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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Saltzman Cabinet of Curiosities
Vanity: The Last Working Catboat
Built over the winter of 1928-29 by Edgartown boatbuilder Manuel Swartz Roberts for commercial fisherman Thomas Pease and his son Oscar, the catboat Vanity worked the waters of Martha’s Vineyard for over half a century. In this exhibit, explore the life of the last working catboat of Martha’s Vineyard through artifacts, photographs, archival materials, and film footage.
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Beim Gallery
Jaws at 50: An Island Story
Our 2025 exhibition Jaws at 50 was one of the Museum’s most popular shows ever, celebrating the Vineyard’s starring role in Steven Spielberg’s classic. Because of that excitement, we’re keeping the story alive with Jaws at 50: An Island Story. This smaller follow-up highlights the Islanders who built sets, piloted boats, and stepped in front of the camera, showing how their creativity and spirit helped bring Amity Island to life.
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Hollinshead, Cox, and Fleischner Galleries
Let’s Go to Circuit Avenue!
One of the Island’s most beloved streets, Circuit Avenue is a vibrant feast for all senses, and a summer destination for children and adults alike. This kid and family-centered exhibit explores the sights, sounds, and smells of Circuit Avenue through the years, offering a tactile adventure for our youngest visitors and a nostalgic look back for those who grew up walking up and down this iconic street.
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Waggaman Community Gallery
The Lost History of Innisfail
Once the heart of a lively summer community on Lagoon Pond, Innisfail—a grand hotel built in the failed 19th-century development of Oklahoma—became a vibrant gathering place for music and theater. This exhibit explores its heyday, destruction by fire in 1906, and the neighborhood it left behind.
READ MORECOLLECTION HIGHLIGHTS
Woven Bag
Contemporary Wampanoag artists and artisans help us picture the world of their ancestors, the first inhabitants of this Island, by making objects using old and new materials while drawing on old and new techniques.
Mary Norton Sampler
Mary H. Norton made this sampler in Holmes Hole (now Vineyard Haven) when she was around 12 years old.
Jagging Wheel
Though most familiar in the form of whales’ teeth carved with pictures of ships, scrimshaw was an extremely varied art.
Chappy
Mary Drake Coles learned to paint during childhood summers on Martha’s Vineyard, in her teens in Provincetown, and later at Smith College, in Paris, Majorca, Haiti, and New York.
Zeb Tilton Portrait
Benton found inspiration on Martha’s Vineyard from his first visits to the Island in the 1920s until his death in 1975.
Dancing Dolls (Brinquinho)
Mary Paiva Drouin, the daughter of a first-generation Portuguese immigrant family, recalls how her family’s cherished “dancing dolls” in traditional Portuguese dress were paraded through the streets of Oak Bluffs during the Holy Ghost Festival.
Brickman’s Shirt
One of the earliest Jewish families to settle here, the Brickmans operated a shoe business on Main Street in Vineyard Haven that became Brickman’s department store.
Dial Telephone Service Comes to Aquinnah
This photograph, staged in May 1955 to celebrate the introduction of dial telephone service in Chilmark and Gay Head, captures the tension between tradition and modernity.
Gislaine Portrait
In 2017, the Museum exhibited photographer Mila Lowe’s “Local Immigrants Project.” Lowe undertook the project to document the wide diversity of recent immigrants to the Island.
Luce Dressing Box
Captain Richard G. Luce presented this box to his daughter, Abbie Bradford Luce, upon returning from one of his many long voyages.
Life Preserver
Life preserver from the City of Columbus, which crashed on the underwater rocks of Devil’s Bridge in January 1884 when a gash was torn in the hull and seawater rushed into the steamer.
Priscilla Pearl Necklaces
Manufactured in Hyannis at the Priscilla Laboratory, these glass and herring scale “pearls” were named “Priscilla Pearls” and sold around the country through mail order and at Lina Call’s Priscilla Pearl Shop in Edgartown.
Violin
Owned by E. Gale Huntington, this violin was possibly carried around Cape Horn on a voyage by Menemsha fisherman Lyman Cottle.
Monohansett
Monohansett (1862), depicted in this painting by J. P. Winegar, was the first reliable steam ferry to serve Martha’s Vineyard.
Fall River Line Advertisement
Palatial “night boats” like Plymouth connected New York and Martha’s Vineyard.
“Enchanted Isle” Poster
This 1934 travel poster promoted the Vineyard as a playground of the rich and stylish.
Islander
Islander, which operated from 1950-2007, revolutionized ferry service to the Vineyard.
Island Queen Advertisement
Summer “excursion boats” like the Island Queen carried day tourists to Oak Bluffs.
