Local History Collection
Microfilm Collection
Maps and Atlas Collection
Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library Archives
Gloucester Vertical Files
Newspaper Collection
Gloucester History research Guides
Compiled by the Gloucester Archive Committee and Archive Volunteers the Research Guides are intended to facilitate the study of various subjects relating to Gloucester History. The Gloucester History Research Guides can be found on the Gloucester City Archives website.
Finding Aids
Finding Aids are documents containing detailed information and narrative description of the contents of a specific collection of papers or records within an archive. Finding aids for collections relating to Gloucester and Cape Ann history are available at the Gloucester City Archives and the Cape Ann Museum.
Archival Collections at the Gloucester City Archives
Archival Collections at the Cape Ann Museum
NOBLE Digital Heritage
NOBLE Digital Heritage, a project of the North of Boston Library Exchange, Inc. (NOBLE) and its member libraries, is a collection of resources documenting the rich social and cultural history of local communities. Digital Heritage allows patrons to search across the digital special collections of sixteen member libraries. The Sawyer Free Library has contributed the following collections to the digital initiative:
List of Vessels Belonging to the District of Gloucester, 1869-1908
Gloucester City Directories 1860-1993
Gloucester High School Yearbooks, 1923-2013
Gloucester Oral History Collection
Gloucester Postcard Collection
Gloucester Map Collection
Additional
Books Related to Cape Ann and Gloucester History
General History and Guide Books
- Along the Old Roads of Cape Ann, 1923
- Cape Ann and Vicinity: A Guide for Residents and Visitors, by Karin M. Gertsch, 1997
- Cottages of Cape Ann, by Daniel Brewster, 1933
- The Gloucester Fire Department: Its History and Work from 1793 to 1893, by John J. Somes, 1892
- Gloucester, Mass., by Gloucester, Mass. Board of Trade, 1909
- Gloucester Recollected: A Familiar History, by Alfred Mansfield Brooks, 1974
- History of Annisquam, by Anne G. Jewett, 1902
- History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Anne, including the Town of Rockport, by John James Babson, 1860
- History of the Town of Gloucester, Cape Ann, Massachusetts, by James R. Pringle, 1892
- In and Around Cape Ann: A Hand-Book of Gloucester, Mass., and Its Immediate Vicinity for the Wheelman Tourist and the Summer Visitor, by John S. Webber, Jr., 1885
- In the Heart of Cape Ann, or The Story of Dogtown, by Charles E. Mann, 1896
- The Indian Land Titles of Essex County, Massachusetts, by Sidney Perley, 1912
- The Landing at Cape Anne, by John Wingate Thornton, 1854
- Memorial of the Celebration of the Two Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town of Gloucester, Mass., 1901
- The North Shore of Massachusetts Bay: An Illustrated Guide to Marblehead, Salem, Peabody, Beverly, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Magnolia, Gloucester, Rockport, and Ipswich, by Benjamin D. Hill, 1881
- Notes and Additions to the History of Gloucester, Second Series, by John J. Babson, 1891
- Pigeon Cove and Vicinity, by Henry C. Leonard, 1873
- Pleasure Drives Around Cape Ann, 1896
- Points of Interest of Gloucester in Song, by Clarence Manning Falt, 1894
- The Saga of Cape Ann, by Melvin Thomas Copeland, 1960
- Souvenir: Gloucester and Vicinity, 1892
- Standard History of Essex County, Massachusetts, Embracing A History of the County from its First Settlement to the Present Time, With a History and Description of its Towns and Cities. The Most Historic County of America, by Cyrus M. Tracy, 1878
- The Story of Gloucester Massachusetts, Permanently Settled 1623: An Address, by Frederick Washington Tibbets, 1917
- Two Centuries of Travel in Essex County, Massachusetts: A Collection of Narrative and Observations Made By Travelers, 1605-1799, by George Francis Dow, 1921
- Village Communities of Cape Ann and Salem, From the Historical Collection of the Essex Institute, by Herbert Baxter Adams, 1883
