Past Talks

Historic preservationist John D. Clemson will present his research and field observation of Manchester-by-the-Sea's School Street neighborhood, hosted in partnership with the MBTS Historical Commission.

Listen to Kory Curcuru tell the inspiring story of renowned baseball player and Manchester-by-the-Sea resident, "Stuffy" McInnis.

At our summer Sharksmouth soirée, Martha Oaks, Henrietta Gates and Heaton Robertson Chief Curator at the Cape Ann Museum, speaks on local and internationally-known artist Charles S. Hopkinson in memory of his recently departed grandson, Charles Shurcliff.

Before Manchester-by-the-Sea, there was mill-town Manchester. Brock Jobe, Professor Emeritus of the Winterthur Museum in Delaware, will delve into Manchester's hey-day as a furniture-making center in the early-to-mid nineteenth-century. During this period, cabinetmaking was the town's chief industry, and its business leaders facilitated a lucrative trade with the American South. Similar to the products of other Massachusetts furniture-making communities, Manchester-made pieces have had a wide-ranging impact. In 2000 Brock Jobe was appointed professor of American decorative arts in the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture after a 28-year career as a museum curator and administrator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Colonial Williamsburg, the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now Historic New England), and Winterthur. He has authored or edited seven books, written dozens of articles, and given hundreds of lectures. Brock retired from his professorship in June 2015 but retains an office at Winterthur and continues to study, write, and lecture about American furniture. In 2022, he co-organized a three-day conference devoted to the history of decorative inlay and marquetry in Europe and America. Currently Brock serves as President of the Decorative Arts Trust and remains a dedicated volunteer at Winterthur.

On May 21, 1932, Arthur Oker, a mild-mannered Finnish tailor, was brutally murdered in his shop in the small seaside town of Rockport, Massachusetts. While this unsolved crime terrified local residents, their fears increased after another horrifying murder, that of Swedish immigrant and fellow churchgoer Augusta Johnson in her home on Halloween night in 1933. Following the crimes, authorities searched every house and building in Rockport, and some 2,500 households were interviewed. A reward was posted, a mystic volunteered her services and local children wearing badges provided by a breakfast cereal company joined in the search. However, the crimes went unsolved. Local authors Robert Fitzgibbon and Wayne Soini, based on their book "Murder in Rockport, Massachusetts: Terror in a Small Town," reveal long-lost details about the crime, the investigation and a surprise suspect from the state police archives. Wayne Soini, a Cape Ann native, always wondered about the unsolved murder of a Finnish tailor in Rockport. After a career in labor law, he retired to research and write about such things. Robert Fitzgibbon is a software professional and local historian. Great-grandson of a Rockport quarry owner, Rob delves into Cape Ann history for stories of the mysterious, the eerie and the forgotten.

Judith Sumner, botanist, presents a slide illustrated lecture that traces the European herbal tradition among plants carried by early settlers to the New World — used today in ancient traditions, gourmet cookery, military history, and modern medicine.

Matthew Swindell, associate director of the Manchester-by-the-Sea Museum, delves into the controversial yet significant role of trolleys in Manchester's history during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Learn about the Curtis Sisters- Margaret and Harriot- of Manchester-by-the-Sea, and how they took the golf world by storm at a time when the sport was dominated by men.

Matthew Swindell & George Smith discuss the Masconomo House, and the Resort Era.

Ipswich writer Doug Stewart will discuss Manchester-by-the-Sea’s fascinating connections to the China Trade, highlighting local shipmasters, a spectacular shipwreck, and retired opium traders who built mansions here.