Provincetown-Boston Airlines Timetable
Provincetown-Boston Airline was the Island’s leading air carrier for 40 years.
Islander and Island Home
Islander (1950) passes her successor Island Home (2007) in Vineyard Haven Harbor.
Satinet Sample
Hard-wearing satinet cloth: the West Tisbury woolen mill’s signature product.
Vanderhoops at Aquinnah Circle
Harrison and Selina Vanderhoop selling Wampanoag crafts at Aquinnah Circle.
King’s Paint Mill
Clay pigments from King’s Paint Mill in Chilmark tinted the houses of southern New England.
Bricks on Pier
The signature product of the Roaring Brook brickyard awaits shipment to the mainland.
Erford Burt Bass Boat
One of Erford Burt’s signature “bass boats” in the basin at Burt’s Boatyard on the Lagoon.
Model of the SS Drottingholm
Van Ryper offered its customers affordable “models of ships on which you’ve sailed.”
Dairy Cooperative Bottle
Martha’s Vineyard Cooperative Dairy helped the Island’s small farmers, but could not compete with mainland producers.
Chilmark Chocolates Sign
Chilmark Chocolates was known for its delicious product, and its community spirit.
Black Dog Catalog
The Black Dog began as a year-round restaurant, but became a lifestyle brand.
Harpoon
The ancestors of the Wampanoag people who live here now fished using harpoons such as this one, which was found along the shore in Aquinnah.
Joseph Belain Portrait
Over the course of 20 whaling voyages, Aquinnah-born Joseph Belain (1848-1926), served as harpooner, second mate, first mate, and twice as a replacement master.
Whale and Porpoise Oil Samples
Beginning in the mid-19th century and ending in the 1940s, William F. Nye Company of New Bedford refined and processed whale and porpoise oil for various purposes.
Nomansland Codfish Box
Salted and dried cod was sold to Fischer Brothers of Vineyard Haven, who packaged it in wooden boxes like this one and sold it locally as well as shipping it to New Bedford and Providence.
Eel Pot
Before the 20th century, eels were caught and eaten in great numbers by islanders, who captured them in the fall and winter using pots like this one.
Menemsha Swordfishing Fleet
Equipped by a tall mast for lookouts and a long narrow platform for the harpooner jutting out from the bow, “Sword boats” supplied a market in which swordfish was seen as a delicacy.
“Dorothy and Everett” Weathervane
Using the vessels he knew as inspiration, local fisherman Jimmy Morgan made weathervanes and sold them in his small shop in Menemsha to supplement his income.
Photograph of Fishermen
Fishermen could once make a good living selling the fish they caught in net traps along the northwest shore of the Vineyard.
Chart of Holmes Hole
This view of Holmes Hole (now Vineyard Haven) harbor in 1781 looks familiar at first glance, but a closer look reveals unfamiliar features.
The Harbor of Holmes Hole
Twelve years before this chart was drawn in 1847, the citizens of Holmes Hole blocked Bass Creek with a worn-out schooner filled with rocks, making way for Water Street and Union Wharf.
Martha’s Vineyard Railroad Train on the Beach
The Martha’s Vineyard Railroad operated from 1872 to 1896, carrying passengers from the Oak Bluffs steamer wharf to the outskirts of Edgartown, then to Katama.
1938 Beach Road Flooding
This photograph, looking down Beach Road toward Five Corners, was taken during the 1938 Hurricane.
Bathhouse Debris on Oak Bluffs Steamer Wharf
Bathhouses were a fixture of Oak Bluffs — a monument to the social customs of a bygone era — until September 1944, when the Great Atlantic Hurricane struck the Island.
Bunker on South Beach
This concrete structure, used to train World War II naval aviators, originally stood in the dunes behind the beach; by the late 1960s or early 1970s, it stood at the water’s edge.
Moving the Gay Head Light
The brick tower of the current Gay Head Light was built in 1856, and by the early twenty-first century, erosion had left it dangerously close to the edge of the cliffs.
EVENTS
Know Your Ticks: A Guide to Prevention and Peace of Mind
Join Patrick Roden-Reynolds, a biologist of the Inter-Island Public Health Excellence Collaborative, for an engaging evening exploring the world of ticks on Martha’s Vineyard.
In this hour-long program, Patrick will discuss tick ecology, how ticks interact with the island’s environment, wildlife, and climate, and share practical, evidence-based strategies for prevention and protection. Learn how to reduce tick exposure at home, in your yard, and while enjoying the outdoors.
Perfect for anyone who spends time outside on the Vineyard… residents, gardeners, pet owners, and nature lovers alike.
