Images of America: Gloucester and Rockport

Hardy Gloucester men and large fishing vessels known as Gloucestermen were ever-present along the busy waterfront of the North Shore city between the mid-19th century and the early years of the 20th century. As part of the giant fishing industry, the vessels, which were owned by Yankee, Portuguese, and Italian fishermen, were a dramatic and colorful accent along the inner harbor. In the 1830s, artists discovered the charms of the fishing port of Gloucester and around forty years later, others were in Rockport. The art colony at Rocky Neck in East Gloucester is the earliest in America and was visited, or lived in, by many prominent painters. Tourists of the past also took delight in the attractive areas of Cape Ann where they could while away a summer vacation in a fancy hotel along the rugged shore, explore the local sites, view the mysterious former settlement of Dogtown, or inspect the many granite quarries that were active from the 1820s to the Great Depression.