The Society is looking for help in identifying persons, places, and activities in photos dating from the 1940s-50s-60s and earlier. These "history mysteries" will be on display Friday, February 14th from 1pm-3pm. If you think you might help identify the subjects in any of the photos please call the office at 508-423-8089 or email harwichhistoricalsociety@verizon.net to sign up.
This event is FREE

While it's not quite summertime and the season for outdoor markets, many local vendors and farmers will be at the Harwich Community Center on Saturday, March 21st from 12-3pm. You’re invited to the 11th Annual “Meet Your Local Farmers” event to kick-off the 2020 growing season, meet local farmers from around Cape Cod, and learn more about locally grown products. This event is free and open to the public. There will be live music and some of the most beautiful show livestock with Seawind Meadows’ highland cattle & Fluffy Butt Farm’s Royal Palm turkeys & other poultry, Alpacas, Pigs, a Horse, & goats.

Farmers will be selling all sorts of interesting and delicious items including:
Honey, Beeswax candles and creams, fresh cut lavender, potted lavender, lavender gift items, In season fruits and veggies, Free range chicken and duck eggs, Exotic eggs including Emu, turkey, coturnix, & king quail, Cranberry products, Jams & jellies, Hot sauce, Peppers, Spice mixes, Fresh juice, Coffee beans & coffee, Cheeses, Fresh local meats: pasture raised chicken, pork, grass fed beef, & seafood, and much more!
This event is FREE

This event is now virtual! We will be sharing videos of carving demonstrations, as well as activities for children, on our website and social media. Please do NOT visit us at the A Elmer Crowell Barn on May 9th as we will be hosting this event online. 

Harwich Historical Society will open the A Elmer Crowell Barn for a special day celebrating the craftsmanship and artistry of bird carving! Watch live carving demonstrations in the original workshop of renowned decoy maker A Elmer Crowell. Select decoys and miniatures from the Museum’s collection will be on display for this event. All carvers are welcome to join us, but please bring your own tools and supplies! Hands-on activities for children will also be available.

Decoy Coloring Book

Click the link above to experience our collection in a different way with these coloring book pages of our decoys!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc-Hqo1pjXo

The premiere of Part One of our video series on The Artistry of Bird Carving! We will be releasing new videos over the next few weeks as we journey through the process of carving a decoy, with museum docent and carver, Paul Phillips.

ONE NIGHT ONLY POP-UP DRIVE-IN AT CAPE COD LIGHTHOUSE CHARTER SCHOOL

The parking lot at the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School welcomes motorists to a pop-up drive-in movie on the evening of Wednesday August 12.

Join us for the premiere open-air screening and Q&A with the filmmaker! The 90-minute film Stephano: The True Story of Shakespeare's Shipwreck follows the story of the only Mayflower passenger who had been to North America previously.

A decade earlier, Stephen Hopkins had been aboard a Jamestown-bound ship that wrecked on Bermuda, inspiring Shakespeare's final play, The Tempest. Shot on location, the intrepid Hit and Run History crew retraces Hopkins’ life crisscrossing the Atlantic. Two-time Emmy-nominated producer and host Andrew Giles Buckley, a Hopkins descendant, grew up hearing stories that New Plymouth’s iconoclast tavern keeper may have the model of The Tempest’s drunken and mutinous Stephano. In their Gumshoe Historian style, Buckley and crew of Hit and Run History seek out the reality of a man who was everywhere at the founding of America.
RESERVE YOUR VEHICLE SPOT HERE.

This FREE program is co-hosted by the Harwich Historical Society and the Chatham Historical Society , and supported in part by grants from the Harwich Cultural Council and the Chatham Cultural Council, local agencies supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

Come watch on our new 9'x16' screen and tune in on your car radio to listen -- nothing could be safer or simpler! We will have only two rows of cars for this venue. To ensure the health and safety of our guests, we ask you to register so that we can maintain social-distance for all attendees.

The parking lot will open at 7:15 PM and the program begins with a short introduction by Hit and Run History creator Buckley at 8:00 PM.

Watch the trailer here!

REGISTRATION CLOSED

Saturday, October 3, 2020. 2:00pm
Rain Date: Sunday, October 4 2:00pm

West Harwich resident and Harwich Historical Society Life Member Duncan Berry will be leading an "illustrated tour" of the Pine Grove Cemetery in West Harwich. Making use of the Historical Society’s vast collection of digitized photographs and other sources, Berry will present a cross section of the village’s more colorful and historically significant individuals, families, and institutions. Beginning with the Chase family’s multi-generational role in the preeminence of the village, the tour will present highlights from several of the many noteworthy sea captains buried here as well as discussion of two of the ministers who maintained the vitality of the Baptist Church for a century. Some of the more interesting and overlooked town characters, from physicians and talented artists, will also be discussed.

Duration: 50 minutes.

A donation of $7 to the Harwich Historical Society is requested.

Due to COVID-19 there will be certain restrictions and rules in place for this walking tour.

• Reservations will only be offered in advance. Please email info@HarwichHistoricalSociety.org or call 508-432-8089 to reserve your spot on this tour.
• Attendance will be limited and is open to all age groups, keeping in mind this is an hour long walking tour.
• Contact Tracing information will be taken at the time of your reservation.
• An appropriate face mask covering nose and mouth must be worn at all times. HHS will not provide face masks at the event.
• Social distancing will be exercised at all times.

Parking is available along Pine Grove Road.

Join us as we wave a fond farewell to the 2020 museum season at the A. Elmer Crowell Barn. We'll have live carving demonstrations and docents on hand to discuss the two exhibits currently on display in the Barn, featuring Crowell decoys and selected works of artist Helen Lay Strong.

The Barn will be closing early to allow visitors to attend a special presentation by Museum Director Marie Kesten Zahn to end the season.