Historic Nantucket, Summer 2002, Vol. 51, No. 3 by Nantucket Historical Association

SUMMER

2002

VOL . 51 , NO . 3

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THE NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES Arie L. Kopelman President

Peter W. Nash

Barbara E. Hajim

Alice F. Emerson

Bruce D. Miller

Patricia M. Bridier

First Vice President

Second Vice President

Third Vice President

Treasurer

Clerk

Alfred Sanford Isabel C. Stewart John M. Sweeney Richard F. Tucker Marcia Welch David H. Wood Robert A. Young

Julius Jensen III L. Dennis Kozlowski Jane T. Lamb Carolyn B. MacKenzie Albert L. Manning Jr. Arthur I. Reade Jr.

Rebecca M. Bartlett Laurie Champion Nancy A. Chase Prudence S. Crozier John H. Davis Joseph S. DiMartino Mary F. Espy

Frank D. Milligan Executive Director

RESEARCH FELLOWS Dr. Elizabeth Little

Pauline Maier

Nathaniel Philbrick

Patty Jo S. Rice

Renny A. Stackpole

FRIENDS OF THE NHA Pat & Thomas Anathan Mariann & Mortimer Appley Heidi & Max Berry Christy & William Camp Jr. Laurie & Robert Champion Dottie & Earle Craig Prudence & William M. Crozier Robyn & John Davis Sandra & Nelson Doubleday Nancee & John Erickson Marjorie & Charles Fortgang Nancy & Charles Geschke Susan & Herbert Goodall III

Georgia & Thomas Gosnell Silvia Gosnell Barbara & Robert Griffin Barbara & Edmund Hajim George S. Heyer Jr. Barbara & Harvey Jones Kathryn & James Ketelsen Sara Jo & Arthur Kobacker Coco & Arie Kopelman Sharon & Frank Lorenzo Carolyn & Ian MacKenzie Phyllis & William Macomber

Miriam & Seymour Mandell Ronay & Richard Menschel Aileen & Scott Newquist Charron & Flint Ranney Gleaves & Thomas Rhodes Ellen & Kenneth Roman Marion & Robert Rosenthal Ellen & David Ross III Linda & Harvey Saligman Charlotte Smith Genevieve & Richard Tucker Marilyn Whitney Yuriko & Bracebridge Young Jr.

ADVISORY BOARD Patricia Loring William B. Macomber Paul Madden Robert F. Mooney Jane C. Richmond Nancy J. Sevrens Scott M. Stearns Jr. Mary-Elizabeth Young

Nina Hellman Elizabeth Husted Elizabeth Jacobsen Francis D. Lethbridge Reginald Levine Katherine S. Lodge Sharon Lorenzo

Walter Beinecke Jr. Joan Brecker Patricia Butler Helen Winslow Chase Michael deLeo Lyndon Dupuis Martha Groetzinger Dorrit D. P. Gutterson

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Thomas B. Congdon Jr. Robert F. Mooney Elizabeth Oldham

Susan F. Beegel Mary H. Beman Margaret Moore Booker Richard L. Brecker

Nathaniel Philbrick Sally Seidman James Sulzer David H. Wood

Cecil Barron Jensen

Helen Winslow Chase

Elizabeth Oldham

Claire O’Keeffe

EDITOR

HISTORIAN

COPY EDITOR

ART DIRECTOR

Historic Nantucket welcomes articles on any aspect of Nantucket history. Original research, first-hand accounts, reminiscences of island experiences, historic logs, letters, and photographs are examples of materials of interest to our readers. Copyright © 2002 by Nantucket Historical Association Historic Nantucket (ISSN 0439-2248) is published quarterly by the Nantucket Historical Association, 15 Broad Street, Nantucket, MA 02554. Second-class postage paid at South Yarmouth, MA, and additional entry offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Historic Nantucket Box 1016 • Nantucket, MA 02554-1016 • (508) 228-1894; fax: (508) 228-5618 • nhainfo@nha.org For information about our historic sites: www.nha.org

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SUMMER 2002

VOLUME 51, NO. 3

4 Foreword

by Frank D. Milligan

Nantucket’s Collections by Niles Parker

8 A Young Collector: An Interview with David Wood

11 “Time Lies in One Little Word”: Antique

by Amy Jenness

A Postcard from Nantucket by Cecil Barron Jensen

19 Confessions of a Nantucket Collector

Reminiscing on 25 Years of an Antiques Show by Nina Hellman

by Scott Waldie

20 Book Section The Art of Family

Reviewed by David Wood

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NHA News

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On the cover: Built in 1882 at the corner of Pochick and Ocean Avenues and one of the Siasconset artist colony houses in the 1920s, the China Closet was home to an impressive collection of china displayed from floor to ceiling. S U M M E R

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Foreword Vision — n. imaginative insight into a subject or problem, etc.; foresight and wisdom in planning.

WO YEARS AGO THE NHA SET OUT TO SHARPEN

its vision, a process that challenged trustees and staff to be wise planners. The end result was a new vision statement, the genesis of which was a desire to adopt a plan that ensured continued leadership for NHA members, visitors, and island residents for whom the association is an essential piece of the island’s fabric. In short, the NHA needed to demonstrate leadership in the preservation and presentation of Nantucket’s unique and fascinating history. As the definition above suggests, the key to the vision was “wisdom in planning.” We needed a resourceful plan that would get the NHA from point A (where the association was trying very hard to please everyone with limited resources) to point B (where the association could fulfill its new mission—to inspire island residents to shape the future of their island with a greater appreciation and respect for their unique and nationally significant history). The NHA’s Interpretive Plan was unamimously adopted by its board of trustees in 2000, and the implementation has begun. First, the Interpretive Plan serves as a “curriculum” guide for the new Nantucket Museum Center, in which our existing, and future, collections will present the “full sweep” of Nantucket history. Five historical themes will guide the development of new galleries and learning spaces where residents and visitors will embark on educational voyages through our rich whaling history and beyond. This is a museum that will provide year-round opportunities to examine our history through new exhibitions, lectures, and enjoyable programs. It is a museum that can open new doors for young and old by staging traveling exhibitions from mainland museums, offer visitors unique views of Nantucket’s town site and harbor from a wraparound roofwalk, and maintain our focus on the whaling story by exhibiting the skeleton of the forty-seven-foot sperm whale that came aground on Low Beach in 1997. Second, the plan acknowledges that we no longer have the financial capability of doing everything. Rather, we

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need to become better at what we do, and especially better at directing our financial resources to restoring and bringing “alive”: Hadwen House, our Main Street Greek Revival example of whaling-era wealth; the Old Mill, currently in a five-year-restoration program that will ensure its remaining America’s oldest operating mill; the Oldest House, literally Nantucket’s oldest dwelling where visitors will someday experience many aspects of Nantucket’s rural and agricultural past; the Whaling Museum, whose walls, roofs, and wooden features are being systematically repaired and restored and whose interior will soon be returned to its mid-nineteenth-century oil-refining factory appearance; and the Quaker Meeting House, the NHA’s first home, which will be thoroughly restored using historical timber-frame building techniques and will host interpretive programs relating to Quakerism. We will invest in restoring those five properties in a manner that makes each a model for proper preservation and interpretation of the five historical themes outlined in the Interpretive Plan. With our key properties restored and alive, our new museum built, our collections secure in the new Fair Street library and the Gosnold Center on Bartlett Road, what remains is to enhance our modest endowment to provide an adequate source of long-term financial support to complement our fund-raising capabilities. By implementing this plan the NHA aspires to make a difference in people’s lives at a delicate point in the island’s evolution. At a time when the pace of island development can lead to tension, the NHA will provide all island residents with a greater appreciation of its shared history and will help bring and hold us together. At a time when many of our island’ historic interiors, and some exteriors, are endangered, the NHA’s preservation and conservation practices will meet or exceed national standards. And at a time when our residents need more than ever to understand their island’s history and its role in America’s national story, the NHA will be known for innovative, engaging, content-rich public programs and exhibitions. Vision — n. imaginative insight into a subject or problem, etc.; foresight and wisdom in planning. — Frank D. Milligan S U M M E R

