A quick guide to Bay State museums dedicated to their own hometown

The Peabody Essex Museum installed “Salem Stories” in September 2020. The exhibit, which has an open tour, consists of 26 exhibits, or “vignettes,” presented in alphabetical order. The accompanying items are drawn from PEM’s permanent collection. All are related to the history of Salem.

“A” is “always for indigenous”, a tribute to the original residents of the area. The “Z” is for “zoology” and features a very large box turtle. In between are more than 100 objects, ranging from a 19th-century fire bucket to a Monopoly game (Salem was long home to Parker Brothers, who made the game) to a Kiss -o-Meter, once used in the Willows Park arcade. .

The PEM is not a city museum, of course. The 1.3 million objects in its collection literally span the globe, thanks to the city’s historic maritime past. Instead, “Salem Stories” is a nice nod to the museum’s hometown.

There are, however, numerous museums in Massachusetts dedicated to their own hometown. The Lyman and Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History has not one, but two Rolls-Royce roadsters in its collection (who knew Rolls-Royce ever made roadsters?). The Middleborough Historical Museum has extensive Tom Thumb holdings. The Gardner Museum in Gardner is not to be confused with the other Gardner Museum in Boston.

Places you might expect have their own historical museums: Worcester, Northampton, Lynn, Somerville, Newton. You also do places where you might not. Wenham Museum’s collection includes around 58,000 items, including 21 model trains and 10 working model trains, not bad for a town with a population of less than 5,000.

What follows is an extensive, if not exhaustive, list of Massachusetts cities and towns with museums dedicated to the history of those cities and towns.

Amherst Museum of History

Ashfield Historical Society Museum

Auburn Historical Museum

Blackstone Historical Museum

Boylston Historical Society Museum

Brewster Historical Society Museum

Brockton Historical Society

Buckland Historical Society Museum

Burlington Historical Museum

Centerville Historical Museum

Clinton Historical Society Museum

Cohasset Historical Society

Concordia Museum

Dedham Museum and Archives

East Brookfield Historical Museum

Fairhaven Historical Society

Fall River Historical Society Museum

Framingham History Center

Freetown Historical Society Museum (Assonet)

The Gardner Museum

Great Barrington Historical Society Museum at the Wheeler Family Farm

Groton History Center

Heath Historical Society Museum

Historic Northampton

Phillipston Historical Society Museum

Jackson Homestead and Museum (Newton)

Leominster Historical Society Museum

Long Plain Museum (Acushnet)

Lynn Museum & Arts Center

Manchester-by-the-Sea Museum

Marblehead Museum

Mattapoisett Museum

Meetinghouse Museum (Orleans)

Mendon Historical Society Museum

Middleborough Historical Museum

Milford Historical Museum

Lenox History Museum

Lyman and Merrie Wood Springfield History Museum

Natick History Museum

North Andover Historical Society Museum

Oakham Historical Museum

Orange Historical Society

Pilgrim Hall Museum (Plymouth)

Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum

Quaboag Historical Society (West Brookfield)

Quincy Historical Society

Royalston Historical Society

Sharon Historical Society & Museum

Somerville Museum

Shelburne Historical Society (Shelburne Falls)

Shirley Historical Society Museum

Stoneham Museum and Historical Society

Wakefield Historical Society Museum

Waltham Museum

Warwick Museum and Historical Society

Wellfleet Historical Society & Museum

Wenham Museum

West Bridgewater Historical Museum

Westford Museum

Whately Historical Society Museum

Worcester Historical Museum

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Mark Feeney can be reached at [email protected].