SPRING 2022 | VOLUME 72, NO. 1
The Nantucket Historical Association presents
nantucket by design Save the Dates | August 3–6, 2022
Presenting Sponsor
NANTUCKET Alex Papachristidis
Tara Guerard
Keith Robinson
Ashley Whittaker
Christopher Spitzmiller
REAL ESTATE • MORTGAGE • INSURANCE
Learn more at NHA.org | Follow us @NantucketbyDesign Lead image from the forthcoming Rizzoli book ‘The Elegant Life’ by Alex Papachristidis. Photo copyright: William Abranowicz.
FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT AND INTERIM GOSNELL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Happy spring!
Photo credit @nantucketmagic
Throughout the cold days of winter, staff has been busy developing new exhibitions, planning dynamic programming and events, and of course, caring for our properties and collections. This issue will provide a preview of all the great offerings to come at the Whaling Museum and throughout our entire campus. We know that your summer calendars will fill up fast, so please be sure to book your next visit soon to look anew at the NHA. Behind the scenes, our digitization project continues along with active conservation and acquisition of significant artifacts. Importantly, we have established a multi-year investment in our properties such that these are utilized with maximum effect for the public good. As we work towards our commitment to deepen the connection to all in the local community and beyond, we are pleased to offer a robust slate of educational offerings, both formal and informal, with immersive learning experiences to those who visit in person or virtually. We are delighted to introduce several new faces at the NHA. While recruiting and retaining qualified staff becomes more and more challenging, we find ourselves incredibly fortunate to add these talented individuals to our team. August will be here before we know it, and so will our Nantucket By Design extravaganza, chaired by trustee Olivia Charney and Stacey Bewkes. This critically important event is by far the largest fundraiser organized by the NHA, and this year’s line-up is a must-see. We encourage you to visit with frequency as we believe you will be impressed with the many new presentations across our campus. We look forward to seeing you and thank you for your continued support.
Chip Carver President, Board of Trustees
Johanna Richard Interim Gosnell Executive Director
Board of Trustees 2021–22 Chip Carver, President Susan Blount, Vice President David Worth, Vice President John Flannery, Treasurer Sarah Alger, Clerk
SPRING 2022 | VOLUME 72, NO.1
Table of Contents 6
Nancy Abbey Patricia Anathan Lucinda Ballard Olivia Charney Wylie Collins Amanda Cross Annabelle Fowlkes Cam Gammill Graham Goldsmith Ashley Gosnell Mody Robert Greenspon Wendy Hudson Carl Jelleme Kathryn Ketelsen, Friends of the NHA Representative Carla McDonald Britt Newhouse Valerie Paley Marla Sanford Denise Saul, Friends of the NHA Representative Janet Sherlund, Trustee Emerita Carter Stewart Melinda Sullivan Jason Tilroe Finn Wentworth Kelly Williams Alisa A. Wood
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14 4
Asian Treasures from the Billings Collection
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Island People: Portraits and Stories from Nantucket
10 The Robert and Nina Hellman Collection
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Cape Verde in Our Soul
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Weaving Nantucket’s Past into Its Future: The Craft Continues
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Digitization Update
Ex Officio Johanna Richard, Interim Gosnell Executive Director 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. ©2022 by the Nantucket Historical Association. Editor: Ashley Santos Designer: Amanda Quintin Design all photos by nha staff unless otherwise noted.
22 News, Notes & Highlights Cover: Ruby glass ambrotype, cased photograph of Joseph Chase, Junior, (1845–1872), Howard Chase (1842–death date unknown), and James Beaucott Chase (1847–death date unknown), circa 1858, PH169-C2.
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SUMMER PROGRAMS
Save the Dates Washington’s Tent at Mill Hill July 13 & 14, 2022 In partnership with the Museum of the American Revolution, step inside a hand-stitched replica of General George Washington’s field headquarters and learn how the tent was used during the Revolutionary War. More details to come!
