H I S TO R I C
SUMMER 2017 | VOLUME 67, NO. 1
A PUBLICATION OF THE NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
M A RI NE RS, TE AC H ER S, B A S K ET MA K ER S A ND SC R I MS H A N D ER S SUMMER 2017
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SUMMER 2017 | VOLUME 67, NO. 1
Board of Trustees Kelly Williams PRESIDENT
Victoria McManus VICE PRESIDENT
William J. Boardman TREASURER
W. Michael Cozort CLERK
Sarah Alger Patricia Anathan Josette Blackmore Susan Blount Anne Marie Bratton SHI P S VI GI L A N T A N D H A R PO O N E R , PA IN T IN G BY W ILLIA M JOH N H UG G IN S, 1832. CO U RTE SY OF T H E N AT I ON A L MA R I T IM E M US E UM , G RE E N W IC H, LON DON, G RE E N BL ACKWELL COLLECTION
Chip Carver Olivia Charney Wylie Collins
3
inside the nha
Milestones by william j . tramposch
Cam Gammill John Hilton Wendy Hudson Carl Jelleme William Little
4
whaling
Nantucket Mariners in the British Southern Whale Fishery by dale chatwin and judith lund
Hampton Lynch FRIENDS OF THE NHA VICE PRESIDENT
Carla McDonald Kennedy Richardson Janet Sherlund TRUSTEE EMERITA
Daisy Soros
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island history
Carter Stewart
Teachers at the African School
Jason Tilroe
by frances ruley karttunen
Phoebe Tudor Jay Wilson FRIENDS OF THE NHA PRESIDENT
20 26
Alisa Wood crafting an icon
Nantucket Basket Makers & Scrimshanders
Ex Officio
by mary bergman and andrea wulffleff
INTERIM GOSNELL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
exhibitions
new staff
new executive director
News Notes
David D. Worth Jr.
Historic Nantucket Editorial Committee Betsy Tyler EDITOR
Elizabeth Oldham COPY EDITOR
HISTORIC NANTUCKET (ISSN 0439-2248) is published by the Nantucket Historical Association, 15 Broad Street, Nantucket, Massachusetts. Periodical postage paid at Nantucket, MA, and additional entry offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Historic Nantucket, P.O. Box 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554–1016; (508) 228–1894; fax: (508) 228–5618, info@nha.org. For information visit www.nha.org. ©2017 by the Nantucket Historical Association.
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
Catherine A. Taylor DIRECTOR OF MUSEUM RESOURCES
Eileen Powers/Javatime Design DESIGN AND ART DIRECTION
INSIDE THE NHA
» from
the gosnell executive director
Milestones THIS ISSUE MARKS A significant milestone in our Associa-
tion’s history, because this is a year of transitions. Both Janet
even better: The Whaling Museum has been reaccredited
Sherlund, President of the Board, and I have stepped down
by the American Alliance of Museums, an honor bestowed
from our respective positions: Janet, because she has done
upon just over a thousand of the estimated 33,000 mu-
heroic service in our name, having served for eight years as
seums nationwide. Your NHA has filled its halls with en-
our President, attending every meeting and offering sup-
gaging community programs, exhibitions, and events; has
port to staff and board at every turn; I because after eleven
attracted more school groups than ever before, especially
years at the helm of this august association, it is time to re-
through our wildly popular sleep-over for fourth-graders;
tire and a perfect juncture for retirement. Both Janet and I
has offered ongoing free community lectures; has pro-
have had the pleasure of being in the right place at the right
duced a “gateway film” that surprises and delights people
time, and I speak for us both when I say that it has been a
about the significant international history of our “elbow of
privilege to work alongside so many avid supporters, board
sand”; has established myriad collaborations with com-
members, staff, and stakeholders as we tell “the inspiring
munity partners and first-tier academic institutions; and
stories of Nantucket through our collections, programs,
has redoubled its efforts to undertake oral histories.
and properties.”
abled us to restore Greater Light; the Fire Hose Cart House;
Below (pardon the statistics) I would like to show YOU
what YOU have achieved in the last decade: •
Our annual appeal has increased 76%;
•
Membership revenue has increased 20%;
and the Quaker Meeting House. In addition, your support has allowed us to address a huge island challenge, affordable housing for staff: We have built a duplex on Bartlett Road that provides year-round housing.
utreach and special community programs O have increased 906%;
•
Grants have increased 765%;
•
Sales in our Museum Shop have increased 21%;
•
ur “silent” endowment drive has increased O 252%, and by the time all pledges are in it will have increased 456%.
care of our most iconic properties — the Old Mill, the Oldest House, Hadwen House, and those mentioned above; we have endowed four key positions, up from one ten years ago; and we have endowed our major exhibition gallery.
Thank you for the difference you make to our esteemed
association, now in its 123rd year. Given your enthusiasm and dedication, it is clear that only increased vibrancy and relevance will follow.
s h i p s y r e n o f l o n d o n , p a i n t i n g b y m i l e s w a lt e r s , 1822
But wait, there is more! Through the endowment gifts
we have received we are now able to ensure the perpetual
•
on the cover:
In the midst of these programs, your support has en-
the Old Gaol; the Macy-Christian House on Liberty Street;
dmissions have increased 32%, while A admissions revenues have increased 40%;
•
On a wider, more narrative level though, the news is
Fair Winds,
1 9 1 0.4 1 . 1
SUMMER 2017
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N A N T UC KE T MARINERS IN THE BRITISH SOUTHERN WHA LE FIS HE RY
By Dale Chatwin and Judith Lund
THE BRITISH SOUTHERN WHALE FISHERY (BSWF) was established in London in 1775. For the next eighty years, the trade was carried out from there to the south and west of England and to the South Seas. Initially, transplanted Nantucket whalemen provided the technical leadership, masters, and crews on British whaleships. Some came directly, others via Dartmouth in Nova Scotia, then Milford Haven, and others via Dunkirk in France (see Jane Clayton, “Nantucket Whalers in Milford Haven, Wales,” HN Winter 2007.) British owners
4
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
OPPOSITE PAGE:
Ship Syren of London, painting by Miles Walters, 1822 1 9 1 0.4 1 . 1
LEFT:
Title page of Thomas Beale’s The Natural History of the Sperm Whale, 1839, NHA Research Library, Rare Book Collection Note: All whaling sketches in this article are from Beale’s History
even adopted the Nantucketer’s system of remuneration,
southern whaling don’t survive. In chapter thirty-two of
the “lay system,” which offered the ship’s company a prede-
Moby-Dick, Melville records: “There are only two books in
termined percentage of the value of the product returned
being which at all pretend to put the living sperm whale
instead of paying wages. As the trade developed, leadership
before you. . . . Those books are Beale’s and Bennett’s; both
passed into British hands, although the link with Nantucket
in their time surgeons to English South-Sea whale-ships.”
persisted. As late as the 1840s, there were still British whale-
Interestingly, Beale served part of the voyage that he record-
ships commanded by Nantucket-born masters.
ed under a Nantucket-born master, William Swain, whose profile follows later in this article. It was on my trip to Nan-
The BSWF Voyage and Crew Databases
tucket last October that I finally learned the fate of William Swain — “killed by a whale.” My Nantucket visit also sought to follow up on work
In contrast to the magnificent record of the American whal-
that I and two colleagues—Rhys Richards from New Zea-
ing fleet, records of the British Southern Whale Fishery until
land and Mark Howard from Melbourne, Australia, have
recently can only be described as “scrappy and scattered.”
been involved in since 2013. We had determined that the
The BSWF, until the contributions of A. G. E. Jones in the
only way the story of the BSWF could ever be told was by
1980s and 1990s, had no Alexander Starbuck, Edouard Stack-
compiling a record of all the voyages. This we achieved in
pole, Elmo Hohman, or Herman Melville to record its story.
early 2016, when the University of Hull in England, which
That is not to say that good contemporary records of British
currently hosts the British Arctic Whaling website, agreed SUMMER 2017
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NANTUCKET-BORN MARINERS
to host our BSWF voyage and crew databases. The voyage database records the details of more than 2,550 British voyages to the South Seas and the crew database some 14,000 entries. The databases are found on a BSWF website that also provides profiles of the owners, ships, and masters. What astounded us once the work was achieved was the extent of the Nantucket connection. It was clear that hundreds of the voyages had been commanded by Nantucket-born men; we now know that it was more than 630 voyages. But we knew so little of them apart from their names; nothing about their lives, their marriages, their children, their fate, etc. All we knew about them was their success or failure as whalemen.
