Elaine Cawley Weintraub

A historian, Dr. Elaine Cawley Weintraub, is co-founder of the Martha's Vineyard African American Heritage Trail, a model public history project and physical trail. She chairs the history department at the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School, and involves her students as research assistants, journalists and muralists.

Her research on the African American history of the Vineyard has been published in the New England Journal of History, Mystic Seaport Museum, the Organization of American History and, most prominently, in her book Lighting the Trail - the African American Heritage of Martha's Vineyard.

For the years 1993 and 1996, she was a Paul Cuffe Fellow, a Fellowship granted by the Munson Institute at Mystic Seaport, in recognition of her original scholarship in the field of "minority contributions to the maritime history of New England." A finalist for the Massachusetts Teacher of the Year program in 2001, she was Massachusetts Global Educator in 2003, and was recognized for her services to anti-racist, inclusive education by the Anti Defamation League's World of Difference organization in 1998.

She received the Margot Stern Strom Award for services to intercultural understanding from the Facing History & Ourselves organization in 2006. Elaine Cawley Weintraub has been widely published in local media and in educational and historical journals.

Her most recent research work was The House of Corrections and a Fine Farm of Land - the experience of the Famine Irish on Martha's Vineyard based on her presentation at the American Conference on Irish Studies at the University of Connecticut in 2006, was published by the Vineyard Museum in 2007.

What is Plum 98? It’s a collection of 98 individuals (a nice, round number) who have etched a mark in the Martha's Vineyard community with positive energy and vision. Be it in the realm of art, recreation or politics, we at Plum want to recognize these local stars for their encouragement and inspiration. To meet more Plum 98ers, Click here.