CAPE COD MUSEUMS
WOODS HOLE HISTORICAL MUSEUM
Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543
On the museum campus are the Bradley House, where the museum galleries, archives, shop and offices are located; the Small Boat Museum; the Yale Workshop, and the Small Boat Restoration workshop.
Bradley House was built around 1804. Two galleries show exhibits that change each year. The third gallery contains a permanent scale model of Woods Hole, circa 1895.
The Small Boat Museum in the Swift Barn, which was built in 1877 by E. E. Swift, has displays that include an 1890s Woods Hole Spritsail boat, a Herreshoff 12 1/2, a Cape Cod Knockabout, a Mirror dinghy, a 1922 Old Town canoe, a Woods Hole Chamberlain dory and many boat models and maritime artifacts. There is a children’s inter-active exhibit where children can climb aboard the Cape Cod Knockabout Penguin.
The Yale Workshop, circa 1892, recreates the domain of a 19th century Renaissance man who summered in Quissett. The shop contains a display of artifacts, many original, as well as some acquired as representative of the era, including books, maps, 19th century tools, equipment, etchings and artifacts appropriate to Dr. Yale’s interests.
Behind the Small Boat Museum are the workshops that house the boat restoration program. Every Saturday morning students of all ages get together to learn the art and skills of building wooden boats.
The Walsh Memorial Garden is dedicated to the memory of Michael Walsh, a gardener from North Wales, who came to work in 1877 on the Joseph Story Fay estate in Woods Hole. It was here that Walsh hybridized many world famous Rambler roses.
