Exhibits

Main Room

The 2019 exhibit added a new chapter to the “Remarkable Women” series.

The Penikese Experience: The Famous and the Forgotten

The 2019 exhibit added a new chapter to the “Remarkable Women” series, with a spotlight on the uniquely different experiences of the women of the Anderson Natural History School and the Leper Hospital colony on the tiny island of Penikese.

In 1873 the Anderson Natural History School opened on the tiny island of Penikese, under the direction of the world famous scientist, Louis Agassiz.

It was a first of its kind residential summer school that would become a model for future natural history schools such as Woods Hole. The co-ed school was the nation’s first graduate study program open to women.

Agassiz’s decision to include women would have a profound effect upon women’s education. In an era when science was a male preserve, the school created a climate for change, with women as colleagues in scientific work.
These trailblazing women would go on to be a college president, full professors and scientists in their own right.

Thirty years after the school closed, the buildings were repurposed for use as a state leprosarium (1905-1921). In contrast to the experience by the women of the natural history school, isolation marked the women’s lives at the ‘colony’. Biblical fear of leprosy turned the island into an isolation camp-a dead end life sentence for the afflicted and a place of hardship for the caring staff.

Akin Room

Visitors Want to Know… (2018 – 2019)

This exhibit continued the conversation by answering some of the questions visitors ask year after year.

Memory Lore Station

An Interactive area for visitors to share stories of their own is located in the Akin Room.

 

Calendar

Check the calendar below for details about upcoming events.

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Past Exhibits