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Nantucket’s Collections

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more than 2,500 whaling tools and implements, some 6,000 items of furniture and decorative arts, 5,000-plus books, 400 linear feet of manuscript material, 50,000 photographs, and the complete skeletons of a fortythree-foot finback and a forty-seven-foot sperm whale. It continues to be the NHA’s responsibility to properly care for, catalogue, store, research, and learn from this collection of Nantucket’s material culture while endeavoring to make it increasingly accessible to the public. Building such a collection requires the work of generations. It started slowly. A report in the organization’s first Proceedings noted that the “collection is not large, but perhaps as large as we can conveniently exhibit at present; and certainly contains much that is entertaining and instructive.” As a first home for the collections, the NHA purchased the Quaker Meeting House on Fair Street and crammed it full of artifacts from floor to ceiling. Photographs of that installation reveal a staggering conglomeration of Nantucket decorative arts, portraits, and furniture (many of which are still in the NHA’s collection). It has the appearance of an attic, bursting at the seams with curiosities. In 1904,

by Niles Parker

Crammed to the rafters with artifacts, the Quaker Meeting House served as the first home of the NHA’s collections.

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1894, A GROUP OF NANTUCKETERS convened a meeting “in accordance with the sentiment so widely spread and so deeply felt that a society should be formed at once for the purpose of collecting books, manuscripts and articles of any sort, to illustrate the history of our Island.” The result was the Nantucket Historical Association, and the “collecting” that was recommended at the time hasn’t stopped in the intervening 108 years. Today, the NHA is the principal repository of an extensive collection of artifacts illustrating Nantucket Island’s past. The NHA currently owns and manages twenty-five structures and properties, which it utilizes to accomplish its mission: to preserve and interpret the history of Nantucket Island in order to inspire island residents, both year-round and seasonal, to shape the island’s future with a greater appreciation and respect for their shared heritage, and to foster among all Nantucket residents and visitors a deeper appreciation of the important historical role that the island’s people have played in national and world history. As evidenced by the quotation from the founding committee’s report in 1894, collections of objects, manuscripts, artwork, etc., have long been at the heart of the organization’s mission. The definitive aspects of Nantucket’s history are strongly represented in the artifact and manuscript collections—including whaling, land and sea transportation, Quaker religion, fine and decorative arts, farming, commerce, and architecture. These holdings have evolved to encompass all media: textiles, glass, wood, metals, works on paper, paintings, and whale ivory. The NHA’s collection now includes more than 700 paintings, almost 800 prints and drawings, 150 baskets, 400 lighting devices, 800 pieces of scrimshaw, N MAY

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At right: A whale jawbone, whaleboat, and whaling implements are among the artifacts on display in the Whaling Museum’s Sanderson Hall. Photograph by Carol Bates Photography Below: The NHA’s newly renovated, state-of-the-art Research Library. Photograph by P18960

Jeffrey S. Allen

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within ten years of its founding, the NHA built a poured-concrete annex to the Quaker Meeting House. The new museum building was essentially a fire-proof vault that was intended to safeguard the collections and provide additional room for exhibiting them. That building has recently been renovated and ushered into the twenty-first century as the NHA’s comfortable, climate-controlled Research Library. It houses more collections and manuscripts relating to the island’s history than the NHA’s founders might ever have dared to dream. Through purchases, loans, and the gifts of innumerable generous individuals, the NHA has had the good fortune to steadily acquire items that illustrate the island’s history. Of special note is the work performed by the Friends of the NHA during the last fifteen years. Formed in 1986, this group was founded to seek significant acquisitions for the collections of the NHA. With their support, the NHA has been able to acquire a variety of art and artifacts—nearly seventy objects thus far—that the organization otherwise would not have been able to secure. Indeed, the collecting activity of the Friends of the NHA has ensured that important artifacts have stayed on Nantucket so that they might be shared with future generations. Today, the collections of the NHA are diverse, reflecting the long history of the island and its inhabitants. Thousands of artifacts, paintings, photographs, and documents reveal numerous stories and remain as examples of the island’s wide-ranging material culture. As the sheer size of the collection has grown, the NHA has struggled to find adequate space to house it. In 1994, the organization built a large climate-controlled storage facility (the Bartholomew Gosnold Center) in which to store those artifacts not otherwise on view to the public in its very limited museum space. Currently, objects in storage account for nearly ninety-five percent of the NHA’s collection! If only the founders could see that space and the collections therein. Surely they would hearken back to the words of Susan Brock, the NHA’s first curator, when she reported on the early success of the budding collection: “Our thanks are due to the many friends who have kindly and generously assisted us.” However, they might also reflect on Brock’s words in the NHA’s 1903 Proceedings: “It has been well said that a historical society should be something more than a ‘strong box’ to hold collections. It must be a living S U M M E R

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CARING FOR YOUR COLLECTION: Tips from the NHA’s Experts institution and must show something accomplished every year to prove its life and growth.” Standing in our storage facility and working with our collections on a daily basis, I often think of my predecessor’s words. She was right one hundred years ago. Unless we can share these wonderful collections with the public, and continue to think of new ways in which we might organize, research, exhibit, manage, and grow, the NHA cannot truly fulfill its mission. To better illuminate the history of Nantucket Island now requires additional gallery space. A new museum will allow us to better interact with the public and mount exhibitions featuring our diverse collections. Such a facility will allow the NHA to finally place artifacts in state-of-the-art environments that we know to be ideal for their safety and care. Without new galleries, without the opportunity to utilize our collections and highlight the material culture of Nantucket, we will not fully live to up to our educational mandate. At best we will be nothing more than the “strong box” that Susan Brock cautioned against. At worst we could become irrelevant. The material culture of generations past can inspire and help inform the understanding and decisions of those in the present and the future. Each object in the collection carries numerous untold stories. It is our job to coax them out. Whether the object is a 1746 windmill, an eighteenth-century account book, an early nineteenth-century sampler stitched by a young girl in one of Nantucket’s schools, or a twentieth-century bicycle, these objects are touchstones, and we have thousands of them. They are direct links with people who have come and gone before us—people who inhabited this same small island, walked down many of the same streets, lived in many of the same houses, struggled with many of the same issues that occupy much of our time today. We can learn from them; they can help us still. As we feel our way into the twenty-first century, it is wise to remember the old aphorism, “the past is prologue.” Through the development and refinement of the collections of Nantucket’s material culture, the NHA will continue to preserve those touchstones and use the past to help guide us toward the future. Niles Parker is the NHA’s chief curator.

