Thank you for participating in Passport to History 2024!
The Old Colony History Museum is proud to share that 1,327 people took part in the Passport to History program in 2024. These visitors discovered a deeper love and understanding of our past and the rich local history of Southeastern Massachusetts, and for that, we are thrilled! Thank you to all who picked up a booklet and explored a museum free of charge this summer.
The first team to visit all 16 sites! Bob & Paula of Norton
2024 Passport Sites
Our Thanks
Passport to History is developed by the Old Colony History Museum and funded, in part, by the Massachusetts Office of Travel & Tourism and the Southeastern Massachusetts Convention and Visitors Bureau. For 2024, this program is also supported in part by grants from the Attleboro, Berkley, Bridgewater, Brockton, Chatham, Duxbury, Fall River, Mansfield, Middleborough, New Bedford, Norton, Plymouth, Rehoboth, and Wareham Cultural Councils, local agencies which are supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
All of the museums participating in the program reside within the boundaries of what was known as the Old Colony. The term Old Colony refers to the area of southeastern Massachusetts that was once Plymouth Colony. Plymouth Colony existed as a separate entity until its merger with the larger Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1691. Then the area became known as “Old Plymouth Colony” until it was finally shortened to “Old Colony.” Home to humans for at least 10,000 years before Europeans settled the area in 1620, the land today encompasses Plymouth, Bristol, and Barnstable counties. Bounded on three sides by the Atlantic Ocean, the Old Colony was richly endowed with well-protected harbors and a river system that made trading, and later industry, profitable.