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The Ipswich Historical Society was founded in 1896 by the Reverend Thomas Franklin Waters, the author of Ipswich in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Volume I was published in 1905 and volume II in 1917. These two volumes are an encyclopedia of the history of the town.
The Ipswich town meeting of 1964, in order to take advantage of possibly available state and federal funds, voted into existence an Historical Commission, an official town body which is responsible for the preservation of the town’s historic resources. The Town Historian is a member of the Historical Commission and created this website.
In 2010, the Ipswich Historical Society was renamed the Ipswich Museum, featuring two significant properties, the Heard House built in 1800, and the Whipple House, dating to 1677.
The Ipswich Museum, originally called the Ipswich Historical Society, was organized in 1890 by the Reverend Thomas Franklin Waters, during what is known as the American Colonial Revival. Waters, a scholar of high regard and a friend of the well known preservationist George Francis Dow, gathered together a group of friends who, like him, wished to collect and preserve documents and artifacts related to Ipswich. As he noted in his 1896 address before the Society:
“… a town so rich in historic remains, and so famous in the early annals of the Commonwealth should have a local Historical society, to foster systematic and accurate antiquarian studies and promote a popular acquaintance with its brilliant history.”
In the early years, the Society met in the studio of Mr. Arthur W. Dow, the renowned Ipswich artist and educator. In 1897, Mr. Waters’ scholarly research on Ipswich’s colonial days and the town’s extraordinary number of “First Period” houses lead him to advocated the purchase of one of particularly important old house:
“One of our old houses, the very oldest in all probability, is fast falling into complete decay, the old Whipple house, as I must call it, now owned by Mr. James W. Bond. In its day it was a grand mansion, and some of its rooms are inspiring to-day even in their ruin. Is it not worth our while as a Society to purchase it if it be possible, and repair and restore it to some semblance of its old self?”
In Waters’ mind, the Whipple House was “a link that binds us to the remote Past and to a solemn and earnest manner of living, quite in contrast with much of our modern life.” While Ipswich could claim more First Period houses than any other community in America (meaning, those built between 1625 and 1725), “none can compare” to the Whipple House, according to Waters. In 1898, the Society dedicated the Whipple House as their new home. In 1927, the House was moved to its current location from its original site near the town center (at the corner of Market and Saltonstall Streets, near the Ipswich Hosiery Mills).
The current headquarters of the museum, the Heard House, was purchased from the Heard family in 1939. With the additional space, the Society was able to expand its program to showcase later centuries of Ipswich history including a collection of works by the nineteenth century “Ipswich Painters, “including Society founder Arthur Wesley Dow, as well as other collections dating to the early twentieth century.
In 2010, the Society was renamed the Ipswich Museum to reflect the growing number of programs, educational initiatives, and expanded efforts to celebrate the long and rich history of the town.
Furnishings
The Museum’s furniture collections range in date from the 17th to 20th centuries. The 1677 Whipple House features early furniture crafted in Ipswich and nearby towns arranged to show scenes from daily life in the 17th and 18th centuries. Highlights include two Dennis chests, Gaines chairs, and period blanket chests.
Fine Arts
The Museum owns the largest single collection of works by Arthur Wesley Dow, including oils, watercolors, woodblock prints, cyanotype and black-and-white photographs, and plaster molds. The Museum also exhibits a collection of works by a group of artists known as the Ipswich Painters, who gathered around Dow in Ipswich during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Other highlights of the collection include two portraits attributed to Lamqua, a Chinese artist who was a student of George Chinnery, portraits of members of the Heard family including two by William Morris Hunt, and a marble bust of Augustine Heard. Early paintings and prints are on display at the 1677 Whipple House.
Decorative Arts
Special items include Chinese porcelain and other objects purchased by members of the Heard family and Wilcomb family. Also on display are examples of Japanese porcelain and American silver from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Textiles
Special items in the collection include a sample of Trapunto quilting ca. 1650, a linsey-woolsy coverlet, samplers made by Ipswich girls, a gold-thread and embroidery piece, early embroidered “scenes,” and Chinese silk shawls.
Lace
The Museum’s collection includes lace made by women in the late 18th century, including the kind of black Ipswich Lace purchased by George Washington for his wife, Martha. Between 1789-90, 600 Ipswich women were recorded as lace makers. Ipswich was the only town in America making bobbin lace commercially. The collection also includes pillows and bobbins used by Ipswich lace makers.