Mishoon Launch with Darius Coombs at Children’s Beach August 10, 2022 Take part in a rare opportunity to see a mishoon (dugout canoe) in action. This authentic mishoon was crafted by Darius Coombs from the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe for the NHA. Mr. Coombs will describe how he built the mishoon from start to finish and launch it into the harbor.
Wampanoag Symposium September 28 & 29, 2022
Stay tuned for our full calendar of summer programming coming soon!
The NHA is hosting a two-day symposium this fall exploring Wampanoag maritime heritage and traditions. Featuring Native speakers and storytellers alongside scholars and museum practitioners, this two-day conversation will focus on indigenous maritime lifeways and technology in coastal Southern New England prior to European contact, with special emphasis on Native perspectives, folklore, cosmology, and traditions.
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EXHIBITIONS
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Asian Treasures
Presenting Corporate Sponsor
from the Billings Collection
NANTUCKET REAL ESTATE • MORTGAGE • INSURANCE
By Alice (Tita) R. M. Hyland, Ph.D. Americans are constantly confronted with the political and economic powerhouse that is China, and more than ever we need to understand that nation’s complex history and culture. One opportunity to do this will come this summer through the exhibition Asian Treasures from the Billings Collection, which the NHA is hosting in the McCausland Gallery at the Whaling Museum. The exhibition draws from the collection that David Billings and Beverly Hall Billings have lovingly assembled over a 50-year period. The items in the collection elucidate political, economic, and religious events, and, at the same time, present enormous aesthetic appeal. Many illustrate significant Chinese innovations and discoveries over the millennia. The diverse media in the collection include ceramics, painting, jade, bronze, wood, stone, textiles, and lacquer, although ceramics predominate, demonstrating advances from painted to glazed earthenware, to glazed stoneware and porcelain. Many were made for burial and present forms thought useful for the afterlife such as incense burners and wine pots, or which might entertain the soul in the tomb, such as dancing figures, story tellers, and musicians. Functional domestic ceramics in the collection include tea bowls, vases, ewers, jars, and chargers fashioned from stoneware and porcelain (invented by the Chinese), with every type of decoration mastered by skilled potters. The exhibit will feature a scholar’s table featuring items an ancient Chinese scholar might have used for writing poems, creating calligraphic works of art, or completing a state exam. Perhaps the most enticing object on the table would be a scholar’s rock to inspire and aid an imaginary walk into the mountains. Several elaborately embroidered and woven garments will represent court dress for both men and women, and a female ancestor portrait will illustrate how some of these elements were worn. For sheer drama, there
is a nineteenth century diorama of the Peking opera flanked by curtains from the opera stage. Hard stone and jade objects in the collection include a spectacular jade burial suit from the Han Dynasty, which was created to enclose the entire body of a deceased noble woman. It consists of more than two thousand small jade plaques fastened together with gold wire. Jade was thought to prevent decomposition of the body. On a smaller scale, but no less impressive, are jade snuff bottles and others from different materials and employing various techniques. All have a distinguished provenance from Beverly Hall’s father, Gerry P. Mack, an undisputed early collector in that field. While the Billings collection concentrates on China, there are additional masterpieces from India, Burma, Tibet, Korea, and Japan, examples of which will be included in the exhibition. Many of these items come to the fore in the exhibition section focusing on Buddhism, including Tibetan ritual items, a Japanese household shrine and silk brocade priest’s robe, and a large carved seated figure in wood representing Guanyin, the Buddhist Bodhisattva of Infinite Mercy, dating from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644). This figure is said to have been brought to Nantucket in the nineteenth century by a local sea captain. It then descended in his family until acquired for the Billings Collection. Asian Treasures from the Billings Collection presents an extraordinary opportunity to explore 6,000 years of Asian art. OPENING MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND Whaling Museum, McCausland Gallery Opposite page, clockwise from top left: throne screen finials (Qing Dynasty); lady’s vest (Quing Dynasty); roof tile (Ming Dynasty); oxblood vase (Qing Dynasty); female ancestor portrait (Qing Dynasty); dancer (Eastern Han Dynasty); jade burial suit (Han Dynasty).
