Today, few topics on Cape Cod are more controversial than tourism. Both a blessing and a curse, tourism simultaneously powers a humming economy and acts as a tightening stranglehold on the region’s limited resources. But the Cape wasn’t always known as a place people wanted to visit.
Between 1860 and 1900, the region experienced a lingering depression as traditional industries faltered and residents moved away. In the 1850s Henry David Thoreau described the Cape as a “Yankee backwater,” and most everyone agreed. The Cape’s emerging tourist industry began slowly after the Civil War, picked up speed with the railroad, but didn’t really take off until the widespread adoption of the automobile. Once people could easily travel to and around the Cape, many discovered its seaside charms. Consequently, Cape Cod has been experiencing a tourist boom for over 100 years now.
The expansion of the Cape’s tourism industry has been more successful than anyone could have imagined. How did this happen? And what has been gained, and lost, in the process?
Jennifer Madden is the Director of Collections & Exhibitions at Heritage Museums & Gardens where she has worked since 1993. Her duties include organizing the exhibitions presented at Heritage each year as well as supervising the care and conservation of all objects in the museum’s collection. Since she began her employment with the museum, Ms. Madden has curated over 150 exhibitions and published three exhibit catalogues. She earned a BA in Anthropology with a minor in Museum Studies from Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, and a MA in History Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program in Cooperstown, New York.
Parking Note: There is no parking at Thacher Hall. Parking is available just across Route 6A from Thacher Hall around the Common, as well as at the Post Office and Chapter House Inn. Crossing attendants will be available to assist with crossing Route 6A at the designated crosswalk in front of Thacher Hall. If you need accessible parking information, please email events@thacherhall.org.
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