In Cape Cod parlance a “hole” is a strait generally with robust currents that, in this area of Falmouth MA, enables shipping to pass from Cape Cod Bay to Buzzards Bay. Attracted by one of the few good harbors on the southern shore of the Cape, Europeans settled there in 1602. They eventually displaced the native Wampanoag Indians and established a thriving maritime economy based on fishing, whaling and international trade that lasted well into the 19th century. By the latter part of the 1800s the character of the place underwent a profound change when Boston’s elite began to build grand summer mansions on the renamed Penzance Point, former site of an abandoned guano factory. The recently established U.S. Commission on Fish and Fisheries also located there in 1871 to study the ecology of coastal waters. Today, tourism and marine sciences dominate the character and local economy. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute is just one of several large research and educational institutions devoted to the health of the sea and its natural inhabitants. Our map is a rescue from of a mid-19th century school map of the Cape recently found rolled up and partially disintegrating in an attic in Dennis MA. Condition: Framed and matted to archival standards. Dimensions: Image approximately 5" x 6". Frame: 8.5" x 8.5".