Library Historical Collections

Rochester, Massachusetts

The Historical Collections at the Plumb Library include material pertaining to the town of Rochester, Massachusetts, her daughter towns Marion, Mattapoisett and Wareham, as well as research material on towns in Massachusetts and New England, genealogical resources, maps, photographs, and artifacts. The collection consists of material from the library’s collection, the collection of the Rochester Historical Society, the Rochester Historical Commission, the records of the North Rochester Congregational Church, and the Captain Dexter Collection of artifacts and mineralogical specimens.

Please feel free to contact us for a list of titles or search for individual titles in our Historical Collections in the SAILS Catalog. This important resource is made available through the SAILS Digital History Collection.

Rochester Community-Wide Historic and Architectural Survey (PAL)

You can view, read, and print out pages from the Rochester Community-Wide Historic and Architectural Survey. These volumes contain the 1997-1998 Town Survey of historic properties done by the Public Archeology Laboratory, Inc. of Rhode Island with the help and co-operation of the Rochester Historical Commission. They also include surveys completed and submitted to the Massachusetts Historical Commission in Boston by the Rochester Historical Society in 1973.

Captain Dexter Collection

Captain John G. Dexter served as a Library Trustee from March 1892 until his death in 1919. A cabinet of specimens from the Volcano Kīlauea in the Hawaiian Islands collected by Captain Dexter during his last whaling voyage in 1866 was donated to the library by his wife, Ellen M. Dexter, in 1920. For many years, the cabinet was housed at Town Hall. With help from Old Colony Carpentry, Captain Dexter’s cabinet was restored in 2026 while preserving the historic character of the piece. In addition to Captain Dexter’s cabinet, the library also holds 13 boxes of mineralogical and archaeological specimens as part of our Captain Dexter Collection.