Historical Society Archives

The Essex Historical Society and Shipbuilding Museum's collections and archives support the organization's purpose by preserving the history of the town's most distinctive feature – its shipbuilding industry – as well as its general history and culture.

Over 10,000 Objects and 30,000 photographs

The Museum Collection totals more than 10,000 objects and is comprised of artifacts that record and embody the history of Essex. The largest category in the Museum Collection consists of over 30,000 photographs. Many of these photographs portray vessels under construction from the middle nineteenth century through the twentieth century. Essex-built vessels were also photographed during their working lives as fishing schooners sailing out of neighboring Gloucester, Massachusetts. There are also numerous photographs depicting the landscape, historic architecture, industries, and people of Essex. 

Our Written History

18th, 19th and 20th century manuscripts and documents depict the town's shipbuilding heritage and many other aspects of the town's history. Included are 18th century daybooks, vessel and labor contracts, a caulker's journal from the middle of the nineteenth century, the town's undertaker and coffin maker's detailed account of his work, and numerous records relating to the schools in Essex in the early nineteenth century. There are also many bills of sale, contracts for labor, lists of household expenditures, wills, deeds and personal correspondence that illuminate centuries of daily life in Essex. 

Shipbuilding tools

Historic tools are another important part of the collection. The museum has collected more than 500 shipwrights augurs, adzes, planes and caulking tools, to name a few of the many types, which help inform the community of traditional Essex shipbuilding techniques. In addition, the archives houses 500 plans of Essex-built vessels, to further help interpret the town's place in the design of the American fishing schooner. A very important and conspicuous object in the collection is the schooner EVELINA M. GOULART which sits in the shipyard, very near the spot where she was originally constructed and launched in 1927.

1835 Essex Central Schoolhouse

The Museum Collections and some of our exhibits are housed in the 1835 Essex Central Schoolhouse, which the Museum leases from the town.  The timber framed structure has been used as a two room schoolhouse and as the meeting hall of the Grand Army of the Republic and the American Legion before becoming the first home of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum in 1976.

Old Burying Ground (c. 1680)

Adjacent to the schoolhouse is the town's first burial ground, with stones ranging in date from 1708 to 1888 which provide an excellent overview of early New England gravestone styles and are useful in comparing gravestone art in Essex (then Chebacco Parish of Ipswich) to patterns found in other early New England towns. It is also a valuable genealogical resource and the Museum maintains an inventory detailing the names and epitaphs on all gravestones. The town's 19th century hearse house, on the cemetery grounds, is in the care of the Museum and contains a carriage hearse and a sleigh hearse, both of which date from the middle nineteenth century.