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Island People Portraits and Stories from Nantucket
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The NHA’s collections contain hundreds of painted portraits and thousands of studio photographs representing people from the island’s past. When you think of painted portraits of Nantucketers, does your mind’s eye imagine stiffly seated sea captains, dressed in sober suits with spyglasses in their hands and little ships sailing across the background? Or men of business in equally sober suits paired with their fashionably dressed wives—canvases seemingly plucked from a large formal parlor? The NHA’s collections certainly contain such images. The museum holds more than one hundred painted portraits of sea captains alone, so many that a visitor to the Whaling Museum in the 1950s complained that they all looked alike, and maybe the curators should put a few back into storage. Well, as regular readers of Historic Nantucket will know, Nantucket history is much more than white whaling captains and wealthy merchant families. It is much more than even just whaling, in fact. The images on these pages represent a selection from the more than one hundred islander likenesses that will be featured this spring in the new exhibition Island People: Portraits and Stories from Nantucket, opening April 22 in the Williams Forsyth Gallery at the Whaling Museum. The exhibition will draw from the NHA’s collections of painted, photographic, and silhouette portraits to highlight both famous and lesser known Nantucketers whose life stories intersect with the themes and currents of the island’s history. 6 Historic Nantucket | Spring 2022
EXHIBITIONS
“The images on these pages represent a selection from the more than one hundred islander likenesses that will be featured this spring in the new exhibition.”
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The painting collection begins with the circa 1720 portrait of Mary Gardner Coffin (1670–1767), for whom the Oldest House was built about 1686 [1]. No earlier portrait of a Nantucketer is known, not of any earlier Anglo-American resident nor of any of the Native Wampanoags who lived on island for centuries preceding the English settlement. The island prior to the American Revolution was remote and rural with an economy too small to nourish its own fine-arts traditions. Even as the island’s trade expanded internationally from 1750 on, the increasing cultural dominance of Quakerism, with its doctrine of simplicity, limited the development of a taste for the arts in all their forms, and those island citizens of means who sought finer things had to seek them in mainland cities or abroad. The portraits of mariners Sampson Dyer [2] and Jonathan Colesworthy Jr. [3] bear this out. Dyer (1773– 1843), a son of mixed African and Wampanoag parentage, traveled more than once to China on Nantucket trading voyages. Like many American traders, including other Nantucketers, he hired the Cantonese artist
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Spoilum to paint his portrait in 1802. Colesworthy (1772–1849) commanded the Lady Adams of Nantucket on voyages to Calcutta in 1805 and the Mediterranean in 1807, and somewhere along the way sat for the Dutch painter Charles Delin. Delin’s picture captures a typical Nantucket sea captain: young and sunburnt. As Quakerism fragmented into sects after the War of 1812 and the whale fishery regained its footing, a greater taste for the decorative arts took hold on Nantucket. A few native-born painters are known from this time, including Hannah Macy, who painted Judith Folger Macy (1729–1819) in the last year of her life [4, in a copy by W. Ferdinand Macy]. Judith Macy married young, soon lost her first husband to illness, remarried, then bore ten children over a twenty-year span. Her son Obed, the
OPENING APRIL 22 Whaling Museum, Williams Forsyth Gallery
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EXHIBITIONS
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island merchant and historian, described his mother as “generally healthy and of a strong constitution & remarkably industrious.” A surviving daybook she started in her fifties bears this out. This portrait also illustrates Obed’s further remark that “the last 15 years of her life was mostly spent in knitting & reading the Bible & other religious books.” The small portrait of merchant George F. Coggeshall (1804–1868) [5] was probably the largest image he could afford when he was in his thirties, hinting at the fact that the island’s whaling prosperity did not reach uniformly into all corners of island life. Coggeshall was keeper of Great Point Lighthouse later in life, and with his family rescued the crew of a wrecked schooner on Great Point in 1865. Captain James A. Beebe’s successful whaling career allowed him to afford an ample portrait of his wife, Lydia (1838–1910), and their daughter Alice, in 1874 [6]. Lydia sailed with John on two whaling voyages between
