Description
The town is portrayed as a cluster of streets and wood-frame houses radiating outwards from its harbor, where piers jut into the bay. Sailboats, schooners, and larger passenger boats populate the water, reflecting Provincetown maritime economy. Three cold storage plants for processing fish (Consolidated Weir, Provincetown Cold Storage, and Fisherman’s Cold Storage) reflect the town’s reliance on maritime industries at the turn of the century. On the other hand, several hotels (the Pilgrim, New Central, Atlantic, Gifford, and Mt. Pleasant Houses, some of which still exist) and the Star Theater suggest the town’s developing tourist industry of the early 20th century.
At the center of the image, towering above all else, stands the Pilgrim Monument — a 252-foot granite tower completed in 1910 to commemorate the Mayflower Pilgrims’ five-week stay in Provincetown Harbor before settling in Plymouth. Designed by Boston architect Willard T. Sears and inspired by the Torre del Mangia in Siena, Italy, the monument was intended to assert Provincetown’s place in the national origin story. President Theodore Roosevelt laid its cornerstone in 1907, and President William Howard Taft presided over its dedication in 1910. Its commanding presence in the print underscores both its symbolic and literal centrality to the town’s evolving identity.
Provincetown boasts a rich history evolving from Native American inhabitants and the first landing of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower in November 1620. The Mayflower Compact was drawn up there, but the Pilgrims settled in Plymouth, and Provincetown was not founded as a colony until 1680. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was a major center for the whaling and fishing industry. Today it thrives as vibrant resort town celebrated for its pristine beaches, stunning natural beauty, and welcoming atmosphere as an artist’s and writers colony and LGBTQ+ destination.
George Hiram Walker (1852 -1927) established publishing firms in Massachusetts beginning in the late 1870s. He founded George H. Walker & Co. in Boston, which became a major cartographic publisher, largely focusing on Massachusetts and its counties, cities, and towns. Publications of the firm including Massachusetts state and county atlases. The firm published a wide variety of pocket maps for tourists and travelers. They also published bird’s-eye views of tourist destinations including Provincetown, Plymouth, Edgartown, Pigeon Cove, Vineyard Haven, Wood’s Hole and Hyannis.
List of 24 places shown in key:
Pilgrim Monument, Town Hall, Marine Hall, Masonic Hall, High School, Gov. Winthrop School, Public Library, Universalist Church, Methodist Episcopal Church, Catholic Church, Pilgrim House, The Central House, New Central House, Atlantic House, Mt. Pleasant House, Board of Trade, Star Theatre, N.Y., N.H. & H. R.R. Depot (New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad Depot), Long Cold Wharf, Consolidated Weir Co., Fisherman’s Cold Storage, Provincetown Cold Storage
Condition: Generally very good, recently professionally cleaned and deacified with light remaining toning, wear, handling, particularly in the margins.
References:
“Provincetown, Mass.” Leventhal Maps. https://collections.leventhalmap.org/search/commonwealth:x633f932f. (20 June 2025).
“Visit the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum.” Pilgrim Monument. https://www.pilgrim-monument.org/. (20 June 2025).
