{"id":98485,"date":"2024-04-02T10:41:48","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T14:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=98485"},"modified":"2024-06-05T12:26:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-05T16:26:29","slug":"scrapbook-photos-of-provincetown-massachusetts-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/scrapbook-photos-of-provincetown-massachusetts-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Scrapbook Photos of Provincetown, Massachusetts (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry shares photos and newspaper clippings about Provincetown, Massachusetts, from 100 years ago. Melissa is a genealogist who has a blog, AnceStory Archives<\/a>, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

A scrapbook belonging to Cora Gray West Fuller (1866-1930), a Cape Cod newspaper woman, is my feature today.<\/p>\n

Cora was the daughter of Captain Simeon L. West<\/a> and Eliza McLean, and the granddaughter of Eben West and Harriet Lavender. She married Arthur Wheeler Fuller, son of James Fuller and Maria F. Atkins.<\/p>\n

Cora\u2019s scrapbook, containing news clippings from the early 20th century in Provincetown, Massachusetts, was given to the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum<\/a> by Mrs. Nellie Law in 1931.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Provincetown, Massachusetts, railroad depot, 1907. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Provincetown, known for its Pilgrims, prominent painters, and prismatic pageantry, has always harbored a potpourri of characters. You got your artists, sea dogs, activists, and statesmen.<\/p>\n

Mayflower<\/em><\/strong> Scion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many Provincetown residents can trace their lineage back to the Mayflower<\/em>, such as the historian, suffragist, author, and Unitarian minister Rev. Nancy Wiley Paine Smith (1849-1940). She was born to Joshua Paine and Martha Freeman Atwood, and is a descendant of Thomas Paine and Mayflower<\/em> passengers Stephen Hopkins<\/a> and Elder William Brewster.<\/p>\n

She married famed Provincetown photographer William \u201cBilly\u201d May Smith<\/a>, son of William Smith and Mary C. Johnson.<\/p>\n

Two of Rev. Nancy\u2019s books, The Provincetown Book<\/em><\/a> (1922) and A Book about the Artists: Who They Are, What They Do, Where They Live, How They Look<\/em> (1927), are still regarded as some of the best histories of Provincetown and its inhabitants.<\/p>\n

Here is a 1923 newspaper clip from Fuller\u2019s scrapbook featuring Rev. Nancy in her home at Provincetown shortly after The Provincetown Book<\/em> was published.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: 1923 newspaper clip from Cora Fuller\u2019s scrapbook featuring Rev. Nancy Smith. Credit: Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This photo caption reads:<\/p>\n

Mrs. Nancy W. Paine Smith of Provincetown<\/p>\n

Author of \u201cThe Provincetown Book,\u201d who traces her ancestry back through 10 generations of Cape Codders. She occupies a quaint, but beautifully furnished home in Provincetown.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This newspaper article also reports:<\/p>\n

Six generations of family portraits line the walls of Rev. Nancy\u2019s home. Along with antique mahogany and glass, whales\u2019 teeth, and East India conch.<\/p>\n

Rev. Nancy stated: \u201cAll my forebears to the tenth generation have lived on the shores of this bay. They made their living out of its waters.\u201d<\/p>\n

She noted: \u201cOn my father\u2019s side I am a quarter Paine, quarter Nickerson, quarter Harding, quarter Hopkins. On my mother\u2019s side I am a quarter Freeman, quarter Atwood, quarter Newcomb, quarter Eldridge.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is another newspaper clip from Fuller\u2019s scrapbook, from 1929, reporting that Rev. Nancy believed Lief Erickson, a daring Scandinavian Viking, was buried under her home.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
New York Evening Journal (New York, New York), 13 July 1929, page 2. Credit: Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to this article, Rev. Nancy spoke to a Massachusetts Library Club group and stated that history reveals that in 1004 Erickson, with a small group of followers, was attacked by Indians and his dying wish was to be buried at Provincetown.<\/p>\n

She asserted she discovered a stone wall in the Scandinavian style near her home.<\/p>\n

Painters & Pageantry<\/strong><\/p>\n

The natives of Provincetown opened their homes in the summer months to troupes of creative virtuosos.<\/p>\n

In 1921 a feature piece from the New York Tribune<\/em> dubbed Provincetown the \u201cLatin quarter of the United States.\u201d A feature illustration portrays the vibrant artist colony and melting pot.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
New-York Tribune (New York, New York), 21 August 1921, page 50. Credit: Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In this article, author Eleanor Kellogg states:<\/p>\n

Provincetown is like nothing else on earth. It is the Latin Quarter of the United States \u2013 a combination of Greenwich Village, Coney Island, and Chinatown. It has a main street which isn\u2019t Main Street but is partly a street carnival and partly an art school. Not every house is a gift shop or a tea room. Some are art shops. Some are art schools. Some are art clubs. Some are art exhibition rooms. Some are art museums. There is art in the town hall and art in the post office. The sixth annual costume ball included a bullfight and other features not known even to Washington Square. As for the post office, it boasts a bulletin board which would make that of any Greenwich Village shop or club turn purple with envy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fuller\u2019s scrapbook has photos from the festive costume balls, including one from that year, the 6th annual costume ball held by the Provincetown Art Association.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: 6th annual costume ball held by the Provincetown Art Association, 1921 (left to right): Mrs. Anita K. Philips as Egyptian beauty Cleopatria; and Mrs. J. R. Huggett. Credit: Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is another photo from that costume ball.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: 6th annual costume ball held by the Provincetown Art Association, 1921 (left to right): Mrs. William Byrd and Lawrence Grout as snake charmers; Mr. and Mrs. John and Renie Noble. Credit: Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a photo of Mrs. Isabella Luke from the 10th annual costume ball held by the Provincetown Art Association in 1925.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Mrs. Isabella Luke, garbed as the \u201cLace Queen,\u201d at the 10th annual costume ball held by the Provincetown Art Association, 1925. Credit: Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1926 Anna Goldthwaite, a well-known painter and printmaker, attended that year\u2019s costume ball. She was born to Richard Wallach Goldthwaite and Lucy Boyd Armistead of Alabama. Her grandfather, U.S. Senator George Thomas Goldthwaite, was the Adjutant General of Alabama during the Civil War.<\/p>\n

She descends from Massachusetts early settlers Ezekiel Cheever and Thomas Goldthwaite.<\/p>\n

Here she is with other party-going artists including Provincetown\u2019s famed painter E. Ambrose Webster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: 11th annual costume ball held by the Provincetown Art Association, 1926 (left to right): Harry Campbell as an 18th century gent; Miss Elizabeth Cook of Boston as a Van Dyke lady; Gerrot Beneker as the High Priest Ramfis; Anna Goldthwaite of New York as a Japanese princess; Ellen Ravenscroft as an Arabian princess; Mrs. Georgiana Rodgers Webster as a harem gal; and her husband E. Ambrose Webster as an Arab. Credit: Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To be continued\u2026<\/p>\n

Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! Start a 7-Day Free Trial<\/a><\/p>\n

Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> beachfront art class, Provincetown, Massachusetts, 1940. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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