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1863 and 1869, one of an increasing number of captain’s wives who took to the sea beginning in the 1820s. Early photography opened up portrait making to a wider swath of the island population. It is thanks to the camera that we have images of working-class islanders beginning in the 1850s. Dorcas Honorable (ca. 1775–1855) [7] found work as a domestic but lived in poverty at the end of her life. Her image, originally a daguerreotype but reproduced here in a carte de visite meant to be collected, is one of the precious few we have showing a Nantucket Wampanoag person in the nineteenth century. A carpenter whose name we have not yet discovered [8] poses proudly with selected tools of his trade. If sea captains could have their spyglasses in their portraits, why shouldn’t carpenters have their tools? The image of Hannah Gardner (1788–1867) [9] is based on a photograph, which her seafaring husband handed to a painter in Hong Kong to copy in about 1885. Hannah was born in Dunkirk, France, when Nantucket families
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worked to set up a whaling industry there. She returned to Nantucket as a girl, married a sailor, and raised eleven children. She and her husband, devout Quakers, are best remembered today for their bravery in hiding Arthur and Mary Cooper and their children from slave-hunters in 1822. This exceptional tintype [10] is one of the most arresting portrait photographs in the NHA collection. Photographic portraits of nineteenth-century Black Nantucketers are rare, and none are as striking as the likeness of this distinguished man gazing self-assuredly at the camera, his hands clasping his cane and his earrings glinting in the light.
The scene of retired whaling captain John Pitman and his wife Phebe Folger Pitman in their ’Sconset parlor [11], the work of visiting artist George Newell Bowers in 1889, conjures an atmosphere of retired bliss after 64 years of marriage. She weaves and he reads the paper, quintessential activities of a quiet life in a rural village— and the very image of quaint Nantucket that was a major selling point of the island as a summer destination in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
OPENING APRIL 22 Whaling Museum, Williams Forsyth Gallery
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EXHIBITIONS
The Robert and Nina Hellman Collection The late Robert “Bob” Hellman, an esteemed friend and colleague of the NHA, was well known as an avid collector of whalecraft and other artifacts from the whale fishery. Throughout his life, he devoted considerable time to gathering and studying the tools used to hunt and process whales. His careful scholarship allowed him to trace tools back to specific makers and, often, to the ships where the tools had seen use. Bob’s collection was unique both for the quantity and quality of its artifacts and for Bob’s meticulously detailed research notes and hand-drawn illustrations. The NHA collected significant items from his and his wife Nina’s collections in 2016 and 2019, including many of his research materials. This winter, the NHA has installed in the Whaling Museum a selection of artifacts from the Robert and Nina Hellman Collection. These new displays focus on harpoons and lances and the central role these tools played in the success of the whale fishery. For as long as people have hunted whales, harpoon makers have attempted to develop more effective designs. During the era when Nantucketers hunted whales, three distinct forms were regularly produced: the single flue, the double flue, and the “toggle iron” where the harpoon head opened up under tension and became incredibly difficult to pull free. Unlike harpoons, lance designs remained relatively unchanged throughout the era of whaling in wooden ships. They are essentially giant needles designed to pierce through thick whale blubber and damage the vulnerable heart and lungs. By the twentieth century, these traditional hand-wielded tools had been replaced by gun-fired harpoons and exploding bomb lances. The NHA’s new displays explore the disastrous effect such innovations had on world whale populations, and show how the tools now used to disentangle modern whales from fishing gear are, ironically, curiously close in design and use to the harpoons of old.
Left: Bow-mounted swivel gun for whaling. Above: Single-flue harpoon, double-flue harpoon, and toggle harpoon.
