2016 Highland House Event List

Philip Hoare: The Screening of ‘The Hunt for Moby-Dick’
May 5, 6pm Truro Public Library

Open House and Living Legacy Reception
June 3, 4–6 pm

Massachusetts Walking Tour – Bipedal Concert Tour
June 12, 6pm

From Bean to Bar – Chequessett Chocolate, Small Batch Chocolate Making: Katherine Reed and Josiah Mayo
June 29, 7pm

Thoreau’s ‘Cape Cod’: A Colloquium Led by Helen McNeil-Ashton
July 6

The Cape Cod Jazz Quartet
July 13, 7pm

Thoreau’s ‘Cape Cod’: A Marathon Community Reading of the Full Text
July 15^th – 9am – 4pm

Open House and Reception – Forest to Farm: Truro’s landscape before and after Thoreau
July 15, 4–6 pm

National Park Service: Its Legacy and Its Future: Roundtable Discussion on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service
July 16, 10am – Truro Meeting House, 3 First Parish Lane, Town Hall Hill, Truro

Evidence on the Land: How humans created the landscapes of Truro, from the Woodland people to the “Saints and Strangers” to backyard conservationists: Mark Adams
July 20, 7pm

Three Centuries at Tashmuit: A Time-Traveler’s Tour of the Highland Area: Peter Burgess
July 27, 7pm

How to Move Something Really Big: The 1996 Relocation of Highland Lighthouse: Bill Burke
August 3, 7pm

Truro: How land use history has shaped our current landscape: Deborah Merriam
August 10, 7pm

Truro Historical Society Annual Dinner
August 13, 6pm

Farming with Children – Growing Food, Health and Community through Children’s Gardens: Francie Randolph
August 17, 7pm

Outer Cape Chorale Chamber Singers
August 24, 7pm

Edward Hopper: Capturing the Outer Cape Light – Lisbeth Wiley Chapman
August 31, 7pm

Bob Masson’s Cemetery Tour
September 11, 12:45 – 3pm

Opening lecture for Truro Treasures: Highland Lighthouse
September 16, 3pm

Photographers Day
September 18 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm

Season’s Closing Open House

September 24, 1-4pm (free admission)

Philip Koch: Edward Hopper’s Legacy on Cape Cod
Saturday, September 24, 6-7 pm

Photographers Day
Date to be determined

The Cobb Archive houses maps, charts, books, photographs, family memorabilia, and other historical documents. This 1912 building was designed in the Arts and Craft style and originally served as the town’s first public library. Located in Truro Center, the Cobb Archive is accessible to the public for research.
Open by appointment, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, 9:30 AM-12 PM
13 Truro Center Road
508-349-0200
To schedule an appointment, send an email to [email protected].

A joint project of the Truro Historical Commission and the Truro Historical Society, this guidebook was created to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower in Cape Cod Bay in 1620 and is an update of the 1984 guide that celebrated the 275th anniversary of the founding of Truro.

Click here to download the guidebook: Historic Truro Tours

This program was supported in part by a grant from the Truro Cultural Council, a local agency that is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency. Funding for printing was also provided by the Truro Chamber of Commerce, Truro Part-Time Resident Taxpayers’ Association, and Truro Vineyards of Cape Cod. Chuck Steinman, Editor and Graphic Design, Truro Historical Commission.

Our Support for Racial Justice

The Truro Historical Society (THS) supports the peaceful Black Lives Matter movement for racial justice that is taking place in the United States and around the world. “Liberty and justice for all” means justice for Black and Indigenous populations, and for all people of color.

Museums and archives are not neutral spaces. Because we interpret history, we have the responsibility of presenting the past as fully and accurately as possible, including painful and uncomfortable aspects. The past feeds into the present, and when a community actively engages with its past, it can use its understanding to make a better society.

Truro was founded on land that had been inhabited by Native People for thousands of years, but these people were displaced by English settlers. There were enslaved people and indentured laborers enduring near-slavery conditions in Truro. In 1754, the town’s first minister, Reverend John Avery, bequeathed to his children three African-American enslaved men and “my Indian Girl Sarah.”

After reflecting on the “settler privilege” that most of us enjoy, the THS decided in late 2019 to mark the 400^thanniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival with a decolonial exhibition celebrating Truro’s first inhabitants, the Wampanoag Nation, from its origins to today. During the postponement caused by the coronavirus, the THS will continue to consult with Indigenous scholars and community members. We will increase our commitment to diversity and inclusion. As a token of our commitment, the THS wishes to share the Land Acknowledgment we have prepared in consultation with members of the Wampanoag Nation. This statement will stand at the entrance to the Highland House Museum’s permanent exhibition about the Paomet and the Wampanoag peoples.

Land Acknowledgment

The Highland House Museum stands on the traditional homeland of the Paomet Tribe, members of the Wampanoag Nation, who have inhabited Cape Cod for more than 12,000 years and who knew this part of Truro as Tashmuit. The Truro Historical Society acknowledges the displacement, suffering, and forced assimilation of the Wampanoag and other Native Peoples caused by European contact and colonization. We honor the struggles of the Wampanoag, People of the First Light, and support their resilience, and we ask museum visitors to reflect on our shared responsibility to maintain social justice.

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