Frank Cook's 270 Pound "Big Fish" is a Favorite Provincetown Story, Circa 1910

This black & white photo of Frank Cook's halibut was eventually colorized,
and became one of the most popular postcards of the early to mid 1900s.

One of my favorite stories to tell on the tour is about Frank Cook's 1910 adventure while fishing off of Wood End, in Provincetown's Far West End. He caught a 270 pound halibut on a hand-held line.
You can learn all about this amazing feat on your tour.

I have hundreds of stories about PTown history and boats: stories about fishing, whaling, shipwrecks, pirates, famous ships built by master boatbuilders, and many other stories related to boats and the sea.

I also have hundreds of other stories for you about dozens of other topics in our history, such as the Pilgrims' first landing, the oldest house in town, the nation's oldest art colony, the birthplace of American drama, our Pulitzer Prize winners, our LGBTQ history and countless other topics.

If you'd like, you can choose several specific topics to include on your tour.
No two trips are quite alike.
It's great fun, so come and join us!

Drift Whaling or Strandings Brought an Occasional Bonus to Provincetown Shores

This fin back whale no doubt brought a pretty penny to these gentlemen.

Whaling, in one way or another, brought in a good bit of Provincetown's income from the late 1700s till about 1920. Click this link to read my brief article on drift whaling. These men may have killed this whale at sea and then towed it to the shore behind their boat, or they may have happened upon a stranded whale that had died on the beach. It also could have died miles from here and then drifted to the shoreline, with the receding tide leaving the whale on the beach. Lines have been attached to keep this "catch" from washing out to sea on the next high tide.

Discover Provincetown Offers Voters a Free Ride to the Polls

To help make certain that every Provincetown resident votes in this important election, Discover Provincetown is offering a free ride to the ballot box. 

Today, November 4th, is the last day for early voting, and since it's Friday, Town Hall is only open from 8 AM to noon. Tuesday, November 8th is election day, when Town Hall will be open from 8 AM till 5 PM.

For pickup, call or send a text message to 424•23P•TOWN (thats 424•237•8696) today, or Tuesday, for your free ride to Town Hall and home again after you VOTE!

Discover Provincetown Celebrates Women's Week with a Special Tour

Playwright Susan Glaspell's work has helped
women break out of limiting, traditional roles.

This week, Discover Provincetown celebrates Women’s Week with a little extra time on every tour devoted to the remarkable, pioneering women of our town. Women here have been chipping away at the proverbial “glass ceiling” since at least the 1700s.

One of these was Susan Glaspell, a "founder" of the original Provincetown Players, the little theater company that changed the face of theater in the United States beginning in the summer of 1915. In fact, Provincetown can rightfully be called the birthplace of modern American Drama.

Glaspell and several other women and men were discouraged with the commercial nature of American theater at that time, and shook things up a bit when they began writing their own plays.  They also broke new ground when they performed Eugene O'Neill's sea play Bound East for Cardiff the following summer, when O'Neill arrived here to seek them out, carrying a little trunk of plays he'd written.  His career as a playwright was launched when he met up with that little ragtag theater troupe just before they went to New York in September of 1916, to establish the Provincetown Players as a permanent, year-round company.

In her 2002 book The Women of Provincetown, 1915-1922, Cheryl Black remarks that the Provincetown Players have been acknowledged as “one of the first theatre companies in America in which women achieved prominence in every area of operation.” Through their work with this fledgling theater company, Susan Glaspell, Mary Heaton Vorse, Ida Rauh, Neith Boyce, Marguerite Zorach, Louise Bryant, Djuna Barnes, Edna St. Vincent Millay and others pushed against the barriers that held women strictly in traditional roles.

Glaspell debuted her own groundbreaking work that summer of 1916 in her one act play Trifles, which is still used in theater courses and continues to be held up as a model for young playwrights. Her work is revered worldwide. In fact, the 100^th anniversary of Trifles was celebrated last week by the International Susan Glaspell Society, with a reading of the play and a panel discussion at NYC’s Metropolitan Playhouse.

Join me on my tour and learn more about the amazing feats of various Provincetown women who have shaped our history, and that of the greater world around us.

Happy Women’s Week!