The “Finding” Trip I traveled to Nantucket in October 2016 to try and fill in the stories around some of these transplanted Nantucketers. In my work, I was joined by Judith Lund, whaling historian and
Catalogue of Nantucket
creator of American Offshore Whaling Voyages: 1667–1927
Whalers and Their
and the earlier database, nmdl.org, a record of more than
Voyages from 1815-1870
15,500 American whaling voyages. I was hoping that with Ju-
(Nantucket: Hussey &
dy’s assistance, I might at least be able to identify how many
Robinson, 1876)
Nantucket whalemen actually worked in both the American and British whaling trades and how many returned home. We had some good records to start with, all meticulously catalogued and available in the Research Library of the Nantucket Historical Association. This included a list of Nantucket whalemen who commanded ships engaged in the whale fishery from French and English ports prior to 1812 [Catalogue of Nantucket Whalers (1876) pp. 53– 54]; the scrapbooks of Grace Brown Gardner [MS 57]; and the research and published work of Nantucket and whaling historian Edouard Stackpole. We also had access to the Barney Genealogical Record and the Vital Records of Nantucket.
What we did and didn’t find What did we find? First, we found that the list of Nantucketers who commanded ships from English ports was remarkably accurate and contained most of the names in our database—hardly a conflict with our data. Next, we found 6
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
NANTUCKET-BORN MARINERS
that few Nantucket masters appear to have ever returned home, probably only twenty out of the 166 Nantucket-born men we now know to have commanded British whaleships. Judy’s research has also shown that at least twenty Nantucketers commanded a vessel in both the American and British fleets. What didn’t we find? It was far simpler to locate records that identified whaling masters than it was to identify those who served in other capacities on British whaleships. We suspect the number of Nantucket men who worked in the BSWF must be in the hundreds, possibly thousands, given average crew sizes were at least twenty men in the early years of the South Seas trade—but we have no crew lists or logs— just the names of the Nantucket masters who commanded at least 630 voyages.
WHAT ASTOUNDED US ONCE THE WORK WAS ACHIEVED WAS THE EXTENT OF THE NANTUCKET CONNECTION.
See flag (bottom) flown by ships in the BSWF. Signals and Instructions for Ships under Convoy (London: William Winchester & Son, 1801) c o u r t e s y o f t h e n a n t u c k e t at h e n e u m
SUMMER 2017
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NANTUCKET-BORN MARINERS
N A N T UCK E T-B O R N M A S T E RS I N THE BRITISH SOUTHERN WHALE FISHERY Ransom Jones (b. 1760)
Joseph Whiteus (b. 1770)
Not much is known of Ransom Jones, son of Silas Jones
The family name Whiteus /Whitteus can be found in Nan-
and Anna Heath of Nantucket, but he certainly had a
tucket land records at the end of the 1700s, but for the life
significant career in the BSWF. He was master on at least
of his career in the BSWF, Joseph Whiteus’ name was either
thirteen voyages working for at least four different owners,
anglicised to Whitehouse or misspelled Whitens. Joseph
beginning in the late 1780s. Initially, he appears to have
is first recorded in the BSWF as first mate on Daniel Ben-
sailed for the firm of Joseph Lucas, concentrating on voy-
nett’s whaleship Lively in 1803, and in 1804 he assumed
ages to the Brazil Banks, the bottom of the Atlantic, and the
command of the vessel. He took the vessel out again in
west coast of Africa. In 1794, he sailed on the first of eight
1806, and was wrecked on Mermaid Reef, northwest of
voyages for a new owner in the trade, Daniel Bennett. His
Australia, in the first half of 1808. Whiteus and the crew
first cargo was a tremendous success for Bennett, around
were rescued, probably by Ranger, another Bennett vessel,
1,500 barrels of oil, so Bennett continued to support him
as Whiteus, the crew, and oil from the Lively were landed in
with newly acquired vessels. Bennett also appears to have
London in late 1808 via the Ranger. Whiteus, however, took
directed Jones to the east of Africa and to the islands to the
hardly any time to recover as he then took Ranger out on
south, particularly Desolation [Kerguelen] Island. It is re-
her next voyage in late February 1809. Whiteus command-
corded that in May 1804, Jones returned to London with
ed at least four more voyages on Bennett vessels, with his
the largest cargo ever brought back—7,000 barrels of oil
last vessel appearing to be the Daniel on a voyage between
(including 600 of sperm) and 70,000 sealskins. Jones’s ship,
September 1819 and January 1821. All of his voyages, apart
African, was a former Danish man-of-war of more than
from the wreck of Lively, appear to have been successful.
600 tons; only a vessel of that size could have transported such a cargo.
8
Joseph married twice, the first time to Betsey Stokes. It appears that a daughter from this marriage, named Jane,
Jones made one further voyage in African. On its re-
married a Bennett whaling captain named John May.
turn, the vessel was in convoy when attacked by a French
In 1814, as a widower, Joseph married Sophia Charlotte
squadron. Newspapers of the time record African escaping
Bennett, a widow, and possibly a relative of his employ-
capture through her ‘’superior sailing abilities,” a clear re-
er. Joseph knew Frederick Coffin, of Syren fame, as corre-
flection on the capability of Ransom Jones as a command-
spondence between them and a painting of Joseph’s wife,
er as well as a successful whaling master. African was then
Sophia, were sold at auction in the UK in 2010. Joseph
put up for sale by Bennett, and Jones disappears from the
Whiteus died in either late 1838 or early 1839. His will re-
record. Whether he retired from the sea to live in England
veals him to be a very wealthy man able to provide for his
or returned to Nantucket or Hudson, New York, where
family, including leaving property in Nantucket to his sis-
some of his family resided, is unknown.
ter, Elizabeth Perkins.