Domestic Objects
Shown at the 1677 Whipple House are early cooking utensils, spinning wheels, reels, wool winders, weasels; cheese making; mortars, pestles; candle molds, a collection of oil lamps and lanterns, pewter dishes and stoneware dishes. Items at the 1800 Heard House date to a later period, including women’s toiletry objects, sewing baskets, men’s walking sticks, and children’s toys and games.
Military
The Museum’s collection of guns dates to the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War. Also featured are a collection of items belonging to the Civil War hero Col. Nathaniel Shatswell, including camp equipment, his uniform, and saddle.
Carriages
The 1800 Heard House carriage house contains a fine collection of late 19th century carriages, sleighs, a surrey, and a park drag.
Photographs
The Museum’s large collection of photographs dates from the late 19th century to the present, and includes images of mills, bridges, street scenes, and daguerreotypes.
Historic Books
The Museum houses the Ipswich Religious Library which was founded in 1791 and is the first circulating library in Ipswich. Other rare books include Anne Bradstreet’s Several Poems (1678) and two 17th-century Geneva Bibles.
Personal Papers
The Museum has a large collection of journals, wills, deeds, and letters dating from 1636. This includes papers relating to the Heard family and many other prominent families in Ipswich, including letters, journals, and mementoes. The Society also owns a large collection of manuscript material pertaining to Arthur Wesley Dow.
Ipswich Female Seminary
The Ipswich Female Seminary Room of the 1800 Heard House features Seminary books, student sketch books, writing desks, diplomas, botanicals, globes, and science equipment. The Museum has a complete collection of Seminary catalogs, from its founding in 1828 to its closing in 1878.
Your membership makes exhibits, special events, and school programs possible, and helps with the ongoing restoration and preservation of our historic buildings. Your involvement is critical to our continued success as a museum. It is through your generous gifts of time, property, artifacts, and donations that we are able to create a vibrant museum experience for all to enjoy.
Your membership allows the Ipswich Museum to offer:
• Guided historic tours
• On-going evening and lunchtime lecture series
• Hands-on classes
• Rotating special exhibits
• Live demonstrations and performances
• Summer workshops for children
• After school archeology program
• Field trips for students
• Resources for educators
Membership Benefits and Categories
As a member of the Ipswich Museum you receive free admission to both houses and to our evening and lunchtime lecture series; you receive our quarterly newsletter, e-blast announcements, and early notice of all programs and special events. Membership also entitles you to a 10% discount at the museum shop, and access to genealogy research.
Individual: $40
Family: $60 – All the benefits above plus unlimited free admission for 2 adults and children under 18 years of age.
Sustaining: $150 – All the above plus complimentary admission for one guest accompanied by a member.
Sponsor: $250 – All the above plus 15% discount at the museum shop.
Benefactor: $500 – All the above plus complimentary admission for two guests accompanied by a member.
The Arthur Wesley Dow Circle
Named for the well known 19th century Ipswich artist, the Dow Circle is a special level of membership, that gives individuals an added opportunity to help the Museum preserve and protect its collections. First-time members receive a framed reproduction of an Arthur Wesley Dow print.
$1,000 Dow Circle – Includes all membership benefits listed above plus unlimited free admission for your guests.
$2,500 Dow Circle – All the above plus a private tour of the Museum for you and your guests.
Corporate Membership
We are very excited to extend to the Ipswich corporate community some unique opportunities to enable you to support us and help your business, too.
Corporate Sustaining Level: $150- Business card ad in newsletter.
Corporate Sponsorship Level: $250 – Above, plus one day of free tours for employees.
Corporate Benefactor Level: $500 – Above, plus first floor museum space to host an event
Please contact the office, office@ipswichmuseum.org or call 978.356.2811
Support the Ipswich Museum’s Annual Appeal Today!
Annual Appeal contributions provide important support for carrying out the Ipswich Museum’s mission to preserve significant elements of Ipswich’s history and to foster the understanding and enjoyment of Ipswich’s diverse heritage as a community.
The Annual Appeal directly supports the Ipswich Museum’s education and outreach initiatives, exhibitions, collections and the upkeep and maintenance of the historic buildings in our care!
54 South Main Street
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