Atwood Museum

Joseph Sears Atwood was born in Eastham in 1720 and first went to sea at the age of ten. Like many young boys beginning a maritime career, he started as a cook aboard fishing vessels sailing to Nova Scotia and the Grand Banks. He gradually advanced through the ranks, becoming a seaman, mate, chief mate and eventually a captain.

By the 1740s, Atwood was among the first men from Chatham to command merchant ships sailing to distant ports. Working for shipowners in Boston, he captained vessels carrying goods between New England, the Bay of Honduras and Amsterdam. These were long and dangerous voyages threatened by storms, shipwrecks, piracy and the possibility of seizure by foreign ships. During one voyage aboard the Judith, Atwood was instructed to defend the vessel if the Spanish attempted to capture it.

After approximately 12 years as a captain, Atwood had accumulated what was considered a fortune for his time. In 1752, at the age of 32, he retired from the sea and purchased 30 acres in Chatham extending from present-day Stage Harbor Road to Mill Pond. He built a gambrel-roofed house for his wife, Deborah, and their family. Atwood continued purchasing surrounding property throughout his life and eventually became one of Chatham’s largest landowners. Five generations of the Atwood family lived in the house.

The Chatham Historical Society purchased the largely unaltered home in 1926. Except for the later addition of electricity, the original rooms remain much as they were during the 18th and 19th centuries. Additional galleries built around the house now preserve Chatham’s maritime, fishing and community history, but the original Atwood home remains at the center of the museum