Provincetown’s History Told Through Artifacts
by Steve Desroches
In the 1947 classic Christmas movie The Bishop’s Wife, the character Professor Wutheridge says about the holidays, “I feel for some reason that this is a good time of the year for looking backwards.” Indeed, there is something about the end of the year and the holiday season that elicits intense nostalgia, remembrance, celebration, and an honoring of the past as we head into a new calendar year. This being the final issue of Provincetown Magazine for the 2026 publishing season also brings reflection of the year that’s just passed and how it manifested itself on the Outer Cape. More happens in Provincetown in one year than what occurs in many other towns in decades! And as 2026 turns to 2027 this is a very important New Year’s Eve for Provincetown Magazine as when we return in April, we will be turning 50 years old.
Founded in 1977, Provincetown Magazine has covered so much of the arts, entertainment, and culture of the Outer Cape, as well as occasionally politics, important coverage of the early days of the HIV and AIDS crisis, and, of course, the off-beat stories that make Provincetown the unique community that it is. And yes, lots and lots of drag. We are a quirky little magazine for a quirky little town. We’ve talked to everyone from Ai Wei Wei to Pete Buttigieg to Patti LuPone to Joan Rivers, as well as all the immense talent based right here in town. The list goes on and on.
Provincetown Magazine has also weathered the only constant in life, and that is change. Still primarily a print publication, we shifted from newsprint to glossy, but also continually pivot in this digital age. But for every declaration that print is dead, here we are, proving otherwise. Holding a magazine in your hands and reading the printed page is a very different experience than staring at a screen on your desktop, iPad, or phone. Places like the Cape and Islands are full of anachronistic anomalies; drive-in movie theaters, Slush Puppy machines, local radio stations with live DJs rather than canned corporate play lists, and numerous locally-owned businesses. Our culture is enriched by all of them, and it provides authenticity in an increasingly bland, consolidated world of strip malls and chain stores.
This cover of Provincetown Magazine, volume one, issue one, is the very first magazine published in 1977, and is from our own archive, but it is also present in many other collections across the country. It’s hard to imagine that 50 years ago anyone on the staff thought of their creation reaching its golden anniversary. But here we are. Since its founding, Provincetown Magazine has had roughly 1275 issues. And come 2027, the 27 issues we produce that year will be full of not only the current cultural scene, but also reflections back over the past five decades, using that to secure a strong foundation for the future.