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Avoid extremes of hot or cold, dry or wet. Most collectibles require moderation of humidity and heat. Storing in hot attics and damp cellars spells death to almost anything. On Nantucket especially, mold and mildew are a problem. Examine often for signs of mold growth. Avoid direct sunlight on anything of value. Books and paper items are especially fragile. The ideal storage for documents is in a climate-controlled vault (as in the NHA Research Library) since temperature and humidity fluctuations damage the structure of paper. Private homes do not usually have this resource, but you can move your family papers out of attics and basements. Store paper materials in a pH-neutral environment. Archival-quality or acid-free boxes are available from suppliers of library materials. Always label the outside of the boxes to identify the contents without opening the box. Newspaper is highly acidic and will “eat” into the paper materials around it. Newspaper clippings should be photocopied onto acid-free paper. Fabrics should be examined often for wear, moth damage, fading, or dirt. Place woolens in moth-proof containers with moth balls or other insect-repelling substances. Avoid storing in plastic garbage bags. Fabrics folded up over a long period tend to develop “fold stains.” Quilts and rugs will be preserved if they are rolled and then covered. Quilts are especially fragile. Cherished art works and portraits are frequently displayed over a fireplace, but if fires are lit often the art can be damaged, even if framed in glass. Metals such as silver and brass should be polished frequently to avoid developing deep tarnish. Under no circumstances should antique brass or, especially, silver, be subjected to abrasives. Use a good polish. Wear gloves when handling silver and store objects in acid-free tissue and airtight polyethylene bags. Veneered furniture is vulnerable to heat and dampness. If you wish to polish or clean mahogany, cherry, pine or walnut furniture, ask a good cabinetmaker for suggestions. If in doubt, leave it alone. And don’t, under any circumstances, have a go at good furniture with scrapers, paint remover, or mechanical buffers. If you have ever seen Antiques Road Show, you will have an idea of what such treatment does to the value of a piece. Do not put antique china, silver, or glass in a dishwasher. Preserve your family’s history by properly storing documents and photographs. Record oral histories and identify people in photographs. For information on selecting a good conservator, please call the American Institute for Conservation of Historic & Artistic Works at (202) 452-9545 or aic.stanford.edu. S U M M E R

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The Young Collector: An Interview with David Wood by Amy Jenness

Children watch photographer Henry S. Wyer while auctioneer Andrew Myrick commands the adults’ attention at this Main Street

parts, the skills of a historian and a horse trader as well as an appreciation for beauty that involves all the senses. For David Wood, who grew up collecting on Nantucket, it was his sense of smell that first lured him into the island’s antiques shops. “I honestly think my whole fascination with collecting came about because I spent a lot of time in my grandmother’s attic as a kid. That was my place to get away from the world, where no one bothered me, and it was full of sea chests and a lot of old stuff. Later on, when I started visiting the shops it was the smell that got me. The dusty, old smell reminded me of my grandmother’s attic,” he said. Growing up on-island in the 1930s and ’40s, David Wood started prowling the downtown shops looking for oddities and bargains while still a young boy—a fascination with other people’s things that would turn into a lifelong passion and knack for collecting. A typical retail reconnoiter might have included a stop at Jacob Abajian’s shop on Petticoat Row where

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auction, ca. 1890s.

UCCESSFUL COLLECTORS HAVE , IN EQUAL

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Wood would purchase for a penny trinkets that looked like ordinary seashells but when put in a glass of water would open up and send up a flag. Then he might continue down two doors to Abajian’s other store, which carried furniture and oriental rugs. “The thing that fascinated me, and also somewhat frightened me, was the smell—incense. A completely different aura than anything I had ever experienced. But my curiosity got the better of me one day and I went in,” Wood recalls. Then on to Augustus L. B. Fisher’s store on Main Street at the corner of Washington. Fisher’s big windows full of Sandwich glass, Victorian knick-knacks, and nautical memorabilia pulled Wood in the door, despite Fisher’s unfriendly demeanor. “Augustus L. B. Fisher was a crusty old curmudgeon who didn’t much like kids. He’d tolerate them for a little while, but then he’d point to you and say ‘All right. That’s enough. You kids get out of here,’” Wood said. “But I had my first brush with collecting in any kind of big way in his store. I went in one day and a logbook from the whaleship Gleaner was sitting out on the counter and, oh boy, I wanted it,” he said. “I finally got enough courage to ask the price and he said thirty-five dollars, which for me, a ten-year-old boy at the time, was a lot of money. But I saved and saved and my family gave me some money and I went in and bought the logbook. Every time I went in after that he’d say to me, ‘I sold that too cheap! I sold that too cheap!’” Wood, now retired from a teaching and museum career, still has the logbook from the Gleaner, along with collections of everything from lightship baskets to tramp art. Wood, a member of the NHA board of trustees, wrote The Lightship Baskets of Nantucket: A Continuing Craft in 1994, as a catalogue for the exhibition in the old Fair Street Museum. Encouraged by his first collecting efforts, Wood soon met another island dealer named Annie Alden S U M M E R

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Folger. It was Folger who fostered Wood’s love and appreciation of Nantucket artifacts and local crafts. Annie Alden Folger, born in Winchester, Massachusetts, in 1872, served as a nurse in World War I, lived in California for a time afterward, operated a portrait-photography studio in Boston, and moved that business to Nantucket following the death of her father. In the 1920s she opened a shop on Union Street in the Myrick House where she sold antiques and collectibles. When she died in 1948 she had become a successful and respected antiques dealer, as well as a Life Councilor of the Nantucket Historical Association. It was Annie Alden Folger who gave the NHA the clock made by her ingenious great-uncle Walter Folger Jr. “She never married, and she was a feisty gal,” Wood said. “She had entrée into a lot of the houses of local people because of her family background and she also had a reputation for being honest and above board,” Wood said. It was a reputation that extended to the mainland, as Wood discovered one afternoon in New York City. “Sometime in the 1950s or 1960s I went into Israel Sack’s store (he was considered by many to be the forerunner of the modern-day antiques business); this was back when the old man was still alive, and we got to chatting and I mentioned I was from Nantucket and H I S T O R I C

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he said ‘Oh, yes, Nantucket. I know Annie Alden Folger well.’” “I keep coming back to her because she was the most respected, the most trusted dealer at the time,” he said. Apparently Folger admired Wood as well. When she died at 76 years of age Wood received a big box with the words “For David, from Annie Alden Folger” written on top. She had left him her entire library of books on American antiques. Then, as now, Nantucket auctions provided a great opportunity for collectors. “There have always been auctions here. For a long time there was an auction house on Main Street where Murray’s Liquors is now. There were no cars on the island then and they’d hold them right in the middle of Main Street,” Wood said. Wood, the young collector, attended island auctions along with his visits to stores. “I remember going to auctions as a ten and eleven year old. Reuby Glidden was the auctioneer and Annie Alden Folger was usually there. There was also what I think of as the first, the early generation, of Nantucket collectors—a group of three women. “One was Mrs. Charles Satler, who lived in what is now called the Hadwen House on the corner of Main and Pleasant Streets. Her daughter, Jean Satler

A stereograph of T. W. Riddell’s Auction and Commission Store on Main Street (where Murray’s Liquors is today) ca. 1890.

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SUTTON: 1956.7.1; F17807; F17806; F349; P13485

Clockwise from top: Collector David Wood; portrait of Annie Alden Folger by Ruth Haviland Sutton; Sylvia’s Antiques at the Pacific Club in 1952 (they returned to this location in 2002) when Main Street was still two-way; Sylvia’s Antiques at Zero Main Street; Lewis J. Clark Antiques Shop on Main Street, ca. 1920; looking across Main Street at Buttner’s from the interior of Clark’s shop.