Storytime Saturdays
Families are invited to join Eloise “Weezie” Welz for Storytime Saturdays, a welcoming weekly program perfect for children and their caregivers. Stories, laughter, and community await. Admission is free, and donations are gratefully accepted.
Storytime Saturdays
Families are invited to join Eloise “Weezie” Welz for Storytime Saturdays, a welcoming weekly program perfect for children and their caregivers. Stories, laughter, and community await. Admission is free, and donations are gratefully accepted.
Discovering Innisfail: Stories of a Lost Vineyard Community
Join guest curator Brenda Horrigan, Island educator and historian Chris Baer, and Martha’s Vineyard Museum Curator of Exhibitions Anna Barber for an illuminating discussion about The Lost History of Innisfail, the Museum’s new exhibition in the Waggaman Community Gallery.
Innisfail was a grand hotel at the center of the Oklahoma development, an ambitious 19th-c. plan to create a summer resort on Lagoon Pond. Visitors can explore the development efforts, launched in 1872, and learn how it ultimately thrived as a vibrant cultural center of music, theater, and social gatherings in the 1890s. This talk offers a rare opportunity to hear from the experts who brought the story of Oklahoma, Innisfail, and the neighborhood that grew in its shadow, to light.
The Wild Wreath Workshop
Build your own wreath, swag or centerpiece by hand using locally foraged, seasonal materials. All materials and tools provided on the day. Demonstrations, inspiration and light instruction provided by Museum Educator, Becky Nutton, but please bring your own ideas or materials to share, if you wish!
Winter’s Glow and Soirée
Celebrate the Light of the Season!
Join the Martha’s Vineyard Museum for an evening that shines with cultural richness and community spirit. The night begins with Winter’s Glow, where Island neighbors share personal traditions, foods, and stories of how they bring light into the darkest days of winter, offering a rare window into the diverse ways our community celebrates, reflects, and finds meaning in the season.
Then, continue the festivities at our Annual Winter Soirée. Sample dishes inspired by the stories, enjoy live festive music, sip wine, beer, or a sparkling mocktail, and take in the harbor shimmering with winter magic.
How to History: The Things We Leave Behind
Join Bow Van Riper on December 10 for “How to History: The Things We Leave Behind”.
How do we know what happened in the past? How do we recreate the lives of people who have been dead for centuries? History begins with evidence, but the evidence we have of the individuals and groups from the past varies wildly depending on who and what they were, and where and when they lived. Join MVM research librarian Bow Van Riper for a lively look at the raw material of history: the things we leave behind when we’re gone.
A Cooke House Christmas Experience
Celebrate the season at the Museum’s historic Cooke House during Christmas in Edgartown! Enjoy cocoa, treats, games, and shopping from favorite Museum Shop items while supporting the Museum’s mission. Browse gift memberships and new Program Booklets—perfect stocking stuffers that offer savings on upcoming programs—and enter a raffle for a chance to win a Museum Shop gift bag filled with local treasures. Free admission; donations appreciated.
Enjoy Morning Glory Farm baked goods with your tea.
Sassafras Tea Party
Warm up with a comforting cup of sassafras tea and discover the story behind this beloved plant with beloved MV Museum Education Associate Team Member and Herring Pond Wampanoag Tribal Member Taylor Smalley. Once a staple in many homes and cultures, sassafras has a rich history rooted in tradition, healing, and community. Learn why its popularity has endured for centuries, explore a few ways to use it today, and gain insight into Indigenous perspectives on this remarkable plant.
Enjoy Morning Glory Farm baked goods with your tea.
VISIT OUR CAMPUS
With an exciting slate of exhibits, guest speakers, and community events, there’s always something new to discover at MVM.
OPEN 10 – 4
TUESDAY – SUNDAY
YEAR-ROUND
100,000+
ITEMS IN
OUR COLLECTION
Explore maps, manuscripts, objects, photos, oral histories, and much more.
2,500
FEET FROM THE
FERRY DOCK
Our Vineyard Haven campus is just a 10-minute walk from the Steamship Authority terminal.
100
YEARS OF SERVING THE ISLAND COMMUNITY
We are committed to collecting, preserving, and sharing all facets of the Island’s story, from the familiar to the untold.
LEARN
We provide thought-provoking and engaging learning experiences for students of all ages.
RESEARCH
We bring the Island’s history and culture to life through research and resources that encourage curiosity and compassion.
SUPPORT & DONATE
Your support empowers us to continue inspiring, educating, and strengthening our community.
“We believe in the mission and vision of the MV Museum. We want our grandchildren to love and appreciate this Island’s history, art, and culture as much as we do, so it is very important to us that the Museum continues to grow and thrive!”
BARBARA COUCH
