Oral Histories of Cotuit
TELL US YOUR STORY, COTUIT!
Our Cotuit Oral histories project is one in which we hope adds a valuable dimension to our understanding of our village.
The concept is simple: getting the oldest Cotuit residents on tape talking about what makes this village unique. Is it, as summertime resident and Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell argued, that it was the cultural and intellectual nexus of the peninsula? Or is it its lack of pretensions like that? And how does each subject’s personal story offer a lens into what the community was and is, and ways it has changed for worse and better?
There are three keys to making a project like this work: 1) picking subjects whose roots run deep and whose memories are vivid; 2) picking interviewers who know how to elicit telling details from their subjects and make the interviews seem like part of a whole rather than a series of musings; 3) and, once the interviews are done, ensuring they’re creatively assembled and widely listened to.
If you have any recordings relevant to Cotuit history and would be willing to share with the HSSC, please contact us.
Our Cotuit Oral histories project is one in which we hope adds a valuable dimension to our understanding of our village.
The concept is simple: getting the oldest Cotuit residents on tape talking about what makes this village unique. Is it, as summertime resident and Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell argued, that it was the cultural and intellectual nexus of the peninsula? Or is it its lack of pretensions like that? And how does each subject’s personal story offer a lens into what the community was and is, and ways it has changed for worse and better?
There are three keys to making a project like this work: 1) picking subjects whose roots run deep and whose memories are vivid; 2) picking interviewers who know how to elicit telling details from their subjects and make the interviews seem like part of a whole rather than a series of musings; 3) and, once the interviews are done, ensuring they’re creatively assembled and widely listened to.
If you have any recordings relevant to Cotuit history and would be willing to share with the HSSC, please contact us.
Recordings
Click on names to access recordings
DATE |
SUBJECT |
BACKGROUND |
INTERVIEWER |
TOPICS COVERED |
2/3/1978 |
Anna Murray |
Value |
Betty Peck |
Summers in Cotuit. Early years of yacht club. Raising children in Cotuit. |
2/14/1978 |
Charles Brooks |
Betty Peck |
The ambiance of all of Cotuit's hotels, where he stayed when he first came. Cotuit's architecture. Various houses around Coolidge St. Old Santuit. Cotuit's churches. |
|
7/25/1978 |
Dorothy Jackson |
Long time summer resident |
Betty Peck |
A short conversation about the Jackson's buying 709 Main St. |
3/2/1978 |
Florence Haskins Ryder |
Almost life-long resident, daughter of Dr Haskins, the first Cotuit doctor. |
Betty Peck |
Bikes, the problems with shell paved roads, farm animals on Ocean View, the sewing club, going to school in the Village and the class trip to DC. |
3/15/1978 |
G. Merrill Nickerson |
Caretaker for Permberton Whitcomb |
Betty Peck |
Everything you ever wanted to know about rum running.. |
2/4/1978 |
Harriet Ropes Cabot |
Benefactor of the CMYC. Legit historian. Part of Lowell family |
Betty Peck |
The Lowells coming to Cotuit. Various houses in Putnam Ave neighborhood. Sailing in her youth. |
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