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Williams, donated it to the NHA in 1963. She was from Pittsburgh, and she filled the house with Empire furniture and lots of lamps with dangling prisms. My chief memory of the house at the time is that it tinkled as you walked through it,” he said. “Joining her were Mrs. Judge Lewis, who lived on the Cliff, and Mrs. Breckinridge Long, who lived in the house known as Seacrest, which abutted Steps Beach. “They went to all the auctions and frequently bid against one another. It got to be real warfare among the three of them. I remember one nothing-special chamber pot going for ninety dollars,” Wood said. During those days, Wood watched as treasures brought home from Nantucket’s whaling and Chinatrade days, much sought-after items today, sold for small amounts of money. N A N T U C K E T

“When I was a youngster this stuff wasn’t valued very greatly. I remember going to a tag sale that had a lot of China-trade items— lacquer boxes, paintings, chairs—and they were virtually giving them away. The stuff just wasn’t esteemed as it is today,” he said. Today any collector, young or old, would be hard pressed to find amazing bargains in antiques on Nantucket. Those in the know frequent the Hospital Thrift Shop on India Street and stay late at local auctions to catch the occasional find. But with the popularity of PBS’s Antiques Roadshow and the Internet’s eBay site, people are more educated than ever on the value of things. Wood notes that the origin of Americans’ interest in, and growing knowledge of, antiques can be traced back to the openings of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; Winterthur, Henry Francis du Pont’s country estate in Delaware; and Sturbridge Village in central Massachusetts—all of which occurred in the mid-twentieth century. “People would go to these places and see their collections and suddenly they’d see them as things of value. I think that had a tremendous effect on why people appreciate and seek out objects today,” he said.

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“Time Lies in One Little Word”: Antique —SHAKESPEARE, RICHARD II

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less arbitrary, manner than leaving it up to the personal opinion of an appraiser. On Nantucket, before the 1930s, old and collectible items were sold in curiosity shops, places where “everybody’s flotsam and jetsam came to rest,” as David Wood, a lifelong collector on Nantucket, puts it. “There’d be a hodgepodge of everything in them. You’d see old furniture, bottles, crockery, and gimcracks and mixed in with all that you’d have to look and find the valuable.” The NHA has in its collection a photograph of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on India Street dated 1885. Mrs. George Folger was the proprietor of another early curiosity shop located in the Folger building on the corner of Main and Orange Streets, Mrs. Folger advertised “a splendid assortment of curiosities, moss and shellwork, old crockery and lightship baskets.” “Things weren’t called antiques, and no shop was an antiques shop until around the 1930s when Frank Sylvia Antiques opened up,” Wood said (Sylvia Antiques opened on South Water Street in 1927). As the century progressed, more and more antiques shops opened on Nantucket. Wood remembers Hen Coop Antiques on Madaket Road, Happy Time Antiques in Madaket, Mainstay Antiques on Easton Street, and Robert Bennett Skinner’s shop on Centre Street. Today, there are thirty-eight businesses listed under the “Antiques—Dealers and Appraisers” heading in the 2002 telephone book, and there is not a single listing for a curiosity shop.

by Amy Jenness

Sylvia Antiques on South Water Street, ca. 1940. Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on India Street, ca. 1900.

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1536, but its current meaning for valuable objects more than a hundred years old is fairly recent. Derived from the Latin adverb ante, in the sense of before, the word emerged in the fourteenth-century French language to mean “former” or “ancient.” By 1623 it had evolved to mean obsolete, and later it came to refer specifically to antiquities collected from Rome and Greece. People have always collected the things they value. In the United States, eighteenth-century collectors sought books, manuscripts, the belongings of famous people, and classical antiquities. In the nineteenth century the opening of Mount Vernon, the nation’s first house museum, and Philadelphia’s Centennial Exposition in 1876 created a market for colonial objects. And twentieth-century collectors expanded the historical notions of “antique” and “collectible” by including objects as various as toys, postcards, bottles, postage stamps, political souvenirs, and folk art in their collections. Until the 1930s, Americans used the word “antique” to define things with a provenance that spanned a wide spectrum: everything from Greek artifacts imported from Europe to Civil War memorabilia. At the time, the U. S. Customs Office allowed anything declared as an antique to be brought in duty-free. But by the beginning of the 1930s, more and more people, looking to avoid paying the tax, began to claim any piece of artwork or object of beauty that wasn’t brand new as an antique. Seeking to tighten up that vague definition, the U. S. Customs Office concluded that anything made before the 1830s, when machinery began to mass-produce objects, could be considered antique, and the tariff regulations were changed accordingly. Since then, fifty other countries have adopted the same standard and now an antique is anything declared by antiques dealers and customs officials alike to be anything more than 100 years old. Dealers and appraisers have come to appreciate having a strict definition of the word antique, since it ascribes meaning and value to an object in a more fair,

HE WORD “ANTIQUE” DATES BACK TO

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ish you

Robert Young collects Nantucket postcards not only for the images of his island but also for the written message. “It is exciting to capture a small slice in time,” he said. In Prairie Fires and Paper Moons, the authors suggest that postcard text offers “a rare personal commentary on the illustrated event or location.” They write that most postcards usually convey “small news, short messages of friendship.” Together, the text and the image offer an intimate view of American life. Robert Young happens to have just such a view. On these two pages you see the postcards sent to Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln C. Haynes, who footed the bill for the Nantucket vacation of their children and grandchildren. The grateful family is checking in and reporting on the success of their sojourn on the island.

were here . . .

A Postcard from Nantucket by Cecil Barron Jensen

The postcard was an idea so simple in conception as to be overlooked, in a way one might overlook a favorite pair of cuff links lying in plain sight on the dresser. —John Baskin, Foreword to Prairie Fires and Paper Moons: The American Photographic Postcard, 1900–1920

KNOW PEOPLE WHO COLLECT QUARTERS. OTH-

save Nantucket Nectars bottle caps in containers scattered throughout their houses. My mother-in-law collects glass paperweights. She has a whole window full—sparkling in the sun. I marvel at collectors’ dedication and their visions of future collectibles. And when I interviewed Robert Young it was inspiring to see his love of the search, his joy in his finds, and his friendly, competitive interest in fellow enthusiasts. This is a man who knows his collection— Nantucket postcards. “It all started in the late 1970s when Dad [Roger Young] bought the H. Marshall Gardiner collection from Mrs. [Bertha Chase] Gardiner, the photographer’s widow,” said Young. “She had been keeping them in her damp basement. Dad offered to buy them and they struck a deal.” “At first we all thought he was nuts,” he said. “But I was soon hooked.” Today, Young’s collection still includes a vast number of Gardiner’s cards, which were produced between 1910 and about 1940, but he also has a huge collection of Nantucket postcards spanning the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He showed me unique blackand-whites—images of street scenes with horses and buggies and, later, island phenomena such as Tony Sarg’s sea monster. He has cards by the well-known photographer Henry S. Wyer and many images of the railroad, the Old Mill, the Oldest House, commercial buildings, streets, and hotels. Before cameras were mass produced and inexpensive, postcards could capture the island’s essence, to be shared with family and friends. “No matter how many I have collected, new and different ones turn up,” said Young. “And there is a story behind every card.” What most interests Robert is how

