History
History is hidden all over the Vineyard. Forgotten gravesites still turn up in backyards. Graves are often discovered when homeowners embark on renovations, or casually turn over a stone that’s always been on the property, finding on the other side a small record of a life once lived.
Terry and Marcia Martinson began to move into an old house looking down on the Edgartown harbor this week. Unlike most people who live on the Island waterfront these days, the Martinsons will live there year-round. But taking the whole history of the place into account, their time in the home will be short.
The stretch weeks between December 1933 and February 1934 caused remarkable things to happen on the waters around Martha’s Vineyard. Everything froze, from Woods Hole to Cape Pogue.
An architectural salvage expert in Tampa was charmed to discover a scrapbook full of cartoons by the late Denys Wortman, renowned syndicated cartoonist in his day and a Vineyard resident.
A barrel piano provided the musical accompaniment to the carousel when it was first moved to the Vineyard in 1884 from Coney Island. This one came from Barcelona and is 100 years old.
Editor’s Note: Olive Tomlinson spoke with Linsey Lee, oral history curator for the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, about her recollections of Liz White’s Shearer Summer Theatre, one of the first summer theatre groups on the Island after World War II. An actress who felt stymied by the stereotyped African American roles available to her on Broadway, in the summers Liz returned to Oak Bluffs where her family owned and operated Shearer Cottage, a popular inn for vacationing African Americans.
