Once part of Rochester, Massachusetts, Mattapoisett officially became an incorporated town of its own right in 1857. As of the 2010 census, Mattapoisett has a population of 6,045. This New England town also has some historical claim to fame: it is the former summer home of Oliver Wendell Holmes and central hub for the whaling industry. In fact, Herman Melville sailed on a whaling ship built in Mattapoisett. The Mattapoisett Historical Society has created an engaging website that presents Mattapoisett history through aesthetically appealing data visualizations. Here, one can learn how many days a carpenter would need to work to buy a pair of shoes in 1777; explore an interactive map to learn the distributions of varying occupations across the state of Massachusetts in 1850; and view the growth of whaling voyages around the world between 1800 and 1900. These visualizations provide (sometimes surprising) insight into everyday life in eighteenth and nineteenth century New England.
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