Wellfleet Historical Society Museum

266 Main Street
Wellfleet, Massachusetts, 02667
Telephone (508) 349-0157

Open late June through early September
Tuesday and Friday 10-4 p.m.
Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday 1-4

Historical Societies

Historical Societies are groups of private citizens organized to preserve traditions and customs of past communities, and are often identified with specific geographical areas, sites or buildings and associated with collections of artifacts preserved in a surviving building or Museum.

Wellfleet Historical Society

In Wellfleet formation of an Historical Society was first discussed in 1950 at a public meeting of about fifty interested people. The following June The Wellfleet Historical Society was incorporated “to collect, house and preserve objects of historical interest connected with the early settlers of the

Exhibition of weavers raw materials and tools in Wellfleet Historical Society Museum

Town of Wellfleet and intimately associated with their homecraft and industries.” *

From the beginning, members of the Society shared generously from family archives and treasured collections for exhibits in a small display case in the Public Library. It soon became clear, however, that space for permanent exhibitions was needed, and when the Town offered to sell the Society, for five thousand dollars, a building that had once been the Library and later Town Offices, members rallied to buy it. Lydia Doane Newcomb, a charter Historical Society member, and first Curator of Exhibitions, helped finance the purchase with her “burial money.” Miss Newcomb was Curator from 1951 thru 1964, succeeded by Helen Purcell who served until 1974, when Helen Olsen followed her, also serving for ten years. Joan Hopkins Coughlin is the current Curator of The Museum. The Society Museum is open free of charge from late June through early September, and is the starting point for popular Walking Tours led by Historical Society docents.

* History Museum Preserves More Than Artifacts, Larry Peters, The Cape Codder, July 30, 1996