WELLFLEET — “I love sitting with people of all ages and folding paper,” said Sheryl Jaffee, the Wellfleet Historical Society’s museum coordinator. The assembled — more people than would fit in the museum’s main space — were there on Saturday, in part, to fold.
That they were making paper-bag lanterns was a nod to an odd bit of the town’s history. Luther Childs Crowell, who was born in West Dennis in 1840 but later lived in Wellfleet, was instrumental in the development of the square-bottom foldable paper bag. He was a prolific inventor, but in this case, his contribution was an “improvement” — he devised a machine to fold paper bags. Crowell held at least 290 other patents; his first, in 1862, was for an “aerial machine” — something like a helicopter.
The bag folding had a communitarian purpose, too, Jaffe said. As they folded, townspeople were encouraged to talk about their wishes for a more peaceful world. The bags, illuminated with LED lights and weighted with sand, were then walked to Uncle Tim’s Bridge, where they lighted its length, signifying hope and countering the night’s chilly drizzle. It was a moment appropriate for the weekend commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.’s life of nonviolent civil rights activism.