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the island has changed since the advent of the Nantucket postcard. He chuckles as he recognizes buildings or street locations in cards dating back to the early twentieth century. He saves cards for friends so they can catch an early image of their homes. And Young beams as I peruse his fascinating collection. But it is H. Marshall Gardiner’s cards that delight me. The hand-tinted photographs are beautiful in their subtle colors and shadings—gentle reflections of a wellloved island. Born in Windsor, Ontario, in 1884, Gardiner spent his childhood years in Detroit. His father, W. H. Gardiner, was a professional photographer who in the summer moved the family to Mackinac Island, Michigan,where he produced and sold hand-tinted photographs. Gardiner was ten when his family moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, where his father opened a gift and photography business. The young Gardiner caught the bug, and before moving to Nantucket in 1910 he was an itinerant photographer. “He bought a railroad pass and went west to take photographs,” said his daughter, Geraldine Gardiner Salisbury. “When the train stopped he’d take pictures of people in that town, hop on the train, stop at another town and do the same thing.” He also spent time in Bermuda doing “meticulously hand-tinted photographs of that island,” said Salisbury in her book H. Marshall Gardiner’s Nantucket Post Cards, 1910–1940. Gardiner came to Nantucket as exclusive agent for Eastman-Kodak and bought 16 Main Street, where he opened a photography and art-supplies store. It offered the island’s only photo-finishing services, and later he expanded the business to sell gifts. He, and after his death, his widow maintained the shop for a remarkable fifty-two years until the building was bought by the Nantucket Historical Trust in 1962. Gardiner painted the famous compass rose sign on the Washington Street side of the building (now occupied by Nantucket Looms). That explains why Daytona Beach and Mackinac Island are on the sign. In 1918 Gardiner purchased a little Quaker “cent” school, moved the building to the corner of Washington and Salem Streets, and S U M M E R

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turned it into a portrait studio that he kept open for about twenty years. Gardiner produced thousands of photographs of Nantucket in his lifetime. The postcards were printed by the Detroit Publishing Company—the same company that printed his father’s cards—using a patented printing process called Phostint, a mechanical process that converted black-and-white photographs to color using lithography. The printers used high-quality paper stock and preserved the subtle colors of Gardiner’s hand-tinting. The Phostint technique died out when the printing company failed during the Depression and has never been replicated. According to his daughter, Gardiner made less then a two-cent profit on each card, but his work “records Nantucket as it was then and will never be again.” Gardiner died in December 1942 at the age of 58. Gardiner’s and his father’s careers work nicely as a metaphor for the history of the American postcard. According to John Baskin’s foreword to Prairie Fires and Paper Moons: The American Photographic Postcard, 1900–1920, the first postcard was issued in October 1869 by postal authorities in Vienna. The first U.S. postcards appeared in 1873 and were printed by the U.S. Post Office Department. The government held the monopoly until May 19, 1898, when Congress passed the Private Mailing Card Act allowing private publishers and printers to produce postcards. People sent a private mailing card for one penny, instead of two cents for a letter. In early postcards, however, messages could only be written on the front side of the card; the address was on the back. On March 1, 1907, that, too, changed when the left side of the back of the card was allowed for messages, leaving the front for images. The postal delivery system also aided in the growing popularity of postcards. In 1898 rural free delivery (R.F.D.) was established as a result of farmers petitioning their congressmen. Before that time, delivery was free only to residents of towns of ten thousand or more, or only about twenty-five percent of the country’s population. By 1906, most of the delivery routes were set in place and mail was delivered to homes and farms all over the nation—drastically changing people’s communication techniques. Neighbors wrote to neighbors, invitations for dinner were mailed rather than delivered in person, and love letters were scribbled off with ease. Letters became more informal with the speed H I S T O R I C

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of a delivery network. And at a penny, it was a bargain. In 1902 Eastman Kodak entered the postcard business by issuing postcard-size photographic paper. Early images on postcards were of stores, monuments, nature, and machinery. Later, personal photographic postcards appeared, including studio portraiture or amateur snapshots transferred onto cards. People were willing to pay for images of their own small towns. According to Hal Morgan and Andreas Brown, the authors of Prairie Fires and Paper Moons, “Most photographers maintained a steadier and more serious studio business in the center of town, where they made portraits against plain backdrops and sold their own postcards depicting local views.” Sound familiar? H. Marshall Gardiner must have been one of hundreds of photographers across the country turning out postcard images of their towns and local scenery in the early twentieth century. Robert Young believes Nantucket was uniquely suited to having exceptional cards. He says it has to do with the island’s isolated, pastoral beauty and the unique architecture of the town. Today, he says, Nantucket postcards are highly collectible because they were well produced and evocative of the flavor of the island. He’s hard to argue with. It is easy to understand why someone would want to collect Gardiner’s postcards; they are beautiful, and Nantucket was lucky to have him as a record keeper.

The Oldest House, as depicted on one of H. Marshall Gardiner’s hand-tinted postcards. P21269

Sources: Morgan, Hal, and Andreas Brown. Prairie Fires and Paper Moons: The American Photographic Postcard, 1900–1920. Boston: D. R. Godine, 1981. Salisbury, Geraldine Gardiner. H. Marshall Gardiner’s Nantucket Post Cards, 1910–1940. East Greenwich, R. I.: Meridian Printing, 1995. (Self-published) A Postcard History from the Smithsonian Institution, www.si.edu/archives/postcard/chronology.html S U M M E R

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Reminiscing on Twenty-five Years of an Antiques Show by Nina Hellman

T WAS IN THE EARLY SIXTIES THAT MY HUSBAND

Bob and I made our first visit to Nantucket. Like so many others before us, we were enchanted by this small island thirty miles out from the mainland, and after a few more brief encounters with its charm, I jumped at the opportunity to participate in what was to be the first-ever Annual Antiques Show on Nantucket. The year was 1978, and for a few years prior a troupe of dealers, primarily from the northeast and including me, exhibited in a show managed by Ivan Justinius on Martha’s Vineyard. It ran on a weekend in early August, and in those days there was regular carferry service directly from Oak Bluffs to Nantucket. Justinius had made arrangements for the dealers to take the ferry early Monday morning when the Vineyard show had closed. There were about thirty-five of us in the entourage. Arriving on the island, we hightailed it to the show’s venue for “set-up.” The show that first year was held in the Coffin School on Winter Street (now home to the Egan Institute of Maritime Studies). Unthinkable as it may be now, and with enormous obstacles but with great spirit, the show was put together in just a few hours, ready for a preview opening that evening. It continued for two days,

through Tuesday and Wednesday. For several years the show was shunted from one location to another. The sponsor for four years through 1981 was the Nantucket Spay Fund, with the late Jane Carlee as the moving force behind that worthy charity. However, after four years, it seems that enough money had been raised to “fix” enough cats for the foreseeable future, and the management had to cast about for new support. Happily, the Theatre Workshop stepped forward and continued as the beneficiary for the next five years. But in 1982, once again, the Justinius management, with a history of a highly successful show, was in need of a sponsor. John Welch, then director of the Nantucket Historical Association, stepped forward and a lasting marriage was made. Of the original 1978 cast of characters, only two dealers survive with me—Richard Jenkins and Madeline Groark. But we all have vivid memories of that first show. Owen and Madeline Groark recall that in the first year at the Coffin School all but one of the storm windows were nailed shut, rendering them unopenable. Talk about suffocating heat! Dick

Left to right: Greeting visitors in 1988. Preparing for the show’s opening in 1990.