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
NANTUCKET-BORN MARINERS
Frederick Coffin (1779–1840) Frederick Coffin’s first known command in the BSWF was out of Milford Haven, Wales, on Hannah & Eliza. The annual Registers of Shipping record the owner as “B. Rooke,” but it is likely the owner was the Nantucketer Benjamin Rotch. Coffin took Hannah & Eliza out twice between May 1808 and late August 1813. We have incomplete records of the voyages, so it is difficult to establish how successful or otherwise he was. When whaling out of Milford Haven folded, Coffin based himself in London and took out the former Milford Haven whaler, Ann, for Birnie & Co. The vessel sailed in early April 1815 on a voyage to the Brazil Banks, returning in early June 1816 with a cargo of 2,200 barrels—a pretty successful outcome. Coffin then changed firms as his next command was the Enderby whaleship Mary. This voyage ran from late October 1817 until mid-July 1819. Coffin’s next command was the Enderby vessel Syren, which he took through Timor and the Moluccas to become the first British vessel “on the Japans.” The voyage was a tremendous success with a cargo of 2,768 barrels Coffin’s journal [Columbia River Maritime Museum, item 1982.8.30] indicates he was acting on intelligence gathered from a now unknown voyage by Captain James Gage in 1806, which noted “plenty of whales” at Latitude 34:52 N Longitude 158:22 E. Following his success, Coffin made one further voyage to the Japan grounds on the Syren, also with reasonable success (2,200 barrels). It appears that Coffin then retired
Portrait of Captain Frederick Coffin,
from the sea and returned to the United States where, given the existence of letters
circa 1810–15
addressed from him to Joseph Whiteus in the United Kingdom in 1826, he resided
1 9 23. 26. 1
in Poughkeepsie, New York.
“WHEN I ARRIVED ON BOARD THE
William Swain (1795–1844)
SARAH AND ELIZABETH, I WAS AT ONCE STRUCK WITH THE DIFFERENT SCENE THAT PRESENTED ITSELF TO
At least two William Swains, both born in Nantucket, com-
THAT WHICH I HAD SO RECENTLY LEFT. THE MEN
manded British whaleships and both worked at some time
WERE ELASTIC, AND MERRY, SMILING FACES APPEARED
of their career for Enderby & Sons. Consequently, there has
EVERYWHERE. THE CAPTAIN FIRM, BUT YET HUMANE,
at some time been confusion about their careers. The William Swain described here was born in 1795, as his age is recorded on the Matilda crew list when he sailed in command
WAS STRICT IN DISCIPLINE, BUT KIND IN HEART.” —Thomas Beale
in 1836 aged forty years. Swain moved from Nantucket to England soon after the end of the War of 1812 in company
Swain’s next commands, if any, remain unknown, but
with his cousin, Samuel Swain, in order to take up employ-
by 1830 he was in command of the Enderby whaleship Sar-
ment with Enderby & Sons. It appears that he started his
ah & Elizabeth. The later part of this voyage is described
career as mate on Indian on its 1817 voyage, as records indi-
by Thomas Beale in the book mentioned by Melville earli-
cate that the master named Sullivan died during the voyage
er in this article, The Natural History of the Sperm Whale.
and that William Swain took command. He was certainly
Beale transferred to Swain’s ship Sarah & Elizabeth from
in command when the vessel was at Sydney in August and
the whaler Kent, at the Bonin Islands on 1 June 1832, up-
September 1818.
set by the master of the Kent’s treatment of his crew. In the SUMMER 2017
9
NANTUCKET-BORN MARINERS
book, Beale warmly praises the abilities of Swain both as
remained there until April 1844, when he shipped as mate
a captain and whaler. William Swain’s last English com-
on the American whaleship Christopher Mitchell. Less
mand was the Green, Wigrams & Green whaleship Matil-
than four weeks later, on 19 May 1844, he drowned during
da. When the vessel called at the Bay of Islands in February
a whale hunt. Swain’s wife stayed at the Bay of Islands with
1840, Swain and his wife removed from the ship and left
their children until a Maori uprising saw all her property
the first mate in command (the crew list for the Matilda
destroyed. Mrs. Swain then sailed for Nantucket aboard
records the master as having deserted). Perhaps Swain in-
the whaleship Monticello, arriving in mid-July 1845, “a
tended to settle in New Zealand at the Bay of Islands, be-
stranger among strangers, and far from the scenes of her
cause he and his English wife purchased land there. They
birth-place and home.” [Nantucket Inquirer, 17 July 1845]
Samuel Swain (1799–1842) Samuel Swain, was born on 5 October 1799, the fourth child and third son of the five children of James and Rebecca Swain of Nantucket. Samuel’s father was engaged in whaling out of Nantucket and fought in the 1812 war against the British. The family seems to have been Quakers up to this time, as it is recorded that James was one of many who were disowned by the Society of Friends for going to sea in an armed vessel. Samuel followed his father into whaling on a Nantucket vessel, as evidenced by a Seaman’s Protection Certificate being granted to him at Nantucket on 2 August 1815. Sometime between 1815 and the early 1820s, Samuel left
& Green whaleship Vigilant (1831–35). The Vigilant made a
Nantucket for England in company with an older cousin,
double voyage, transhipping its cargo of oil at Sydney in 1833.
William Swain. In London, Samuel shipped out on the
The captain’s journal (NHA Log 326) of the voyage survives, as
whaleship Indian, commanded by his cousin. Samuel also
well as a miniature of Samuel Swain.
served as mate under a Captain Garbutt, but the dates and name of the vessel are unknown.
10
next command after his marriage was the Green, Wigrams
Not much is known of the next few years of Captain Swain’s life, though it is almost certain that he retired from
Swain went on to command the Enderby whaleship
the sea. Three very successful voyages such as he had made
Indian and made two voyages to the Pacific—1826 and
would certainly have made him a reasonably wealthy man,
1828. In the short break between Indian’s return in Janu-
able to live off his investments. Yet drafts of letters dating
ary 1831 and his departure as master of Vigilant in Octo-
from March 1841 reveal that the year was one of financial
ber 1831, Samuel Swain began a family. On 20 April 1831,
distress for Samuel Swain and his family. The letters mention
he married Louise Flowers Fulcher of Deptford. They had
the loss of a considerable amount of money invested in an
five children: Louisa Baker born in 1832 and not seen by
American bank, and Swain petitions an old whaling friend in
her father until 1835; Samuel Fulcher born 1836; James born
Sydney, Captain Robert Duke, for the return of £2,000 he had
1838; Thomas born 1840, and Edward Plant born in 1841, just
advanced him. Apparently the situation did not improve and
one month before his father’s last departure for the south-
Swain was forced to seek another whaling command in 1841
ern whale fisheries as commander of Bermondsey. Swain’s
after having been retired from the sea since 1835.
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
NANTUCKET-BORN MARINERS
The Ships Vigilant and Harpooner Offshore, painting by William John Huggins, 1832 CO U R T ES Y OF T H E N AT I ON A L M A RIT IM E M US E UM , G RE E N W IC H, LON DON, G RE E N BL ACKWELL COLLECTION
In October 1841, Captain Samuel Swain left London in
A Lasting Influence
command of Bermondsey. The voyage did not go well. In late February 1842, the ship was forced to put into Sydney
One hundred and sixty-six Nantucket-born masters took
due to the “disorderly nature of her crew,” with only fifty
out over 630 voyages, which is one in four of all British
barrels of sperm oil on board. What occurred over the next
South Seas whaling voyages. They shared their skills and
three months is unclear, but Swain was probably engaged
methods and trained and led British whalemen. Some
in re-establishing control over his crew, trying to commu-
even fathered the next generation of British whaling mas-
nicate with the shipowner Robert Duke and shipping new
ters. They influenced the routes taken, the grounds fre-
hands. On 25 May 1842, Bermondsey sailed for the whale
quented, and the whaling techniques used. They certain-
fishery, but within six weeks put back into Sydney with
ly appear to have been successful in making owners and
Captain Swain gravely ill. The Sydney Gazette for Tuesday,
themselves wealthy. It’s a considerable legacy.