NOW OPEN: Whaling Museum, Gosnell Hall and Candle Factory
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EXHIBITIONS
Cape Verde in Our Soul This spring, the NHA presents Cape Verde in Our Soul, an exhibition that expands upon our 2021 display Shoulder on Which We Stand, which explored the Cape Verde–Nantucket connection. This year’s presentation will feature historic photos, mementos, and a mini-theater presenting short films based on recently conducted oral histories from Nantucket’s Cape Verde community. The Cape Verde archipelago off the coast of Senegal has a long history and a long association with Nantucket. It was once a major hub of the transatlantic slave trade, which contributed to its mixed European and African heritage. Cape Verdeans and Nantucketers first laid eyes on each other during the whaling days of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Whaling ships from America stopped at the Cape Verde islands for supplies and, very often, to augment their crews. Surviving crew lists document this common practice. A fraction of those crewmen found their way back to Nantucket and became part of the Nantucket community. However, the most significant “diaspora” of Cape Verdeans arriving on Nantucket occurred in the early twentieth century when Cape Verdean immigrants looking for better lives arrived in New Bedford and were drawn to Nantucket to work in the large-scale commercial cranberry bogs. As they became established, Cape Verdeans found homes close to Nantucket’s waterfront and in the vicinity of Five Corners. They were a community of hard-working, industrious people, soon looking beyond the bogs and taking on all manner of employment, some eventually starting their own businesses. Their Cape Verdean traditions taught them to offer help to anyone in need within and beyond their families and neighborhood. Music, celebration, and keeping a large pot of jagacida on the stove to feed all who dropped by were characteristic of their heritage. Despite their generous nature, Cape Verdean Nantucketers experienced discrimination, both subtle and explicit, based on their skin color and foreign origin.
Mary Viera-Nichols Roderick and Joseph Roderick and their four oldest children, ca. 1920s. SC139.
OPENING JUNE 18 Whaling Museum, Williams Forsyth Gallery
While diminished in numbers from early days, the Nantucket Cape Verdean community today is made up of significant contributors to education, health care, service to the community, government, business, trades, music, and cuisine, assuring that anyone in their expanded spheres are well fed. They are a microcosm of the best of Nantucket’s community spirit, subtly proud of their Cape Verde heritage. The NHA looks forward to presenting their stories in our galleries. NHA.org | Nantucket Historical Association
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EXHIBITIONS
Weaving Nantucket’s Past into Its Future: The Craft Continues The baskets illustrated here will be included in the summer 2022 Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum exhibition at Hadwen House. Look for them and many other finely made island baskets when the exhibition reopens.
This nest of three baskets was made by Rowland Folger (1803–1883), who is among the earliest documented makers of Nantucket’s distinctive baskets. Gift of Samuel Shipley (A2012.2.1-.3).
OPENING MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND Hadwen House
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Karol M. Lindquist is a leading basket weaver on island today. This seven-inch sewing basket has a burled maple base inside and handles shaped from whale ivory. It was inspired by a nineteenth-century basket of similar construction, where a second smaller basket was woven to serve as a pedestal or foot for the main basket. Gift of the Traditional Lightship Basket School (A2007.10.1).
This small basket made of oak splints was produced toward the end of the nineteenth century. Baskets like this one were made in great numbers by members of the Mashpee and Aquinnah Wampanoag communities and found extensive use throughout the Cape and Islands region in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Gift of John DeCiccio (A2013.2.1).
This finely made Nantucket basket is the work of John A. Paige (1886–1939). He came to Nantucket in 1914 to serve at the Madaket Life-saving Station and was later a member of the newly-formed Coast Guard. He met and married local woman Mary Vincent in 1917, and they moved to Provincetown in 1920. He probably learned basket weaving from his life-saving and Coast Guard compatriots. Gift of the Estate of Sarah A. Ingram Trust (A2019.4.3). This basket by William D. Appleton (1851–1918) is in the form often called a sewing basket, although at only six-inches across, it is a small and particularly decorative example. The double-heart shaped handles are very fine. Appleton most likely learned basket weaving while a crew member on the South Shoal Lightship in the 1880s. Lent by Phillip Carpenter (L813.8).
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DIGITIZATION UPDATE Research Library
The Research Library team is hard at work digitizing and transcribing the NHA’s collections. Since December, they have digitized 16,000 pages of more than 2,000 items, all of which are now available to researchers online through the NHA’s collections catalog (nantuckethistory.org). Digitization and transcription of the NHA’s collections is made possible thanks to a visionary gift from Connie and Tom Cigarran.
