Cash, Credit or Eels, Shopping Local in the 1820s

Back in the day, no cash was no problem. Shoppers exchanged simple IOUs for goods or traded everything from fish and feathers to vegetables and eels for the items they needed. This exhibit takes us back a few centuries for a typical round of errands to the general store, the blacksmith, the carpenter and the bank to see what’s available and learn how people shopped and traded in a cash-deprived economy. Like one Falmouth resident, John Tobey (1766-1849). Thanks to a remarkable discovery, we have a window into how this system worked. While renovating his home about a decade ago, an East Falmouth resident found a box secreted in the frame of the building. The treasure inside: a stack of 200-year-old receipts, credit slips, and other business papers that once belonged to Mr. Tobey. Buttons, butter churns, sewing supplies and scythes. Every week, we’ll feature a different item, so check back to discover what else we’ve found in the archives by “shopping local”.

VIRTUAL EXHIBIT
We created the virtual exhibit below to connect us to history until we can reopen.  Sign up for our newsletter to have each new exhibit items delivered to your in box weeklyl!

For more information, click here.