12 July 1842, records, “The Bermondsey, whaler, returned
We, at the BSWF, would like your assistance. Already,
to port on Saturday last owing to the illness of the Captain,
by making available the data in the voyage and crew data-
whom, we are sorry to state, expired on the same evening.
bases, we have received contributions from families and
His complaint was consumption.” Captain Samuel Swain
researchers that have assisted us in filling out the individ-
died at forty-three years of age in Sydney Harbour on Sat-
ual profiles of owners, masters, and crews. As outlined, we
urday, 9 July 1842. His funeral was held on the jetty, Mac-
believe the great majority of Nantucket whalemen in the
quarie Place, on 11 July 1842. In England, he left a widow
BSWF never returned home. Can you help us find them? If
and five young children with no financial support.
so, e-mail us at: bswfdb@gmail.com.
DALE CHATWIN is an Australia-based retired librarian and independent researcher. JUDITH LUND, author and independent researcher, is a former curator at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. SUMMER 2017
11
TEACHERS AT THE AFRICAN SCHOOL By Frances Ruley Karttunen
12
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
ON JANUARY 4, 1825, A NEW BUILDING ON THE CORNER OF PLEASANT STREET AND YORK STREET WAS DEDICATED AS A PLACE OF WORSHIP.
NOW KNOWN AS THE African Meeting House on Nantucket, it stood in the heart of a vibrant neighborhood largely inhabited by people of African heritage. The neighborhood had taken shape in the latter half of the 1700s. Descendants of enslaved people who had been brought to Nantucket and eventually manumitted, together with “free blacks,” Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and anyone else considered at the time as non-white, acquired and consolidated property to form a village that was variously known as Negro Town, Negro Village, Negro Hill, or New Guinea. “New Guinea,” like the nearby Angola Street, reflected the place of origin of people who had been forcibly transported from Africa in the 1600s and 1700s.
Origins of the African School A deed issued for the land on which the new building stood directed that in addition to religious services, a school should be maintained in the building. This was Nantucket’s African School, and it went into operation nearly two years before the Town of Nantucket belatedly established a public-school system. The building was not yet finished at the time of its dedication, but by mid-April 1825, classes were under way there. In fact, work was still continuing on
New Guinea neighborhood as seen on
the building two years later when Absalom Boston, in his
Map of the Town of Nantucket in the State of
capacity as secretary of the trustees of the African School,
Massachusetts by William Coffin Jr., 1834 (top),
appealed to the Society for Propagating the Gospel among
and Map of the Counties of Barnstable, Dukes
the Indians and Others in North America for fifty dollars
and Nantucket, Mass. by H. F. Walling, 1858
to finish the interior and to install seating. Inspecting the
MS1 000. 3.4. 5; MS1 000-ROLLED3 0
newly housed school in 1825, Frederick Baylies of the society reported that among fifty-two pupils being instructed by Mrs. Sally Thompson, there were three white students. In enumerating the students at various levels, he made no distinction in his report between male and female. SUMMER 2017
13
TEACHERS AT THE AFRICAN SCHOOL
CONFUSION ARISES about the identities of the first teachers in the African School. New Guinea was a location within the larger area on the expanding south edge of town known as Newtown. Historian Obed Macy reported that in 1819 fire had damaged a classroom in Rhoda Harris’s school in Newtown. There were black Harrises living in New Guinea at the time, and Peter Boston’s wife’s name was Rhoda. Rhoda Way Harris is, however, to be found in the Eliza Starbuck Barney Genealogical Record, which does not include people of color. A descendant of the first English settlers on Nantucket, she was born in 1761 and died in 1825, the year the school in the African Meeting House was opened. Her husband, Obed Harris, was also a descendant of the English settlers. Rhoda Harris was not a teacher at the African School. Despite assertions to the contrary, Wilson Rawson (1754–1836), a contemporary of Rhoda Harris, was not a teacher in the African School either. Rawson, grandson of an earlier Wilson Rawson on Nantucket, was a descendant of the English settlers, and a member of Nantucket’s Union Lodge. His headstone in Old North Cemetery bears a Masonic device, and the epitaph reads, “Erected by his Masonic Brethren.” An April 18, 1829, newspaper article in the Inquirer reported that there had been at the African School a “quarterly examination of this School, which was instituted by Deacon Wilson Rawson and others, about six years ago.”
14
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
Anna Gardner taught at the African School 1836–38
GPN1319
TEACHERS AT THE AFRICAN SCHOOL
MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY HAD BEGUN BUILDING THE MEETING HOUSE IN 1823.
This has been taken to mean that Rawson was the ini-
Movers and Shakers
tial teacher at the African School, but this is not what the newspaper article says. What is more, six years previous
Research at the Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Muse-
to 1829, the African Meeting House had not yet been
um in Salem by Teresa Dujnic Bulger has revealed the roles
built. Back in 1822, however, the Inquirer reported that
of Joseph Lake and Frederick Baylies in the early history of
a Sabbath school in New Guinea had resumed and was
the African School. Joseph Lake, who described himself as
offering instruction for an hour a week to about thirty
of the same “complexion” as the people of New Guinea, was
“coloured youths.” This is likely what Wilson Rawson, in
intermittently on-island from the fall of 1823 to the day in
his role as a deacon of Nantucket’s First Congregational
January 1825, when he preached at the dedication of the
Church, had helped to organize.
African Meeting House as a place of worship. According to
That said, Union Lodge—of which Wilson Rawson
Lake, members of the community had begun building the
was a brother—has been enduringly supportive of the
Meeting House already in 1823. They didn’t receive a deed
African Meeting House and the African School that met
to the land from local black businessman Jeffrey Summons
in it. On June 17, 1837, the members of the Colored Bap-
until the spring of 1825, however, when the Trustees of the
tist Church and Society of Nantucket thanked the Lodge
School Fund for the Coloured People paid for it with the to-
brothers, “who recently furnished their Meeting House
ken sum of $10.50 and agreed to the proviso that ”a school
with an elegant chandelier.” And then, more than forty
be kept in it [the African Meeting House] forever.”
years later, on January 31, 1880, the Inquirer and Mirror
Joseph Lake had earlier undertaken missionary work
reported that, “the church was presented with a hand-
on Martha’s Vineyard and then came to Nantucket with
some chandelier by Capt. Albert A. Gardner and others,
financial support from the Society for Propagating the
Rev. J. B. Morrison tendering the gift on their behalf.” The
Gospel. Lake found the people of New Guinea receptive
Rev. Morrison held a high office in the Grand Lodge.
to his efforts and spent the next two years fund-raising for
L I BRA RY OF CON G R ES S, P R I N TS A N D PH OTOG RA PH S DIV IS ION, H A BS M A S S,10-N ANT, 3 2-, SHEET 3
SUMMER 2017
15
African Meeting House, early 1900s F 3 970
the trustees of the African School. He succeeded in raising $160 for completion of the building, which he dedicated in its unfinished state in January 1825, but Lake was not a teacher in the school either.
Frederick Baylies and the First Teachers In 1823, the same year that Joseph Lake first visited Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard-based Frederick Baylies (1774– 1836) came to the island. Baylies was from a large white family that had moved to Edgartown shortly after his birth. He had already written in 1822 to Jeffrey Summons and members of the Boston family, and it was to Baylies that Essex Boston, Peter Boston, and Jeffrey Summons had, on May 17, 1822, addressed the famous assertion about “remains of the Indians”: We hereby certify that there are among the coloured people of this place remains of the Nantucket Indians and that nearly every family in our village are partly descended from the original inhabitants of this and neighboring places.