With 1,500 items documenting more than 250 vessels, the Ships’ Papers Collection (MS15) includes crew lists, correspondence, receipts, and more. All documenting the maritime history of Nantucket, the materials found in this collection provide an important supplement to the logbook collection, also available online, and are a window into how the whaling economy operated and who participated in it. This 1829 shipping paper for the ship Enterprise lists noted African American Nantucketer Captain Absalom Boston as the witness for multiple crew members. MS15 Folder 54 Item 4.
Grace Brown Gardner was a beloved island historian who spent thousands of hours compiling more than seventy scrapbooks on Nantucket history. Consisting mostly of newspaper clippings, Gardner’s scrapbooks are arranged topically and were considered a must-consult resource for Nantucket researchers for more than fifty years. They are now available online and keyword searchable as part of the Grace Brown Gardner Papers (MS57). Scrapbook 1 contains clippings related to Nantucket Churches. Gift of Grace Brown Gardner. MS57 Scrapbook 1.
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ON THE LOOKOUT FOR ADVENTURE? Follow along on whaling voyages from the comfort of your own home! The NHA is looking for volunteers to help transcribe the whaling journals in its collection. If you are interested in volunteering, please email Ashley Miller, Assistant Archivist, at amiller@nha.org.
Take a look inside the whaling logbook of the ship Edward Cary, flip the page!
The NHA has several collections of ephemera, the small and transient documents of everyday life, are a treasure trove of visual and material insight into an array of Nantucket businesses, civic organizations, and more. Two such collections, Nantucket Lodging and Eating Establishments Ephemera Collection (MS236) and Nantucket Businesses Ephemera Collection (MS467) are now available online. Highlights include late-nineteenth-century hotel registers, boat basin reservation forms, restaurant guides and menus, and hotel and business brochures, such as the one depicted here. This undated brochure from the Nantucket Kiteman highlights delta-shaped kites handmade on Nantucket. MS467 Folder 26 Item 3.
The NHA’s photographic collections span nearly 400 feet and date from 1845 through to the present day. Within the photographic collections is the Cased Photographs Collection (PH169), made up of cased ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, tintypes, and other early photographic formats. The portraits in this collection are often the only photographic documentation of Nantucket’s whaling elite, particularly during the industry’s waning years between the Great Fire of 1846 and the last whaleship’s departure in 1869. The collection also contains the only known photograph of Nantucket before the Great Fire: an 1845 daguerreotype depicting Main Street, pictured here. Main Street (Nantucket, Mass.), circa 1845. PH169 C225.
In 1917, nineteen-year-old F. Chester Adams (1898–1979) of Pittsfield, N.H., took a three-month summer job as a bellhop at Nantucket’s Sea Cliff Inn. He wrote regularly to his mother, sending descriptions of his work, impressions of the island, photographs of his friends, and requests for personal items he found he needed. (He also sent her his laundry to wash and return.) The F. Chester Adams Letters (MS545) has been digitized and transcribed, along with a number of other smaller collections of letters. Postcard from F. Chester Adams, who worked at the Sea Cliff Inn in 1917, to his mother in Pittsfield, N.H. Gift of Carl Anderson. MS545 Folder 1 Item 1.
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NEWS, NOTES & HIGHLIGHTS Programs
Interpretive Programming Returns to the Whaling Museum Daily, in-person, interpretive programming has returned to the Whaling Museum after a hiatus during the pandemic. Interpretive programming includes The Essex Gam, which retells the tragedy of the whaleship Essex, stove by a whale in 1820 in the Pacific Ocean, and The Hunt, exploring what it was like to live aboard a whaleship and hunt for whales in the 19th century. Generously supported by The Perkin Fund.
Properties
Property Investment Project This winter, the NHA began projects to make significant investments in its portfolio of Historic Properties and other facilities over two years with the support of grant funding and its donors. Core to the NHA’s mission and consistent with objectives in its strategic plan, it includes investments that will enhance the portfolio’s attractiveness, safety, security, access, and ease of use. Several projects that began in January include the replacement of the Whaling Museum’s Candle Factory roof with slate and installation of a new interior handicap lift; new fencing at the Thomas Macy House; exterior restoration of masonry and windows; sewer updates at the Research Library and Quaker Meeting House, and security/fire protection and sewer updates at the Hadwen House.
