Heritage Museums & Gardens has some exciting news! If you have visited us this season, you might have gotten a glimpse of our newest exhibit, Bountiful Bogs: The Massachusetts Cranberry Story. What you might not know is that the items on view are not on loan – they are now part of our collection. In fact, Heritage now holds the largest museum collection of cranberry history in the country!

200 Years of Cranberries and Cape Cod

Heritage is proud to present the importance of cranberry history to Cape Cod, from the first planting of a cranberry bog in the Cape town of Dennis in 1816, to the success of Ocean Spray in the 1900s. As traditional Cape Cod industries like ship building, fishing, and whaling were failing, the cranberry industry grew to become this region’s main agricultural product. The cranberry harvest strengthened local family ties as they came together to pick the crop, while additional labor needs drew immigrants to the region who enlivened the area’s culture. The combination of all of these factors has cemented the importance of the cranberry to Cape Cod’s culture and global impact today.

The Peter K. Meier Cranberry Collection

While this collection is new to Heritage, we have long recognized the importance of telling the Cape Cod cranberry story. In fact, there are files showing correspondence between our former curator and Ocean Spray management about installing a cranberry exhibit at Heritage from as early as 1975! But the museum did not have the objects necessary to represent this rich history. Prior to this recent acquisition, Heritage only held three cranberry-related items in its collections – a cranberry scoop and two horse bog shoes, when we should have had a full set of four!

This changed when Heritage acquired over 2,000 items from life-long collector Peter Meier. A historian at heart, Peter spent over thirty years assembling the largest and most comprehensive cranberry collection in existence. He began his career as a heavy equipment operator and then went on to run his own excavation business in Halifax, building cranberry bogs for himself and others. Through his wide acquaintance with cranberry growers, Peter collected artifacts of cranberry history not officially on the market, placing advertisements in local and trade publications inviting people to contact him.

This unconventional collecting method is what makes the Heritage cranberry collection so diverse and encompassing. Following this acquisition, Heritage now stewards a broad assortment of historic cranberry items, including barrel stencils and labels, photographs, postcards, product packaging, advertisements, signage, ephemera, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and business records of people and companies in the cranberry industry, such as growers, vine dealers, barrel makers, equipment manufacturers, distributors, and fruit merchants. The collection also includes books, periodicals, artwork, and tools and equipment for cultivation and harvesting.

Heritage now is proud to hold the largest museum collection of cranberry history in the country! Our staff is working hard to digitize each of these items for public viewing. Over 1,000 items are now viewable on our online collections database. Heritage has also partnered with Digital Commonwealth, an online database of photographs, manuscripts, books, audio recordings, and other historical materials from institutions across Massachusetts.

As we move into the harvest season, stay tuned for upcoming cranberry programs, blogs, and videos. We are excited to share our new collection with you!