Lawrence History Center

Museums in the Essex National Heritage Area

Andover

• Addison Gallery of American Art
  Featuring at least nine exhibitions each year, the Addison Gallery of American Art serves as both a nationally recognized museum and an educational resource for Phillips Academy and the community, and to area public schools. The gallery's distinguished collection encompasses 12,000 works of painting, sculpture and photography.

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Essex

• Essex Shipbuilding Museum
  The Essex Shipbuilding Museum's collections contain over 7000 rare shipbuilding artifacts, photographs, tools, documents, builder's half-models and rigged ship models. Many all of these items have come from attics, basements and barns in Essex. Exhibits and archives of the Essex Shipbuilding Museum are housed in the old Essex Central School House which was built in 1835.

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Gloucester

• Cape Ann Historical Museum
  The Cape Ann Historical Museum exhibits the nation's largest collection of paintings and drawings by Fitz Hugh Lane (1804-1865). A native of Gloucester, Lane is now recognized as one of America's most important 19th century artists. The Museum celebrates the area's proud fishing and maritime heritage with permanent exhibition of artifacts and photographs from the continent's most productive 19th century fishing port.


• Sargent House Museum
  A fine example of Georgian architecture, it was built in 1782 for writer and activist Judith Sargent Murray, this country's earliest champion of women's equality, education and economic independence, and shared by her husband, Reverend John Murray, the founder of Universalism in America. Today, the house is displayed as it might have looked in 1790 - elegant winding staircases, period furnishings, gilt mirrors, glass, silver, textiles, oil portraits and personal items that create a real-life historical setting.

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Lawrence

• Lawrence History Center: Immigrant City Archives and Museum
  The Immigrant City Archives (ICA) was established in 1978 to preserve the history of Lawrence and its people. It is the official repository for Lawrence city records. The organization's name underscores the unique vision of the Archives to celebrate Lawrence's ethnic diversity while chronicling the continuity that unifies the experiences of newcomers. Documentation, exhibits and photographic research on labor and ethnic history are available for research by appointment. The collection has grown to include thousands of books, manuscripts, photographs, taped oral histories and memorabilia relating to Lawrence and its people.

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Lynn

• Lynn Museum
  The Lynn Historical Society invites you to step into the past through its four period rooms, and engage your imagination with furniture, artwork, and everyday objects of the 1770's through the 1870's. Discover more about Lynn's past and present in the museum wing where permanent and changing exhibits highlight different aspects of our people and their history.

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Marblehead

• Marblehead Museum and Historical Society
  The Jeremiah Lee Mansion Experience the splendor of late colonial Georgian mansion built in 1768 by wealthy ship-owner and patriot Colonel Jeremiah Lee. Visit opulent rooms with rich architectural features, furnishings and decorative arts, including rare 18th century hand painted scenic wallpaper.
  

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Newburyport

• Custom House Maritime Museum
  The Newburyport Custom House Maritime Museum was designed by architect Robert Mills, who also designed such historical buildings as the Washington Monument. Built in 1835, this building was originally used as a Custom house in which the federal government collected taxes on imported goods brought home to Newburyport by ship captains from far away ports. The Museum maintains original artifacts from the prosperous trade era, maritime art, models of Newburyport-built vessels, trades routs and journals, and old maps showing the city's birth.
  

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North Andover

• The Museum of Printing
  The Museum of Printing is dedicated to preserving the history of the graphic arts, printing equipment and printing craftsmanship. In addition to many special collections and small exhibits, the museum contains hundreds of antique printing, typesetting and bindery machines, as well as a library of books and printing related documents. A tour guide is always provided, and hands-on demonstrations are part of every visit.
  

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Salem

• Peabody Essex Museum
  The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), one of New England's largest museums, offers visitors a dynamic experience of art and culture amidst its renowned collections of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, African, Oceanic, and Indian art, as well as American decorative art, Native American art, maritime art, and photography.
  

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Wenham

• Wenham Museum
  Preserving our country’s social history, the Wenham Museum features the circa 1690 Claflin-Richards House with three centuries of architecture, furnishings and artifacts, a world-famous doll and toy collection, a model train room with six operating layouts of twelve trains in various gauges, a costume & textile gallery, a children’s interactive Play & Learn Room and special changing exhibit galleries that bring history and culture to life.
  

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