When the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and Others in North America was founded by
16
a group of Congregationalist clergy and laymen in 1787, its
Children on West Dover Street, circa 1880s
mission was to the indigenous peoples of the new nation.
GPN4 6 5
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
TEACHERS AT THE AFRICAN SCHOOL
Later in the 1800s, its mission was extended to indigent whites and, after the Civil War, to freedmen. In the early 1820s, however, it was important to the society for there to be Indians on Nantucket if it were to support a school on
Children of the Newtown neighborhood, corner of Orange and York Streets, 1860s SG6 53 7
the island. It was common knowledge that the Wampanoag community at Miacomet had been wiped out by the Indian
tion between Lake and the New Guinea residents who built
Sickness of 1763–64, but the statement from the New Guin-
the Meeting House was that they were organized as an Af-
ea community asserting its Wampanoag roots gave Baylies
rican Baptist Society, and he was a Congregationalist. The
the requisite justification and documentation.
members of the African Baptist Society also believed that
On his visit in 1823, Baylies met with a number of prom-
they should control the funds that had been donated to the
inent white Nantucketers, including Reverend Seth F. Swift
building campaign. Consequently, it was Frederick Baylies
of the Second Congregational Church, to outline his plan
who came to teach and organize.
for a school in New Guinea supported by the Society. Upon
In 1823, two years before the African Meeting House
consultation with Reverend Swift, Reverend Stephen Bai-
was even built, Baylies had created a school in New Guin-
ley, and Justice of the Peace Josiah Hussey, Esq., Baylies re-
ea with funds from the Society for Propagating the Gospel.
ported to the Society that there were 274 “people of color”
Starting in early July of that year, Baylies taught for five
on Nantucket, “many of them part Indian,” and a school
weeks, instructing a total of fifty-three students in the al-
would do them good.
phabet, spelling, and Bible-reading. We do not know where
Although Joseph Lake had been the fund-raiser for the
that school was meeting at the time. In addition to the
African Meeting House and the speaker at its dedication,
school that taught basic reading, writing, and arithmetic,
there was a falling out between him and some members
Baylies organized a women’s school to provide instruction
of the New Guinea community. The main point of conten-
in knitting, sewing, and other domestic arts. He reported SUMMER 2017
17
TEACHERS AT THE AFRICAN SCHOOL
expenses for the Nantucket women’s school in 1823. Based on the Vineyard, and having altogether five schools under his supervision (three on the Vineyard, one on the mainland, and one on Nantucket), Baylies was only temporarily at any one of them. In all cases, he staffed the schools with locals, often women, who carried on the teaching. Before moving on from Nantucket, he hired two young women from the New Guinea community to continue his work. One was sixteen-year-old Mary Ann Boston, daughter of Revolutionary War veteran Peter Boston and his Mashpee Wampanoag wife Rhoda Jolly, and the other was “Mrs. Sally Thompson,” whom he describes as an Indian woman. Teresa Bulger identifies her as twenty-twoyear-old seamstress Sarah Thompson. Alternatively, Mrs. Thompson was not Sarah Thompson, but another of Peter and Rhoda Boston’s daughters, Priscilla. Priscilla (“Cilly”), whose mother, Rhoda, was Wampanoag, had been widowed after a brief marriage to John Thompson. “Mrs. Thompson,” whether Sarah or Priscilla, taught twelve
Prominent New Guinea resident, Captain Absalom Boston 1 9 06. 56. 1
weeks a year between visits from Baylies. Whichever woman was the Mrs. Thompson of record, she married again after taking her position as teacher. In
leader Absalom Boston referred when he reported to the
1828, Sarah Thompson married James Dennison, one of
Society on March 18, 1827, that “we have for our pastor a
the 1831 charter members of the reorganized York Street
young man of colour with whose preaching we are all very
Baptist Church (previously the African Baptist Society). In
well satisfied; he is a truly pious young man and well quali-
1832, Priscilla Thompson, also an original member of the
fied to impart religious Instructions.” Absalom Boston’s let-
reorganized church, married Frederick Quoin, another
ter made a case to the society for a donation of fifty dollars
New Guinea businessman. She died just two years later, in
to finish the interior of the school and install permanent
1834, of tuberculosis.
seating. In making his case for further support, Boston em-
The African School, conducted in the African Meeting House, was absorbed into the newly formed Nantucket pub-
Baylies have made great improvement.”
lic school system in 1827, enabling it to receive town funding.
In the spring of 1834, on the eve of retirement, Baylies
Nonetheless, it was Frederick Baylies who continued to man-
reported that the school conducted in the African Meeting
age it. For the years 1827 through 1830, Baylies reported to the
House was doing well and was able to stay open more than
society that he spent four weeks each year teaching in Nan-
half the year because of its subsidy from the Town of Nantuck-
tucket and employed Jacob Perry to teach for twelve weeks
et. At this juncture, twenty-two-year-old Eliza Bailey became
each year. Consistent with the first year, there were slightly
the first white woman teacher at the African School. The
over fifty students attending the African School. Perry, whom
daughter of Benjamin Bailey and Abigail Folger Gurrell Bailey,
Baylies describes as “an intelligent and worthy man of colour,
she taught for just two years before epilepsy made it impossi-
who also officiates as minister to the coloured people of the
ble for her to continue. In 1841, at the age of twenty-nine, she
town,” was praised for his management of the school, but he
died and was interred in Prospect Hill Cemetery. Her head-
protested that his salary was so small that he would have to
stone reads, “Formerly teacher of the African School.”
leave the island to seek more adequate income. Jacob Perry is most likely the man to whom community 18
phasized that “our children under the Instruction of Mr.
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
Anna Gardner was the next teacher of record at the African School, hired in 1836 at the age of twenty. Five years
TEACHERS AT THE AFRICAN SCHOOL
previously, while still in her mid-teens, she had already
After the controversy was settled in 1846 and the public
been teaching black children in a private school. It was
schools were integrated, the York Street School became an
an established practice at the time for schools to show off
introductory and primary school for white and black chil-
their students’ progress in what was called a public exam-
dren in the neighborhood. In fact, the school committee
ination. A letter submitted to the Inquirer in 1831 written
closed a white primary school on Fair Street at the same
by “JMF” said that he (or she) had attended an examina-
time. Deborah Brown was hired to teach in the York Street
tion at Anna Gardner’s primary school. JMF observed that
School. She later went on to become a principal of West In-
her pupils “were neat in their personal dress, and their
termediate School. The next person recorded as a teacher
behaviour through the entire examination, impressed the
at the York Street School is Harriet P. Clapp. She was princi-
mind with a belief, that much care had been extended to-
pal of the school from 1847 until it closed at the end of the
wards the morals of that most interesting class of society”
1851 school year.
(coded language for children of color). JMF noted that
The deed requirement that a school be maintained in
their “reading, spelling, and their answers to various ques-
the African Meeting House went into abeyance at the end
tions put to them, apparently gave general satisfaction to
of the 1830s, and use of the building as a place of worship
the visitors” and concluded that the students “did credit to
and a community center came completely to an end in
the exertions of the schoolmistress.”
