This exhibit utilizes resources from the Marblehead Museum’s extensive photo archives, as well as objects 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.  

September 2013 through September 2014