Genealogy
- Branch of the Poole Family in America Descended from John Pool of Rockport, Massachusetts, Including the Allied Families of Haskell, Norwood, Storey, Butman, Rand, Kendall
- The Coit Family; or The Descendants of John Coit, Who Appears Among the Settlers of Salem, Mass. in 1638, at Gloucester in 1644, and at New London, Conn. in 1650, by F. W. Chapman, 1874
- The Descendants of Anthony Day of Gloucester, Mass., 1645, by John Alphonso Day, 1902
- Descendants of Michael Webber of Falmouth, Maine and of Gloucester, Massachusetts, by George Walter Chamberlain, 1935
- The Diary of the Revd. Daniel Fuller with His Account of His Family & Other Matters, by Daniel Fuller, 1894
- The Elwell Family in America: A Genealogy of Robert Elwell, of Dorchester and Gloucester, Mass. and the Greater Part of His Descendants, to the Fifth Generation, with a List of Revolutionary Soldiers of the Name Who Enlisted from the State of Massachusetts, Jacob Thomas Elwell, 1899
- A Genealogical History of the Descendants of Stephen and Ursula Streeter of Gloucester, Mass., 1642, afterwards of Charlestown, Mass., 1644-1652; with an Account of the Streeters of Goudherst, Kent, England, by Milford B. Streeter, 1896
- The Genealogy of William Coleman of Gloucester, Mass., and Graveshead, England, by James Cash Coleman, 1906
- The Grandchildren of Col. Joseph Foster: Of Ipswich and Gloucester, Mass., 1730-1804, by Joseph Foster, 1885
- Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts, 1635-1664, Volume I, 1916
- Probate Records of Essex County, Massachusetts, 1665-1674, Volume II, 1917
- Records of Families of the Name Rawlins or Rollins in the United States: In Two Parts, by John R. Rollins, 1874
- Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Massachusetts
- The Sawyer Family of Elliotsville (Piscataquis Co., Maine): Descendents of James Sawyer of Gloucester, Mass. and their Kinfolk, the Drakes, by Fred E. Sawyer, 1945
- Thomas Gardner, planter (Cape Ann, 1623-1626, Salem, 1626-1674) and Some of His Descendants, by Frank A. Gardener, 1980
- Vital Records of Gloucester, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849, Volume 1: Births, 1917
- Vital Records of Gloucester, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849, Volume 2: Marriages, 1917
- Vital Records of Gloucester, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1849, Volume 3: Deaths, 1917
Gloucester Fishermen and Fishing Industry
- American-Canadian Fisheries Conference: Hearings at Washington, DC, January 21-25; Boston, Mass., January 31, February 1; Gloucester, Mass., February 2; St. John, N.B., February 5-6, 1918
- The American Coast Pilot Containing the Course and Distances Between the Principal Harbours, Capes and Headlands, from Passamaquoddy, through the Gulf of Florida...Together with the Courses and Distances from Cape Cod and Cape Ann to Georges' Bank...with the Latitudes and Longitudes of the Principal Harbours on the Coast, Together with a Tide Table
- Down to the Sea: The Fishing Schooners of Gloucester, by Joseph E. Garland, 2000
- The Fisheries of Gloucester from the First Catch by the English in 1623, to the Centennial Year, 1876
- The Fishermen's Memorial and Record Book: Containing a List of Vessels and Their Crews Lost from the Port of Gloucester from the Year 1830 to October 1, 1873, by George H. Procter, 1873
- The Fishermen's Own Book, Comprising of Men and Vessels Lost from the Port of Gloucester, Mass., by Proctor Brothers, 1882
- Journal of Captain Solomon H. Davis, a Gloucester Sea-Captain, 1828-1846, by Solomon Haskell Davis, 1922
- Wharf and Fleet: Ballads of the Fishermen of Gloucester, Clarence Manning Falt, 1902
Gloucester Lyceum and Sawyer Free Library
Poetry and Poets
Religion
- Exercises at the 50th Anniversary of the Evangelical Congregational Church, Gloucester, Mass., November 18, 1879, 1880
- Proceedings at the Universalist Centennial Held in Gloucester, Mass., September 20th, 21st, & 22nd, 1870
- Universalism in Gloucester, Mass., by Richard Eady, 1892