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Jenkins’s booth was on the second floor where four dealers, including a furniture dealer, were crammed into a small room, which was accessible only by the narrow interior staircase. The furniture dealer arrived late, much to the chagrin of his roommates, who found it necessary to move much of their merchandise in order to permit his wending his way to his space. My booth was on the first floor, but I had to contend with a piano in the middle of it. One must learn to adapt, however, and after draping it with a fabric throw, I made use of the surface for display. That was highly preferable to my attempting to provide musical accompaniment for the show, as I am totally inept in that regard. By “show time” all tempers had cooled (though not the temperature) and we opened, miraculously I would say, to a greatly appreciative audience that was delighted with the first-ever Antiques Show on Nantucket. The following week the show was glowingly reviewed in the Inquirer and Mirror, the writer stating “we are all looking forward to next summer’s second annual Nantucket Antiques Show.” I also vividly recall a wonderfully comical sight the morning after the preview, as dealer Tom Melvin struggled to deliver a four-drawer chest by rolling it on a dolly across the cobblestones of Upper Main Street. In 1979 the show was moved to the more spacious Academy Hill School, which was under renovation and, woefully, presented many obstacles and challenges to the dealers. Booths were set up in the halls and classrooms. The show came on the heels of a hurricane, and Sylvia Reiss recalls that floors were flooded, necessitating laying down boards in order to gain access to booths. One room contained an immovable pile of rubble that had fallen from the ceiling and walls, and once again the dealers made do, covering it over and proceeding with their work. The location was certainly an H I S T O R I C

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improvement over the Coffin School, where parking for unloading had been a nightmare, given the narrow street, and, of course, with much improved ventilation. But that was to be home for only that year. The following year and in 1981 the show was held at the Nantucket Shipyard (now Gray Lady Marine) on Washington Street Extension. New venue, new challenges! Dealers were surrounded by many of the immovable trappings of this building. Fred McClafferty recalls a forty-foot mast running through his booth. But the owner’s wonderful collection of early Nantucket signs hanging around the facility provided an interesting backdrop. If only they were available for purchase! The place was certainly well ventilated, so there were no complaints of heat; but it was “like living in a sandstorm,” said Fred, with the wind blowing through the doors at each end. Cleaning up the merchandise was indeed a daunting chore. Across the street from the show was the old Island Attic Industries, which, for the unacquainted, was a well-loved island institution. It was an emporium featuring primarily used furniture, household goods, and antiques — best known and thought of as the source for furnishing island homes and cottages with recycled goods. During the two years that the show was at the shipyard, the Attic proprietors, Paula and Monk Breeding, advertised and conducted a “Country Auction” at their store, creating an added attraction to the neighborhood. In 1982 the show was enlarged from about thirtyfive to over fifty dealers and moved to the Nantucket Elementary School. At this new indoor setting the show seemed to take on a slightly more formal tone. More lighting was provided to the booths, and the dealers, cognizant of the island market, were beginning to save

Dealers’ booths at August Antiques Shows past.

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Left: Past chairs at the 1997 August Antiques Show: Dorothy Slover, Lyndon Dupuis, Laurie Champion, Carolyn Mackenzie, Barbara Hajim, and Aileen Newquist. 10 Surfside Road and the entrance to the show in 1997. Photographs by Jeffrey S. Allen.

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their “best” merchandise for Nantucket. We stayed at the school through 1990, and were at the Cyrus Peirce Middle School in 1991. On Monday after the show that year, Hurricane Bob visited Nantucket. I rushed out to the market for groceries and served a candle-lit supper in my shop to several stranded dealers. In 1992 the show moved to its current location at the Nantucket High School. Also in 1992, management of the show shifted to the Antiques Council, and with that change a decidedly finer show evolved. Dealers with a national reputation were recruited, and merchandise was, and is now, vetted for authenticity. Collector David Wood recalls the genesis of the show as a small fund-raiser and its maturation into the prestigious event it is today. “It is now recognized as one of the major shows of the antiques circuit,” said Wood. He particularly enjoys the rapprochement he has developed with several of the dealers and noted that he has made several good purchases over the years. He also likes the New Collectors booth, which was established a number of years ago and affords nice opportunities for beginners. The show is the focal point of the NHA’s antiques week on Nantucket, which kicks off on the Monday prior to the show with a Friends of the NHA-sponsored lecture on an antiques-related subject by a nationally recognized individual in the field of collecting. Previous Monday speakers have included Albert Sack, Wendell Garrett, Carl Crossman, and Leigh and Leslie Keno. The gala show preview, held on the first Thursday in August, has become the social function of the summer season, and together with several other attendant events it is the major fund-raiser for the NHA, with proceeds targeted for the association’s educational programs. N A N T U C K E T

Nina Hellman has been in the antiques business for thirty-five years, with a shop on Nantucket for nineteen years. With a long interest in Nantucket and its history, Nina regularly lends her skills to the NHA. This year she is coordinating efforts to take NHA members on trips to other museums and historic sites around New England.

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Confessions of a Nantucket Collector

S A SMALL CHILD, I HAD THE IMPRESSION

that everyone spent the summer on Nantucket. It never occurred to me that not everyone had grandparents on Nantucket and a house at the beach. My grandparents, Olney and Lalla Dunham, lived in a house on Prospect Street which was, to me, a normal house. Now I see it for what it was: a museum of Nantucket history. In every room, just sitting out in everyday fashion were little bits of Nantucket history. The shelves were filled with books about Nantucket and whaling. Every drawer and cabinet held island collectibles. I would spend hours looking at the objects, letting the very “Nantucketness” of the house fill me. When we were at the beach house we were also surrounded with island treasures, but of a different sort. There were lots of things scavenged from the beach over the years stacked up on the mantle and sideboard. The garage was a storehouse of wood from the beach to be used at a later date. In the basement were old fishing tackle, netting, and ropes. Even such things as used shingles were of interest. Who knew what house they may have come from, what storms they had weathered? My mother is a native and a lover of Nantucket and passed down to me a wonderful respect for the island. It doesn’t matter what I have, if it comes from the Nantucket side of our family I am happy to have it. This doesn’t minimize the value of my father’s family, but somehow the Nantucket connection makes a difference. I have been interested in the collection of Nantucket-associated objects for as long as I can remember. Even when I was young, I would take home souvenirs from our summer vacation to keep the island fresh in my mind all winter long. I imagine that many others might bring home shells, dried flowers, or other H I S T O R I C

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found bits to remind them of their time spent here. I would pack away all kinds of found treasures. Now, of course, I have become a true lover of all things Nantucket — perhaps bordering on obsession at times. During the past twenty-five or so years that I have lived on Nantucket, I have learned to appreciate what it is that makes Nantucket collectibles so appealing. It isn’t just the name of the island printed on a cheap sixties cocktail tray that is so attractive, but the fact that the tray was made to be a remembrance of the island. I find that I have trouble passing up anything with the Nantucket name on it. It’s in my blood, on my shelves, and in boxes under my bed. Nantucket is in binders and scrapbooks and in piles around the house. It has not been troublesome or difficult to collect Nantucket objects; it has been a pleasure from the very moment I started picking up shells on the beach. I love the island and its history. I believe I have a healthy addiction. It doesn’t keep me up late or make me too jittery, this habit of collecting. On the contrary, it makes me happy to have this little problem. There are worse things you could do with your time. I don’t mind that I seem to have an inability to stop. As long as people come to Nantucket “stuff” will be produced, even if it’s not thought of as collectible now. In the future, who knows? I’m putting it all away now, making my small contribution to posterity.

