Joppa Clam Shanties | 30" x 16" Canvas w/Floating Frame

Joppa Flats & Clamming

In the late 19th Century, clam shacks proliferated along a stretch of the Merrimack River in Newburyport known as Joppa Flat where clam digging followed the low tide cycles of the salt marsh using simple clam forks and wire baskets for seawater drainage.

Clamming was a major industry for the Northshore of Massachusetts given its intertidal ecosystem called the Great Marsh, a massive zone of 20,000 acres of nutrient-rich salt marshes, estuaries, tidal rivers, barrier beaches, and mud flats extending from Gloucester to Salisbury. At its height around 1900, there was as many as one-half to five tons of shucked clams shipped every day to Boston and other cities from Newburyport.

This 30" x 16" framed 3/4" wrapped canvas is derived from an original 1900 hand-colored postcard of the era.

Wonderful addition to any home decor that reflects the love & legacy of New England seacoast traditions.