The Çeşme City Memory Museum is a social and cultural exhibition assembled by Çeşme Municipality, curated by Marcus Graf. It presents historical household and trade items donated by the town’s residents and personal narratives of their lives and experiences. The retrospective, an informative and educational resource for local people and visiting tourists is housed in the restored Customs House, which was used as the bus station and, more recently, a restaurant on the seafront in the heart of the town.
Çeşme Kent Belleği Müzesi, 16 Eylül, Cumhuriyet Meydanı no:13, 35930 Çeşme/İzmir. Entry free.
Above are a selection of artefacts on display. These include (from top left) a tobacco press, used in Alaçatı circa 1950-1980, the primary industry at that time, to press dried tobacco leaves into bales. Behind the tobacco press is a flail tool and a weaving loom. The flail tool is a wooden board with sharp flints hammered into it, used in Alaçati fields to separate wheat grains from their stalks, and the weaving loom was brought from Crete during the population exchange so the family could continue their profession. The olive oil storage bottles are made of coloured glass to aid oil protection from sunlight. The millstone was also brought to Çeşme by the Dağ family during the exchange, along with a donkey from Thessaloniki. The Dağ family, who settled in Ovacık, tell a tragic story of jealousy and a child’s death on settlement in the region. The collection of fabrics is donated from a variety of sources, including embroideries of the Bykut family, settlers to Çeşme from Eygpt, and a bridal nightgown collection made of embroidered silk and cotton from settlers from Odemis, Denizli.
The inaugural exhibition opened in October 2023, titled “Infinite Stories”, illustrates urban architecture, labour, everyday life and influential events such as the population exchange and highlights the industries and pastimes that were the core of life in Çeşme. Among those who voluntarily donated their valuable historical and cultural items to the museum, Çeşme antique, document and photograph collector Taner Morova contributed many artefacts, including 1,000 historical pictures he had collected since 1998. Below is a selection of photographs on display (click images to enlarge):
The exhibition includes static boards presenting artefacts, stories and photographs on the themes of “Heritage”, (population) “Exchange”, “Fishery”, Joyful Time”, and “Labour”, as well as video and audio interviews with Çeşme residents, giving their family histories and perspectives on the local social history.