by Scott Waldie

Scott Waldie has lived on Nantucket since 1978. Routinely, he can be spotted at the Hospital Thrift Shop, island auctions, and even the “Madaket mall” looking for “just one more” Nantucket find. S U M M E R

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Historic Nantucket Book Section The Art of Family: Genealogical Artifacts in New England By D. Brenton Simons and Peter Benes Published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society Review by David Wood “ CONSTELLATION OF formidably researched and beautifully written pieces,” sixteen in all and written by experts in their respective fields, all centered on the term used as the book’s subtitle: “Genealogical Artifacts in New England.” What, exactly, is a genealogical artifact? Perhaps it is best defined by a phrase used by Jane Cayford Nylander in her essay “Patterns of Family Legacies”: “things that were meaningful in the family narrative.” Not just a picture book of antiques, this is a scholarly approach to antiquarian objects in terms of what they may say to us of their origins, their use, and their owners and the world they lived in. Interestingly, the book is the result of collaboration between the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) of Boston and other antiquarian societies in New England, including the noteworthy Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, led by Peter Benes. The involvement of the NEHGS may at first seem surprising, since the society has been for many years the most notable of genealogical institutions. Its contribution to the field of genealogy has been immeasurable, and its Boston headquarters is a mecca for all those interested in a “record or table of the descent of [their] families.” However, in his essay “Families and the Decorative Art,” Wendell Garrett points out that interest in one’s ancestry and the making of

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charts thereof is a relatively new thing. Families of English descent, for instance, are unlikely to be able to trace their ancestry beyond the sixteenth century. Ancestral charts any earlier were more likely to be of royal families whose concern for legitimacy made such research imperative. As the book details, the study of genealogy in New England has experienced a sea change, with an emphasis not only on names and dates but in “who” these people were. This includes an interest in the clothes they wore, what they looked like, how homes were furnished, and even what they ordered for gravestones. The Colonial Revival of the 1920s was long on the decorative qualities of original objects but, for the most part, not concerned with what the artifacts had to say about their makers and owners. The factors that changed that view are numerous, but two of the most important are, first, the initial publication in 1922 of The Magazine Antiques and, second, the emergence of collectors like Bertram and Nina (Fletcher) Little, who started to amass their astonishing collections as early as the 1920s. Nina, an indefatigable student, painstakingly researched folk portraits, painted furniture, ceramics, and much more—eager to find out, if possible, who had made those objects and something about their lives. Each essay in this book is centered on an object or a single field: silver, mourning rings, portraits, carved gravestones, or miniatures. One of the most interesting is one devoted to decorative family registers. The creators of such family charts were inventive, often using the device of plants or trees by which to illustrate a family’s names and birth, marriage, and death dates in colorful fashion. An essay by Peter Benes, “The Vine and Hearts Designs of Nantucket,” includes several island examples and identifies Nantucket artists including Phebe Folger and Eunice Gardner. Definitely not a coffee-table book, The Art of Family, besides demonstrating impressive scholarship, gives us a new way to look at our inherited objects and their relationship to those who made, used, and lived with them. Nina Fletcher Little would have loved this book. S U M M E R

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Nantucket Railroad

A.M.–1 P.M. in July and August.

Railroad Exhibition The NHA’s summer season started with a bang with the opening of the Nantucket Railroad exhibition on May 24. More than two hundred members and staff attended the opening of the exhibition at the Peter Foulger Museum. The story of Nantucket’s own railroad—operating from 1881 to 1918—drew an enthusiastic response from all. Visitors enjoyed seeing the historic photographs and artifacts from the NHA’s collection, including the David Gray Collection of Nantucket Railroad Memorabilia. A number of artifacts are also on loan from members of the Nantucket community, including the lantern and bell from the Dionis engine, a steam whistle, sections of the rail, railroad spikes, tickets, stock certificates, and paintings. An added design feature is Claire O’Keeffe’s imaginary track painted on the floor of the museum. Chief curator Niles Parker was delighted to have the opportunity of showcasing objects loaned by members of the Nantucket community. “Part of the fun of the exhibition is seeing objects held in private collections around the island,” said Parker. “It reminds us all that the story of the Nantucket Railroad is very much alive and waiting to be told more fully—just as the spikes and other souvenirs scattered around the island’s soil are waiting to be found.”

More Exhibition News Now open at the Whitney Gallery at the Nantucket Historical Association Research Library, 7 Fair Street, is Embroidered Narratives: Nine Nantucket Women featuring the needlework of artist Susan Boardman. Open since June 21, the show highlights the stories of nine Nantucket women—past and present. Through historic research and exquisite detail, Boardman has captured these women’s lives and displayed the embroidered narratives for all to appreciate. Stop by the library to see the exhibition, Monday–Friday, 10 A.M.–4 P.M. and Saturdays 10 H I S T O R I C

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Opening in July is Nantucket Silver featuring eighteenth- and nineteenth-century silver at the Hadwen House, 96 Main Street. The silver on exhibit is a good representation of that owned or made by Nantucketers at the height of the island’s whaling prosperity. Because Nantucket Quakers shunned overt displays of wealth, the silver is simple and, judged by today’s standards, highly elegant. Visit the Hadwen House Monday–Saturday, 10 A.M.–5 P.M. and Sunday, 12 NOON–5 P.M. to see the exhibition.

opening (left to right): Chief curator Niles Parker rides the rails. Orrin and Mildred Macy with a photograph of Orrin’s father, Cromwell Gardner Macy II, the last president

New Staff The NHA hired Ben Simons as curatorial assistant in May. With a background in research and writing, Simons is well suited to this position where he will be asked to develop materials for research, interpretation, and exhibition. Already, Simons has assisted chief curator Niles Parker in writing label copy for the current Nantucket Railroad exhibition in the Peter Foulger Museum and is working to develop themes and interpretive copy for upcoming exhibitions. Most recently, Simons served as assistant editor of Renaissance Magazine. He is a graduate of Harvard College and holds a master’s in Renaissance English Literature from Yale University. A native of Washington, D.C., he moved to the island in 1998 with his fiancée, Alison Hall Cooley, a painter. Stacey Stuart started as Marketing and Special Events Manager in May—just in time for the Nantucket Wine Festival. This summer she will coordinate the August Antiques Show and begin planning for the annual Festival of Wreaths and Trees in November and December. In addition, she will work to develop other marketing opportunities for the NHA. Most recently, Stuart was director of sales at the Jared Coffin House on Nantucket and has also worked at the White Elephant as guest services manager. Hailing from North Carolina, Stacey has called Nantucket home, on and off, since 1980.

of the railroad. The “Shepcats” performing at the opening. Photographs by Kate Hutchison

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Kirstin Gamble joined the NHA this month as Education and Public Programs Coordinator. Working with Parker and the interpretive staff, Gamble will work on planning interpretive and educational programs at the NHA’s historic properties, coordinate the annual speaker series, and develop programming with local and off-island schools. Gamble is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s master program in historic preservation. While at school she worked at Elfreth’s Alley Association in Philadelphia and the Historic House Trust of New York City. In addition, she has worked at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities’ Harrison Gray Otis House in Boston.

