Marblehead fishing, shoemaking industries on display

MARBLEHEAD – The Marblehead Historical Museum and Society and Abbot Public Library are presenting an exhibit of photographs and documents about Marblehead’s fishing and shoemaking industries, the town’s two key industries, through Friday, Sept. 30.Fishing was essential to the creation of the town. Illustrations of fish, fishing, and the salting and drying process will help to explain the industry. Nineteenth century shoes and shoemaking equipment of the period are also visual reminders of the period.Fishing and shoemaking required long hours of labor for small wages in the 18th and 19th centuries, before industrialization.There will be an opening reception Sunday, Sept. 11 at 2 p.m., featuring a talk on “John Greenleaf Whittier, Shoemaking and Marblehead,” by guest speaker Gus Reusch, curator of the Whittier Homestead, according to a release from the library.A collaborative project of the museum and library, the exhibit is generously funded by the Harold B. and Elizabeth L. Shattuck Memorial Fund and represents another dimension of Marblehead 101, an ongoing Marblehead Museum program designed to expand general knowledge about Marblehead history.Another lecture, related to the exhibit, will take place Tuesday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. at the library. Local author Robert Booth will discuss his new book, “Death of an Empire: The Rise and Murderous Fall of Salem, America’s Richest City.”Collaboration between the Marblehead Museum and the Abbot Library is part of a long-range plan to make Marblehead’s historical collections more accessible.