Call it eccentric or strange, curious or just plain interesting. You’re likely to use all those adjectives and more when you visit the Mattapoisett Museum’s newest exhibit titled “Weird and Wonderful.”
Loosely based on the Victorian-age hobby of collecting objects, all kinds of objects and then putting them on display in one’s home, Weird and Wonderful is a small but very real tour de force for all ages.
On the interior perimeter reserved as gallery space in the museum’s congregant area, the building was and still is a church. You will find all manner of curiosity to delight your imagination.
Take for instance a very large, likely larger-than-life replica of a dairy cow’s ear. You might wonder why or how such an item would have been conserved and then donated to the museum. If you are a local, you’ll immediately know it’s from the Gulf Hill Dairy sign that graced Route 6 for decades.
Situated across the street from the creamery we know today as Oxford, the sign was a masterstroke of signage as visual marketing with two, three-dimensional cow heads welcoming the motoring public to stop and be refreshed with a delicious ice cream cone. The sign stayed in place for many decades, eventually succumbing to gravity, weather and time, slowly melting in the brush and the bramble that overtook the happy cow faces.
But wait. Somehow, an ear, a solitary manmade cow’s ear, was rescued and given to the museum. You will have to visit the museum to get the rest of the story.
Other items you’ll be able to view are 19th century salesmen furniture samples as well as the full-sized pieces themselves, handcuffs worn by Matthew Hiller following his capture during the Civil War while working aboard the whaling ship Altamaha, a musty cot complete with mattress springs from the famous “last whaling ship of Mattapoisett,” The Wanderer and the jaw-clenching, early dental wrench used for extracting teeth, an evil looking tool.
On that theme of early medicine, there are two displays that today we might find troubling but back in the day were common medicines prescribed without compunction, opium and morphine. The story card accompanying the display notes that, “…the drug (opium) was heavily advertised in magazines throughout the mid-1800s.” Shocking to our modern minds, people were assured it was not habit forming.
A rather timely item gracing one of the gallery walls is the 1920 registration page for women voters, the first year women were allowed to vote. There are well over 100 names listed. For museum board member and learned local historian Carol Clifford, this object holds much sentimental meaning as well as a sense of pride.
“My family is here,” Clifford said, pointing to the registration page with a board smile. Clifford pointed to the names of her departed ancestors, including two great aunts, two grandmothers and one great-great grandmother, their names well known locally, Sherman, Fowler and Heuberger. When asked how she felt about seeing her family members names listed in the register, she replied, “These women – women – signed up to vote. I feel complete pride, I’m thrilled.”
Women from the past were also featured in posters asking the public to help support the American Godmothers League for the American Soldiers in France, a bit of political propaganda, the story card states, alluding to the usage of a caring-mother motif to raise money for the war effort.
There is a Mystery Table featuring items that are yet to be identified, small hand-sized bits and bobs that intrigue the imagination and the visitor to guess what they are looking at. Concealed are the answers under a flip-up story card. There is a cannonball that was found on Pearl Street, a bible with a bullet hole, a 34-starred American flag and, wait for it … a thunder jug! Each displayed item has been painstakingly curated to provide as much detail as possible for the visitor.
The Mattapoisett Museum’s staff and volunteers have brought this tiny gem into the 21st century and continue to work as the museum evolves to the needs of the public both near at hand and far away.
In recent years, the museum has been able to catalog its vast collection using searchable databases, opening up to all interested its weird and wonderful materials. And if you are in the area, the museum grounds have also been turned into gallery space. There are historical storyboards situated throughout the petite front yard of the building, featuring significant facts and data about Mattapoisett’s historical highpoints, people, places and yes, curiosities.
Weird and Wonderful is open now through Labor Day weekend. Visit MattapoisettMuseum.org for more details.
By Marilou Newell
I read this Weird, Wonderful Exhibit article with heightened curiosity. What especially struck my interest was the reference to handcuffs belonging to Matthew Hiller. I am descended from Judah Hathaway who was first mate on the Altamaha. As a boy growing up in Rochester there were many ‘old things’ lying around the house. One was a heavy, seemingly cast iron pair of handcuffs. Not having the key I was still able to wear them for a time until my hands grew too large to fit through the openings. I never knew their history. Other items included whalebone pieces. Corset stays etched with various figures. A whalebone pie crimper that my mother used regularly and that I have to this day; still used to crimp strawberry/rhubarb pies. I didn’t keep the corset stays. Couldn’t quite figure a modern day usage for them. I only knew growing up that these items were brought home by a whaler from our family. I believe Hiller’s are related to my family, Humphrey. Not quite sure the relationship. Aside from the car dealership, some Hiller’s owned the cranberry bogs behind my ancestral house on Marion Rd. Rochester; first house on the right after the Marion town line. My great uncle, Judah Humphrey most likely was named for Judah Hathaway. My second cousin Bob Humphrey continues to live in Mattapoisett and my first cousin Ann Hathaway lives in Marion. Her father and grandfather before him owned the Marion General Store. The Humphrey and Hathaway families are intertwined over the generations.
Thank you for solving the ‘mystery of the handcuffs’.