1912. Thereafter, the building was repurposed mainly for
It was during Anna Gardner’s subsequent tenure at the
storage. It deteriorated until the 1990s, when it was res-
African School (1836 – 38) that an intense and ugly battle
cued from decrepitude, restored, and opened to the public
began over school segregation, spurred on by her desire to
in 1999 with its educational mission re-established.
place advanced students, beginning with her mentee Eunice Ross, in the first public high school on the island.
FRANCES RULEY KARTTUNEN is an NHA Research Fellow and au-
After Anna Gardner’s years at the African School, the re-
thor of The Other Islanders: People Who Pulled Nantucket’s Oars
cords are incomplete. The person who took on the job after
(Spinner, 2005); Nantucket’s North Shore (Spinner, 2014) and numer-
her resignation did not last long, teaching only to the end of
ous other books and articles about Nantucket.
one school year and about a month into the next. When he or she left, an advertisement in the Inquirer sought “either male or female Teachers.” The teacher the school committee hired did not stay for more than a few months either. Four
James Bradford Ames Fellows
months later, yet another advertisement in the paper called for a teacher at the school on York Street, stipulating that only
The James Bradford Ames Fellowships for the study of
males would be considered for the job.
African and Cape Verdean history on Nantucket were
The York Street Baptist Church had refused to allow
established in 1996 by Mrs. Adele Ames to honor the
the Nantucket school committee to continue to house a
memory of her husband, a descendant of the West family
segregated school in the African Meeting House. The town
of Nantucket. The author and contributors Barbara White
provided a building on the same street and called it the
and Teresa Dujnic Bulger have all been named Ames
York Street School rather than the African School. Both the
Fellows: Karttunen in 2000, White in 2004, and Bulger
name change and the committee’s reason for hiring a male
in 2010. They are unanimous in their gratitude to Mrs.
teacher had everything to do with the controversy then
Ames for the support of their research. While an Ames
raging in Nantucket over the attempt to keep black stu-
Fellow, Barbara White published an essay about Anna
dents out of the white schools. The hiring of a male teacher
Gardner and is now completing a book-length biography.
(male teachers being considered superior to female teach-
Karttunen and White are Nantucket Historical Association
ers) was probably intended to create the impression that
Research Fellows.
all levels of students were being adequately taught at the segregated school. SUMMER 2017
19
By Mary Bergman & Andrea Wulffleff
F E W O B J EC T S A R E A S L I N K E D W I T H T H E I D E N T I T Y O F N A N T U C K ET A S T H E L I G H T S H I P B A S K E T.
20
MADE AT FIRST BY MEN who had, in some form or anoth-
baskets share similar features in their construction (solid
er, taken to the sea, these tightly woven baskets became
bases, vertical ribs, assembled from component parts) with
icons of an isolated island’s maritime heritage. By the
the oil casks and barrels coopers aboard whaleships would
1880s, lightship baskets could be found in sundry shops,
have constructed. Nantucket baskets are woven with rattan,
snatched up by tourists looking for a reminder of their vis-
a climbing vine that grows in the tropical regions of Africa,
it. The 1950s saw the rise of an unexpected status symbol
Asia, and Australia—places as far away from Nantucket as
as covered baskets became coveted fashion accessories,
anything could be, but that echo the route of Nantucket’s
adorned with fanciful ivory carvings. Today, the lightship
whaling fleet.
basket has been redesigned and reinvented into every-
It can be difficult to determine exactly who was making
thing from jewelry to golf-club bags to pendant lamps.
these baskets and when. Many of the earliest basket makers
Whatever their shape or size, lightship baskets serve as a
did not sign their work; instead, baskets were branded or
reminder of Nantucket’s prosperity as a resort destination
signed by their owners. Frequently, time has worn away pa-
while paying homage to the old salts who started it all.
per labels that once bore the maker’s signature. Some mak-
The enduring popularity of lightship baskets is owed to
ers made only a handful of baskets for friends and families;
the skilled hands that crafted them. It is hard to pinpoint ex-
others were prolific in their work, supporting themselves
actly when the lightship, or rattan (as they were called in the
wholly or in part through basket making.
1850s and 1860s) basket form first originated. Partly inspired
A few common threads are woven throughout the lives
by a New Hampshire split or ash basket, Nantucket baskets
of basket makers. Some were retired whalemen or lightship
are made on a mold, have a one-piece wooden base, and are
sailors; men who were used to long periods of isolation and
woven with rattan. They were the original brown paper bag,
boredom. Others were carpenters and coopers, men who
used to carry everything from eggs and wool to apples and
knew their way around a woodshop. Many held a variety of
blueberry pies.
jobs throughout their lives, sometimes holding down sever-
Although they owe their names to the floating light-
al at a time, as is still the case with many on Nantucket to-
houses that warned mariners off Nantucket’s dangerous
day. People often turned to basket making in retirement, or
shoals, it is believed that the form of the basket originated
during other periods of unemployment, such as the end of
before the first lightship went into service in 1854. Rattan
the whaling era and the Great Depression of the 1930s.
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
THE SETH PINKHAM PAPERS
James Wyer
R (1816 – 99)R Captain James Wyer spent sixteen of his first thirty-seven years at sea. Born on Nantucket in 1816 to Obed Wyer Jr. and Polly Gorham, James was the middle child of three boys. He studied two trades that were important to any whaleman (and basket maker), cooperage and carpentry. Wyer sailed on four whaling voyages, including one lasting more than five years. His second voyage, on the new vessel Monticello, took him to the Sandwich Islands and the coast of Japan. His third voyage was exceptionally fruitful; Wyer’s vessel returned to Nantucket with 2,600 barrels of sperm-whale oil. In 1851, he married Harriet N. Thompson before his final voyage, which lasted only two years as he was able to purchase whale oil at auction
Captain James Wyer
from a condemned ship in the Navigator Islands.
