and business
memberships. It is open to the public year round. It has a professional staff
of 10 and publishes The Dukes County Intelligencer, a quarterly journal of Vineyard
history, as well as other significant books, guides, novels and brochures.
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