Digitized Collections
Correspondence, church pew records, real estate deeds, indentures, wills and estate papers, maritime records, petitions, town warrants, church and school records, genealogical data, and other materials relating to Cape Cod history, people, organizations, businesses, and events.
The Baker Papers include letters written to Loren Dow Baker, Jr. (L.D. Baker, Jr. 1864-1950) from 1883-1899. Most significant are the letters from Lorenzo Dow Baker, Sr. (1840-1908), a Wellfleet Sea Captain, founder of the Boston Fruit Company and pioneer of the Jamaican-American banana trade. L.D. Baker, Jr., oldest son of Lorenzo Dow Baker, Sr. acted as U.S. Consular agent at Port Morant for the Boston Fruit Company from 1884-1901. Extensive letters from his family, including his mother Martha Miriam Hopkins Baker, chronicle their life in Jamaica and Wellfleet in the late 19th century.
Barnstable Patriot Photograph Collection
The Barnstable Patriot is the seventh oldest newspaper in the United States and the oldest continuous, uninterrupted publication in Barnstable County, MA. It began publication with its first weekly issue on June 26, 1830. The portion of the collection that has been digitized here covers the period from 1931 to 1978 and consists primarily of images of the town of Barnstable, but also includes images from other Cape Cod towns.
Includes nineteenth century American newspapers, pamphlets and prints documenting the anti-slavery movement in New England.
Cape Cod Advancement Plan Press Photo Collection, 1934
Ca. 100 photographs of vacationers on Cape Cod taken for the Cape Cod Advancement Plan for distribution to various society pages in newspapers across the country as a means of promoting Cape Cod as a fashionable vacation destination, 1934. A sampling is available here.
Cape Cod Association Collection
Records of the Cape Cod Association, founded in 1851, which has funded college scholarships for native Cape Codders for over 150 years.
Cape Cod National Seashore Park Collection
Transcripts of hearings before the Subcommittee on Public Lands of the U.S. House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs (86th Congress) considering various proposals for the establishment of the park, minutes of the Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission, regional inventory reports of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, National Shoreline Study (concerning shore protection), and the master plans for the park.
Cape Cod School Groups, 1896-1929
An assortment of photographs of school groups on Cape Cod assembled from several different Nickerson Archives Collections.
Cape Playhouse (Dennis, MA) Playbill Collection
Playbills and early publications from the Cape Playhouse, 1927-1973.
Biographical and position papers of Massachusetts State Senator and U.S. Congressman Hastings Keith. Includes materials on the establishment of the Cape Cod National Seashore.
Hyannis Normal School Collection
Photographs, catalogs, yearbooks, student publications, student handbooks, alumni association records and scrapbooks from the Hyannis Normal School (later State Teacher's College) 1894-2004. A sampling of photographs in the collection is available here, including some images from a 1918-1919 photograph album.
Silent, black and white films of a parade in downtown Hyannis, students at the Hyannis Normal School and more.
Sea Pines School (Brewster, MA) Collection:
The Sea Pines School was founded in 1907 by the Rev. Thomas Bickford. When he died in 1917, the school was taken over by Mrs. Bickford and the Bickfords’ two daughters, Faith and Addie. By 1910, the school was relocated to the estate of the elder William Brewster, an ancestor of the Bickford family, where it would remain until it closed in 1971. Collection includes photographs from an album, ca. 1916-1926, and photograph portraits of women who attended the school.
Tales of Cape Cod Oral Histories
Oral histories conducted with Cape Cod residents in the 1970's.