P1560
Harriet suffered a long illness and died in 1860. Perhaps that is why after only one voyage as captain, Wyer retired from the sea. Following Harriet’s death, like many Nantucket men, Wyer left Nantucket for California to pan for gold. Although the work was dangerous, it was still considerably safer than the grizzly business of whaling. He worked there as a carpenter for four years before returning to Nantucket. Wyer married Lois N. (Pease) Starbuck in 1866. She was the widow of another great whaling captain, Charles E. Starbuck. Lois had two children from her first marriage, Mary Eliza and Henry Pease, to whom Wyer became a stepfather. (Mary Eliza Starbuck served as the first secretary of the Nantucket Historical Association, and donated some of her stepfather’s baskets to the NHA.) The old captain made baskets between the 1870s and 1890s, exhibiting his work at agricultural fairs on the island, even winning first prize in 1879. Wyer showed no sign of slowing down. He was “the first of our octogenarians to attempt to master a bicycle,” the Inquirer and Mirror reported. One of the original purchasers of the Pacific Club building, Captain Wyer died in 1899. Nest of lightship baskets by Captain James Wyer, circa 1870
1900.46.1 a
SUMMER 2017
21
Frederick Chadwick
R (1857–1936)R The various jobs that Frederick Chadwick held all seem to have had one thing in common—the improvement and preservation of Nantucket Island. Chadwick served as the First Assistant Chief of the Nantucket Fire Department, was custodian of the Old Mill, and worked at the New York Yacht Club Station Nantucket as an attendant, welcoming visitors at Steamboat Wharf. (Chadwick passed this love of Nantucket’s history and people along to his nephew, George William Jones, who at one time served as president of the Nantucket Historical Association.) A carpenter by trade, Chadwick began weaving baskets in the later years of his life. He learned basket making from renowned island weaver Clinton Mitchell “Mitchy” Ray. In 1933, Chadwick’s works were chosen, along with those of basket maker Ferdinand Sylvaro, to represent lightship baskets in an exhibition of Nantucket handicrafts shown in Washington, DC. When Chadwick was weaving baskets, it was thought that the craft did not have much of a future. In a 1933 article in the Inquirer and Mirror, Henry K. Bush-Brown remarked that “Basket-making of this sort is a real Nantucket product, but there are barely half a dozen men on the island today who can do this work—and when they go the ability to fashion such baskets may go with them.” In fact, it was Mitchy Ray, Chadwick’s mentor, who taught dozens of men to pass their idle hours in making Nantucket baskets, ensuring that the craft would continue to survive as long as it has. In the 1950s, another of Mitchy Ray’s protégées, José Formoso Reyes, transformed the open carryall basket into a covered purse, which he playfully titled the “friendship” purse. It was Muriel “Mickey” Sayle who suggested that Reyes adorn the lids of his baskets with whale carvings made by her husband, noted maritime historian and ivory carver Charlie Sayle. Although originally the dominion of men aboard whaleships, two of Nantucket’s greatest ivory carvers of the last century were women. FROM TOP:
Oval lightship basket by Frederick Chadwick, circa 1920
2 0 0 7. 3 0. 2 0
Frederick Chadwick on dock at New York Yacht Club Station Nantucket José Formoso Reyes 22
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
F2875
A44-59
THE SETH PINKHAM PAPERS Mitchy Ray in his workshop, 1950s P 2 1652
SUMMER 2017
23
Aletha Macy in Lincoln Ceely’s workshop, 1940s
SC 6 0 5 - 2
Aletha Macy
R (1901–71)R A direct descendant of Thomas Macy, one of the origi-
looking for assistance. Although she had not yet worked in
nal purchasers of Nantucket, Aletha Macy was a talented
ivory, Macy agreed and it became her preferred medium.
woodworker and ivory carver. By the age of eleven, after
While she began with the traditional sperm whales and
school she went regularly to watch cabinetmaker Lincoln
gulls, Macy, spurred by her love of the outdoors, began to
Ceely at work in his shop, the Cooperage. There he made
carve other animals, birds, and fish. Soon, she opened her
furniture, clock cases, weather vanes, and the iconic Nan-
own shop, Ivory of the Sea, on Madaket Road. Away from
tucket sailor-boy whirligigs.
the shop, Aletha was an avid outdoorswoman—fishing,
Ceely saw potential in Aletha and took her under his
hunting, and horseback riding were among her passions.
wing, making her his full-time apprentice after her junior
She and her horse, Rimlap Gal, often won first place in the
year of high school. She would work with him for over thirty
sulky races held at Miacomet Raceway. Macy passed along
years, learning woodworking, cabinet making, and reverse
her technique to at least one other Nantucket artist, the
painting on glass. As a teenager, she displayed her pieces in
late Mary Patricia “Pat” Gardner (1926 –2001), who, in her
the Agricultural Society’s annual exhibition, quickly gain-
wood carvings, commemorated, among other birds, the
ing a reputation for her fine workmanship. In 1921, Aletha
island’s piping plovers.
married John Sanders of Sayville, NY. Their marriage was
In a tribute written after Macy’s death in 1971, her
brief, but some of the pieces she made during this time
friend, the great Nantucket historian and former NHA
were signed Aletha Macy Sanders.
president Edouard A. Stackpole, wrote, “Her talent was a
In the mid-1950s, she was approached by José Reyes to carve ivory pieces for the tops of his famous friendship baskets. He had more orders than he could fill and was 24
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
blend of her character—natural and unadorned—and of her skill — so carefully obtained and nurtured.”
nancy Chase
R
R
(1931– 2016)
LEFT: Scrimshander Nancy Chase in her studio, 1990s,
Photo by Beverly Hall
PH9 - 1 1 - 8
ABOVE: Lightship basket purse by Karl and Susan Ottison;
lid carving by Nancy Chase, 1991
A descendent of whaling captains, carpenters, Chases,
favorites of tourists and light-
and Coffins, Nancy Chase was in many ways the mother of
ship basket collectors. Some of
modern scrimshaw. She practiced her craft at her shop on
her finest collaborations were
Cobble Court for over fifty years.
with her sister, basket maker
A woodcarver since childhood, Chase was given a piece of whale jawbone by her grandfather, Warren Benson Chase,
1 9 9 8. 2 6
Susan Chase Ottison. Tired of carving whales,
and transformed it into a map of Nantucket. Her career tru-
Nancy was eager to try any-
ly began when William Coffin, owner of Coffin’s Pharmacy
thing her clients could dream
where Nancy was working as a soda jerk, asked her to carve
up. She carved everything from
ivory sperm-whale pins to sell to tourists.
the usual maps of Nantuck-
Years later, her carvings caught the eye of José Reyes, just
et and gulls, to the exotic and Samples of Nancy’s work
as Macy’s had. Reyes approached Nancy to make a hundred
whimsical. During the 1980 in her Cobblestone Court
three-inch sperm whales for the tops of his baskets. She
presidential election, Chase studio, 2011
agreed, eventually leaving her job at Pacific National Bank to
was commissioned to carve the
complete the order. It was a risky move, as the bank was one
presidential seal to top a basket for future First Lady, Nancy
of a handful of year-round employers at the time.
Reagan. Had he lost the election, she said in a 2007 interview,
Ready to set out on her own and turn her craft into a flour-
she was to somehow change the carving.
ishing business, she opened the Ivory Shop on Cobble Court.
“I take away what don’t belong there,” she once said of her
Known for the custom basket-top ornaments she did for Reyes
immense talent, “and leave the rest.” A former NHA trustee,
and other basket makers, her intricate carvings soon became
Chase died in June of 2016.
Ivory carving and basket making developed simultaneously, as two very different but
MARY BERGMAN AND
complementary crafts. Today, about a dozen people on Nantucket make their living prac-
ANDREA WULFFLEFF
ticing these traditional crafts. Countless others across the country and as far away as Japan
are the Executive Director and
have dabbled, testing the waters of traditional maritime craftwork. These crafts endure
Director, respectively, of the
in part because there is such a real, tangible connection to the island’s history and all the
Nantucket Lightship Basket
people who have come before us. As to any concerns that this is a “dying” art—as long as
Museum.
there are Nantucketers, there will be Nantucket baskets. SUMMER 2017
25
News Notes & Highlights
ON VIEW
“Dear Absent Ones”: The Seafaring Pinkhams
Whaleship Henry Astor Helen Marshall
Whaling Museum, March through December 2017 Experience Nantucket seafaring through the eyes of the Pinkhams, a local family whose sons and daughters went to sea over multiple generations. The exhibition focuses on Seth Pinkham and Mary Brown Pinkham (a whaling captain and his wife); Malvina Pinkham Marshall and Joseph Marshall (Seth and Mary’s daughter and her whaling master husband, whom she accompanied on whaling voyages); and Helen Marshall (Malvina and Joseph’s daughter, who was born in the Azores and went on whaling voyages with her family). Visitors will explore stories of adventure, love, melancholy, and loss as evidenced in the family’s letters, clothing, toys, furniture, and portraits. Featured for the first time are some of Captain Seth Pinkham’s letters to his family and friends, acquired at auction for the NHA in 2016 through the generosity of an anonymous donor. Additional artifacts highlighted in the exhibition are textiles that belonged to Malvina Pinkham Marshall and a scrimshaw-handled jump rope made for Helen Marshall by the second mate on the Aurora.
