Exhibition photos by Rebecca M. Alvin
by Rebecca M. Alvin
Provincetown means a lot of different things to different people. While we can sometimes find ourselves focused on its long-standing and current role as a mecca for LGBTQ travelers and tourists and as the country’s longest running artist colony, the truth is Provincetown has a much more layered and complex identity that extends across seemingly contradictory milieus, over its more than 300-year history as a town. From the site of the Pilgrims first landing in the “New World,” to a seasonal community for Native American tribes in the area, from a haven for the sick and dying in the AIDS era to the birthplace of modern American drama and a home for bohemians, outsiders, and rebels, from the fairly mainstream New England family vacation spot to a fishing (and whaling) town with a large, working-class Portuguese population, Provincetown’s story is definitely not one thing.
The most iconic landmark in this town of many identities has been the Pilgrim Monument ever since it was completed in 1910. It announces your arrival in Provincetown when you see it from the distance entering on Route 6 from Truro or by sea approaching land in the bay or passing by on the ocean side. Aside from the incredible view of the town one can behold from way up there on High Pole Hill Road, climbing the Monument is a rite of passage for all visitors to the town (In fact, you’re given a sticker proclaiming your achievement after you descend from the 116 steps).
But the Provincetown Museum that sits at the base of the Monument has, for many years, stood in stark contrast to the town itself, depicting its history from a monocultural lens limited by its curious absence of the inclusiveness that defines our town. In recent years, this has started to change. For example, in 2020, upon the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival here, the Provincetown Museum invited Wampanoag creators to envision and install a new permanent exhibition that explored that history—not from the perspective of Europeans emigrating to America, but from the perspective of Native Americans encountering these Pilgrims who arrived on their land. Since then, slowly but surely other elements of the town have been included in the exhibitions, such as An Anecdotal LGBTQ+ History of the Last Century of Provincetown, which opened in 2022 and curated byThe Generations Project.
The latest exhibition, Salvador Vasques: A Lifetime of Collecting Provincetown, which just opened to the public on May 8, is an incredibly multifaceted collection of Provincetown and Cape Cod related paraphernalia, books, postcards, commemorative china, and more that had been amassed by Provincetown native Salvador Vasques. This exhibit stands out as a representation of the multiple stories in Provincetown’s history. Curated by the first curator the Museum has had in at least five years, Sam Tager, the collection is vast, varied, and unique.
Vasques’ collection of 30,000 historic Cape Cod postcards was donated to the museum, with only a small amount on view in this show.
Standing in the middle of just-completed exhibition, Tager says, “This is probably about 10 percent of his [postcards], thousands and thousands of books—many, many, many boxes of books, 30,000 postcards….the publications, the pamphlets.” He estimates what’s in the show is only about a third of Vasques’ full collection. “It’s really a unique collection,” he explains. “You know, it’s 30,000 postcards! You can’t find any historic postcards about the Cape anymore. He’s got that. It’s every book ever written by someone from the Cape, about the Cape, anybody who spent any time here, all the Provincetown Players, and all the people associated with the Provincetown Players, Norman Mailer, Michael Cunningham, I mean, just anything associated with or about the Cape. It’s a really remarkable research collection of books.”
Tager and new executive director Courtney Hurst (a Provincetown native, herself) are shepherding in a new era for this museum, infusing it with each of their lifelong experiences in the town and years of engagement with the town’s history, art, and culture. Hurst has been on the Board of Directors at the institution for 12 years, serving as president for five of those years, and stepping into her current role in 2024. Tager, who has been coming to Provincetown since he was a child, is also executive director of the Provincetown Public Art Foundation, and has curated for the Cape Cod Museum of Art, as well as other institutions, most notably, Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, where he served as curator for 25 years.
Curator Sam Tager cites this biography of William Henry Ryder
Tager points out a highlight for him, and a good example of Vasques’ dogged determination to grow his collection over the decades. It’s the book A Biography of William Henry Ryder, D.D. by John Wesley Hanson, D.D., which he looked for for years and years and finally found at the Brattle Book Shop in Cambridge, Mass. The book is displayed on its own to demonstrate its significance at the front of the exhibit.
“Ryder was born in Provincetown and lived a successful life as a Universalist minister and eventually donated the property that his family house sat on, to the town, so that they could build Town Hall after a fire took the previous town hall building, located on High Pole Hill,” Tager explains.
For Hurst, the collection of china plates, cups, and memorabilia with iconic motifs stands out as a striking display, but the most special part of the exhibit is a different kind of collection, one that includes memorabilia from Provincetown High School, in the very first display case of the exhibition. “That P, the PHS diploma—like my mom and dad had that, I have literally, it looks the same exact way, so I think from an emotional perspective, that stands out, and I think that a lot of people are going to feel seen when they first walk in and see that case,” Hurst says with a smile.
The Vasques collection is an incredible addition to the Museum’s massive collection of artifacts related to the town, but it’s just the beginning of an ongoing active effort to breathe new life into this venerable institution and open it up to more of the community. There are also plans in the works for revamping some of the permanent exhibitions, and later this year, after Carnival, Tager says the Museum will open another exhibition about the legacy of Provincetown’s legendary artist/teachers, Charles Hawthorne and Henry Hensche, who taught at the Cape School of Art at different times.
Hurst says the grounds of the Monument will be more open to the public, inviting people to come up there for free concerts, free film screenings, and other events. But mainly, it’s about broadening the stories they tell at the museum, above and beyond the monument itself.
“When I was growing up, I used to tell people to come up here, because the view is great. You know, I’d be waiting tables down at the Surf Club, and they’d be like, ‘What should I do today?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, definitely go to the Monument, because it’s really pretty up there.’ And now I want to be able to say you should go up to the Monument because they tell the best stories, they have the best exhibitions. So, I really believe that this museum will become the reason people come and not just the add-on, which I feel like it has been for way too long. That’s the vision.”
The Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum is located at 1 High Pole Hill Rd., Provincetown. Salvador Vasques: A Lifetime of Collecting Provincetown is on exhibition through late August. For more information about the museum, the monument, and the exhibition, call 508.487.1310 or visit pilgrim-monument.org.
