Outermost Inspiration Exhibition

Featuring new works by area and national artists capturing the beauty of our surroundings. For the entire month of February in the Cape Cod National Seashore’s Salt Pond Visitors Center, Eastham. The show is curated by Helen Katherine Addison, owner of the internationally respected Addison Art Gallery.

Henry Beston
Henry Beston’s 1928 book, The Outermost House, is a classic of American Literature. Beston (1888-1968) wrote the book after spending a solitary “year” in a 20×16 house on the dunes of Eastham on Cape Cod, studying and observing the wonders of the elements in this stunning setting.

The Outermost House is considered one of the seminal works of today’s environmental movements and is one of the reasons that the Cape Cod National Seashore exists today. Rachel Carson said it was the only book that ever influenced her writing.

Don Wilding
Since the start of the millennium, Don Wilding has been telling stories of Cape Cod Outer Beach history through lectures, video, and the written word. ​An award-winning writer and editor for Massachusetts newspapers for 30 years, Don pens the popular “Shore Lore” history column for the Cape Codder newspaper of Orleans, and is the author of two books, Henry Beston’s Cape Cod: How ‘The Outermost House’ Inspired a National Seashore and A Brief History of Eastham: On the Outer Beach of Cape Cod from The History Press.

The Cape Cod National Seashore
The Cape Cod National Seashore was created on August 7, 1961, encompasses 43,607 acres, and includes ponds, woods and nearly 40 miles of seashore along the Atlantic-facing eastern shore of Cape Cod. Lighthouses, cultural landscapes, and wild cranberry bogs offer a glimpse of Cape Cod’s past and continuing ways of life. The Seashore has inspired artists, writers and poets from across the globe.