Recently many visitors to Heritage have been saying the same thing – they want to hear more local stories. We listened! This season the Heritage Highlights exhibit in the Art and Carousel Gallery features items made or used by Cape Codders. Some were given to loved ones as gifts. Some were handmade to be purchased by neighbors. Some documented educational achievements. They aren’t so different from the objects that we make, use, and treasure today.

Notably, many of these items are recent acquisitions. The Heritage collection is always changing as we add new items to expand the number and types of stories we can share. The recent additions to the collection that are on exhibit for the first time include: a painted leather fire bucket from Sandwich that was made about 1870 for the town’s first piece of firefighting equipment, a hook and ladder truck; a trade sign in the form of a pocket watch from John Baxter’s West Dennis jewelry store; a broadside advertising the Barnstable County Fair in its fourth year in 1848; and a large and colorful needlework from 1835 documenting the family of Seth and Ruth Nickerson of Provincetown completed by their daughter Ruth.

The Heritage Highlights exhibit also includes some rarely seen favorites, including: a doorstop in the shape of a lion made at the Manomet Iron Works about 1850 in Bournedale; a handmade violin crafted by Sandwich resident David Percival in 1840; a friendship quilt stitched by residents of North Falmouth for their children’s teacher Emly Spring; Ralph Cahoon’s painted view of Sandwich; a selection of silver made by Cape Cod silversmiths; and a delightful set of hand-drawn maps completed by students at a local school in the 1830s.

New exhibitions provide an opportunity to delve deeper into the history of the items being displayed. For example, I conducted primary source research and discovered the name of the teacher for whom the friendship quilt was made. Now the story of that quilt is more meaningful. After all, that’s what museums do. We save items from the past and share their stories to make connections between the past, the present, and the future. Perhaps you will discover a story that speaks to you.