Portrait of Seth Pinkham, attributed to William Swain, circa 1840
26
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
1 9 8 9. 1 2 8. 1
C281
1 9 0 5. 5 9. 1
ON VIEW
Out of the Box:
Unpacking Nantucket Stories Whaling Museum, May through December 2017 Rarely seen objects from the NHA’s artifact and archival collections tell the stories of real Nantucket people over four centuries. Selected and filtered through the lenses of race, gender, ethnicity, and class, these objects celebrate the island’s rich tradition of diversity. The exhibition is organized by themes to form helpful lenses for exploring people’s lives on island over time: “Nantucket at Sea” reveals the centrality of water to island life and history; “Nantucket at Home” looks at women, men, and children in the domestic sphere; “Nantucket at Work” goes beyond whaling to show the island’s other economic pursuits; “Nantucket at Heart” exhibits island places and things that have long been loved; “Nantucket at Play” looks at the island as a tourist destination; and “Nantucket on the Map” brings together a handful of the collection’s best maps to provide a sense of place for the other theme areas. A special interactive feature, “Nantucket Seen,” presents a gallery of Nantucket portraits and includes a photo booth to offer visitors the opportunity to capture in a portrait their own memories of their visit. SUMMER 2017
27
News Notes & Highlights WELCOME
The NHA welcomes new staff in Membership and at the Research Library Amelia Holmes Amelia Holmes, Library and Archives Manager, holds an M.S. in Library Science with a concentration in archives and records management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.A. in English and Studio Art from Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. While at UNC, she was the Carolina Academic Library Associate for Special Collections Technical Services at UNC’s Wilson Special Collections Library. She has also served as the Josiah Charles Trent Intern for the History of Medicine Collections at Duke University and the Digital Projects and Outreach Intern for UNC’s North Carolina Collection. As the Library and Archives Manager, Amelia will combine her skills and experience from these previous positions to document the island’s rich history and make it available to the public.
Lexi Norton Lexi Norton, Membership Coordinator, received her Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Upon graduating, she moved to Washington, D.C., and worked as an intern in the Education Department at the Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site. While she had a wonderful experience in that culturally rich city, she soon followed her love of the mountains and adventure and moved to Telluride, Colorado. There, she worked in the Guest Services Department at the Telluride Historical Museum while taking courses in the Museum and Field Studies Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Lexi is looking forward to combining her love of museums and her experience in fund-raising at the Nantucket Historical Association.
28
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
INSIDE THE NHA
E. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Thayer Verney Fellow 2017 A doctoral candidate in the English Department at Northwestern University, Meaghan M. Fritz is the NHA’s 2017 Verney Fellow. She will use the NHA Research Library’s manuscript collection to complete her dissertation “American Widows Willed: Extralegal Citizenship and the Literature of Widowhood,” which examines the singular conditions of widowhood that changed the lives of American women beginning with the Salem witch trials up to the Civil War. Fritz holds B.A.s in English and Spanish from Georgia State University and an M.A. in English from Georgetown University, where she received the English Department’s 2016 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award. Other awards include a Graduate Research Grant from Northwestern University, to pursue research at the Sandwich Historical Society, and the Melville Society’s 2017 Walter E. Bezanson Research Fellowship, which will allow her two weeks at the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Research Library. The E. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Thayer Verney Fellowship was established in 1999 in an effort to enhance the public’s knowledge and understanding of the heritage of Nantucket and encourage research in the collections of the NHA Research Library. Verney Fellows are awarded travel funds, a small stipend, and three weeks’ residency in the NHA’s Thomas Macy House at 99 Main Street.
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SUMMER 2017
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UPDATE
Grant for Inventory and Care of NHA Textile Collections
Through the inventory process, we are rediscovering some
for our collections of costumes, accessories, and textiles.
of the most delicate and beautiful treasures of the NHA’s
We have moved the textile collection into the new storage
collections that have been hidden in boxes for years. From
spaces, and continue to inventory our collections and
eighteenth-century quilted petticoats to wedding dresses
improve storage methods, a project that will take us to the
to intricately hand-worked wall hangings with special fam-
end of the year. Dresses are getting new padding to pre-
ily histories. Some highlights we have uncovered during
vent creases, and rugs and other textiles are being rolled
the inventory are a printed apron made by the Nantucket
on acid-free archival tubes. These preservation efforts will
Silk Factory in the late 1830s, a wonderful needlework wall
ensure that these fragile objects will be properly cared for
hanging by the Gilbreth family of Cheaper by the Dozen
well into the future.
fame, complete with imagery of “The Shoe,” and the “Bug
We continue to inventory and rehouse dresses, shoes,
Lights,” and an embroidered tablecloth that features sig-
hats, bonnets, children’s wear, quilts, and household
natures and doodles of several friends gathered in ’Sconset
textiles, as well as costume and textile collections from our
at the turn of the twentieth century, many of them notable
sites including Greater Light and Hadwen House. We’ll
characters active in the theater scene at the time.
be sharing more of these pieces with the public through
In April, compact shelving was installed, giving us six
exhibitions, programming, and our online catalog.
new aisles of storage space with a combination of shelves,
JENNIFER NEILING is the NHA’s Project Costume and Textiles
drawers, trays, and roll storage to provide proper housing
Specialist, a position funded by the IMLS grant.
T H E N H A I S G R AT EF U L TO T H E IM LS FOR H AV IN G BE E N C H OS E N FROM A M ONG 54 8 APP LICANTS TO RECEIVE THIS P RESTIGIOUS $1 50,000 AWARD TO IMPROVE THE MANAGEMENT, C A R E, A N D EXPA N D ED ACC E S S TO IT S COS T UM E A N D T E X T ILE COLLEC T ION.
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
News Notes & Highlights WELCOME
Meet the NHA’s new Gosnell Executive Director The NHA welcomes James P. Russell The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) Board of Trustees is pleased to announce that James P. Russell has been unanimously selected as the organization’s Gosnell Executive Director. Mr. Russell will join the NHA September 5, 2017. He comes to the NHA from the New Bedford Whaling Museum (NBWM), where he has been President and CEO since 2008. During his tenure, the museum leveraged its world-class collection to frame whaling history in a global, historical, ecological, and societal context with relevance for diverse audiences today. Mr. Russell has guided the museum in engaging its audience with comprehensive, content-rich, and experiential exhibitions and programming that draw comparisons and lessons for today. “I fully expect that the job will be both exhilarating and challenging and am eager to work with the Board, and indeed the entire membership as we shape a suite of programs that speak to the many constituencies within the association,” said Mr. Russell. Russell initiated a High School Apprenticeship program at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, providing low-income academically motivated students with access to experiences that cultivate college and career success; increased museum attendance each year; oversaw funding and building of a new Education Facility; installed climate control throughout the campus, and restored two historic buildings while maintaining a high level of volunteerism, a healthy endowment, and a balanced budget. James and his wife, Delia, have two grown children, Aine and Owen. They are looking forward to immersing themselves in all the island has to offer, getting to know the community, and working in partnership with peer organizations. The NHA Board looks forward to working with James as he carries forward the NHA’s mission to tell the inspiring stories of Nantucket in a vibrant, inclusive, inspiring, and above all, welcoming manner.
“ I fully expect that the job will be both exhilarating and challenging . . . and am eager to work,” said Mr. Russell. SUMMER 2017
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