Interpreter Dave Prugh in the Hadwen House. NHA volunteer and trip coordinator Nina Hellman enjoys a spin on the carousel at Heritage Plantation in Sandwich, Massachusetts. Photograph by Bob Hellman

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2002 Student Interpreters Every year just before the season begins and visitors fill NHA sites, the summer museum staff arrives. These college-age interpreters bring fresh perspectives, various talents, and endless enthusiasm to engage our visiting public. Some of these young people are new every year while others return for several seasons before going on to their chosen fields. Below are profiles of 2002’s young interpreters. Dave Prugh spent four summers at the NHA and recently received his M.A. in Education from the University of Massachusetts—Boston, receiving the award for highest-ranked graduate student on May 31. In early June, Prugh came to the NHA to prepare the curriculum for the children’s programs at the Oldest House and the Old Mill—from cost analysis to implementation alternatives. Later this summer he joins the Teach America program in a Texas border town. More than 14,000 prospective teachers were interviewed for 3,000 positions, and “Docent Dave” (his inhouse nickname) was one of those hired. Congratulations from all of us at NHA. Other returning staffers: Patrick Prugh (Dave’s cousin and son of PI:N director Peter Prugh), a junior at University of Florida—Gainesville, and now an N A N T U C K E T

interpreter at the Old Mill. Justin Pariseau, a senior at Boston College, was recently honored as the highestranking member of the junior class and is serving as the NHA’s senior interpreter this year. In this position he shoulders the responsibility of scheduling the interpretive staff, overseeing their training, and planning weekly meetings. New interpreters this year: Emily Chiswick-Patterson is a sophomore at Princeton University—Wilson College, and has previously interned at the Centre County Historical Society in State College, Pennsylvania. Lauren Noble is a junior at Duke University majoring in history and has just returned from a semester in Florence, Italy. Kathryn O’Rourke is a recent graduate of Wellesley College with a B.A. in architecture. She has experience in architectural photography and will pursue a Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania in the fall. Corban Rhodes is a junior at Boston College and was recently honored as highest-ranking sophomore. Corban will be heading off to Oxford in the fall. Tim Wallace is a recent graduate of Macalester College with his degree in classical archaeology. Tim will be attending the University of Southampton in England for his master’s in maritime archaeology this fall.

Second Exploration Trip On June 5, thirty people joined in our second Members Exploration trip. Led by volunteer Nina Hellman and chief curator Niles Parker, a daytrip to the Cape featured behind-the-scenes tours at the Cahoon Museum of American Art, the Sandwich Glass Museum, and Heritage Plantation in Sandwich. Tours of exhibitions and talks with curators and directors provided informative and enjoyable visits to those institutions. A delicious lunch at the Daniel Webster Inn helped round out a great day. In February, the NHA led an overnight trip to Salem and Cambridge, again visiting museums and galleries. Thanks to Nina Hellman for her inspiration and help in organizing these adventures. It is our intention to continue offering intriguing travel opportunities to different locations in the fall and late winter.

Correction We regret that errors were introduced in editing Frances Karttunen’s article “Diversity Comes to S U M M E R

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Nantucket” in the spring issue of Historic Nantucket. First, the two sentences about Irish immigration on page 20 should be expanded to read: “In 1851 a hundred and fifty refugees from the potato famine in Ireland were already resident on Nantucket when the British Queen, carrying 226 passengers from Dublin to New York, was shipwrecked off Tuckernuck. After their rescue nearly all the passengers continued on to their destination, but Robert and Julia Mooney stayed behind, joining the Irish who had found jobs and vacant housing on the island.” Karttunen’s sources are the 1850 federal census and Robert Mooney’s publication The Wreck of the British Queen. Karttunen also wanted to clarify her text on page 19 about Nantucket Wampanoags. “They were relatives of the Wampanoag people who lived and still live on Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod, not ancestors,” she said. “There are people in Mashpee descended from Nantucketers, but because of the epidemic of 1763–64 in Nantucket, there are very few descendants of Nantucket Wampanoags. The native people of Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Cape Cod had common ancestors in the remote past, so they were relatives, but Nantucket’s indigenous people weren’t the ancestors of the people in Aquinnah and Mashpee then or now.”

Letters to Editor I received the Spring 2002 edition of Historic Nantucket yesterday, and have read it several times from cover to cover. It is so nice that the NHA has begun to research and write about the “the Other Islanders.” I found the articles interesting, well written and researched. For me it will be the most treasured. Keep up the good work. Carl Cruz New Bedford I imagine anyone who has spent a lifetime, or merely a day, on this island relishes your wonderful publication. Each season, when the volume arrives I look forward to a late afternoon, a cup of tea and the time to read it cover to cover. Reading Margaret Moore Booker’s “Helen Marshall’s Adventures Abroad,” I felt transported to Paris and Florence in the 1870s. I was especially drawn to the article about the life and home of Austin Strong written by Joseph Theroux. Lucky for all of us that the Porters have placed a [preservation] restriction on the Quince Street house so that Strong’s life work can still be enjoyed by those visiting their home. Thank you to the NHA staff and trustees for bringing the history and intrigue of the island’s past to our present. Caroline Ellis Nantucket Note: All comments are welcome. E-mail the editor at cbj@nha.org H I S T O R I C

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N E W S

SAVE THE DATE Monday, July 22 Super Series Lecture THOMAS FAREL HEFFERNAN Author of Mutiny on the Globe: The Fatal Voyage of Samuel Comstock Unitarian Church, 8 P.M. Monday, July 29 Super Series Lecture sponsored by the Friends of the NHA LEIGH AND LESLIE KENO Real or Fake? Authenticating American Furniture Methodist Church, 5:30 P.M. Thursday, August 1 AUGUST ANTIQUES SHOW PREVIEW PARTY Nantucket High School, 5:30–8 P.M. Friday–Sunday, August 2–4 25TH ANNUAL AUGUST ANTIQUES SHOW Nantucket High School, 10 A.M.–5 P.M. Thursday, August 15 MARK KURLANSKY Author of Salt: A World History Whaling Museum, 8 P.M. Thursday, August 29 LAUREL THATCHER ULRICH Author of The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Making of an American Myth Whaling Museum, 8 P.M. Saturday, October 5 Exhibition Opening JAG! CAPE VERDEAN HERITAGE ON NANTUCKET Whitney Gallery, NHA Research Library Saturday, October 19 HARVEST FAIR AT THE OLD MILL 11 A.M.–3 P.M. Thursday–Friday, October 24–25 NIGHTMARE ON MAIN STREET November 29, 30, & December 1 FESTIVAL OF WREATHS and Silent Auction Sherburne Hall, 11 Centre Street December 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28 & 29 FESTIVAL OF TREES Whaling Museum

S U M M E R

2002

SUMMER

2002

NANTUCKET I S T O R I

VOL.

51, NO. 3

Colonial Life

Published quarterly by the Nantucket Historical Association 15 Broad Street / P.O. Box 1016 Nantucket, Massachusetts 02554 © NHA 2002 ISSN 0439-2248 USPS 246460

LIVING HISTORY:

A chance for children ages 6–10 to experience life in historic Nantucket at the Old Mill and the Oldest House

SECOND CLASS

POSTAGE PAID AT

NANTUCKET, MA

AND ADDITIONAL

Please call (508) 228-1894, ext. 0 for more information or to make reservations.

ENTRY OFFICES

rogram offered Tuesdays and Thursdays from July 9 through August 16, from 10 A.M. to 12:15 P.M. In the event of rain, the program is rescheduled for the following day. Children must wear sensible shoes; no flip-flops or sandals allowed. Cost is $25 per child for NHA members and $30 per child for nonmembers. Reservations are required.