Moving Into Fall at the Truro Historical Society

As of September 30^th, The Highland House Museum has closed for 2019 after a very successful season. Our exhibitions, lectures, and events under the careful planning and scheduling of Lauren Kaufmann, Director, were very well received. The museum has never looked better thanks to the restoration efforts funded by the Truro Community Preservation Act and the Massachusetts Cultural Council under the supervision of our Clerk of the Works, Jim Summers.

The Cobb Archive will continue to be open year ‘round, with scheduled visiting hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30 to Noon and on Wednesdays from 1:00 – 3:30 PM. Our Truro Elders Listening Corner (funded by the Truro Cultural Council) will be available at the Cobb all winter long. Please stop by to listen to the remembrances of Truro elders and to see all the books, maps, photographs, and documents stored in the climate-controlled historic building that once served as Truro’s first public library. Look for more Fall/Winter events soon, including an open house, October 23^rd!

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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