Left: The new slate roof of the Whaling Museum's Candle Factory. Right: The crew of James Lydon Sons & Daughters after completion of the project.
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Rendering of new ADA lift being installed in the Candle Factory.
Program
Group of youth weavers taking a class this past February.
Youth Weaving It’s never too early to learn the craft of basket weaving and begin a lifelong practice. Creating a Nantucket Lightship basket by hand is a thrill, and “through the eyes of a child,” it is even more exciting.
Program
History Makers History Makers is a new series of exploratory offerings where the NHA collections and the hands-on making experience meet, launching this spring! Nantucket’s long tradition in the art culture has served as a backbone to the island economy, both in fine art and the craft sector. Many of these objects are so familiar to island life, yet we may not have a real connection to their origin and significance.
Here on Nantucket, under the auspices of the NHA in affiliation with the Nantucket Lightship Basket Museum, the youth weaving program is alive and well. New weavers begin with a basic basket. After their first weaving session, students move on with another basket, learning new skills with each weaving session. The small class size allows for hands-on instruction for each student. Learning to make things by hand is important for the youth in our digital world, as well as gaining a deeper understanding of this cherished Nantucket craft. Students sign their completed basket with a sense of accomplishment, making it uniquely theirs. Generously supported by The Nantucket Golf Club Foundation.
In this series, students will visit the NHA’s Gosnold Collections Center to view firsthand objects and participate in lecture demonstrations and hands-on workshop sessions in the art of making a similar object. NHA.org | Nantucket Historical Association
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FACES OF THE NHA Meet the new faces and staff in new roles here at the NHA
Meghan Luksic, Collections Manager Meghan comes to Nantucket from the D.C. area, where she worked for SEARCH, Inc., a cultural resources management firm, for nearly a decade. Through her work with SEARCH, Meghan worked extensively with the Naval History and Heritage Command in support of the US Navy’s artifact collection. She has a B.A. in Art History and Museum Studies from Randolph College and attended Preservation Institute: Nantucket in 2011. In her spare time, she loves taking walks with her dog, Taco.
Ashley Miller, Assistant Archivist Ashley, a Georgia native, received a Master’s in Library and Information Science from San Jose State University in 2017. She came to Nantucket for the first time in 2019 as an Archives Intern and gained hands-on experience in processing archival collections and providing reference service to staff, researchers, and the general public. After working as a Processing Assistant at the University of Georgia's Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, she has eagerly returned to the NHA.
Colin Sears, Finance Manger Born in California, Colin spent much of his young life in London, UK. From there, he went to upstate New York where he majored in biology and French studies at Cornell University. He has worked for the Nantucket Historical Association for several summers as an interpreter, giving tours in the museum and at the historical sites. He particularly enjoyed giving walking tours, allowing him to talk about Nantucket’s history with visitors from all over the country (and world)! Now living full-time on Nantucket, he started transitioning into his role as finance manager in August of 2021.
Bill Mogensen, Maintenance Assistant Bill has called Nantucket his home since the mid-1990s. He is extremely happy to join the NHA family. Prior to joining the team, Bill owned and operated his own landscaping business since 1998. He worked as a cook and/or bartender in too many of the island's fantastic restaurants to keep count and has worked as a teacher of horticulture at Nantucket High School. In addition to his vocational efforts Bill has been known to take part in Nantucket's cutting-edge theater scene from time to time. Lastly, and of most importance, Bill is the proud husband of Berta Scott and equally proud father of Anya and Levi Mogensen.
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Ben Zieff, Special Events Manager Ben received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. At Skidmore, Ben was a member of the Men’s Soccer program. Since graduation, he has lived in Bend, Oregon, and Crested Butte, Colorado, following his love of skiing and travel. In Crested Butte, he worked in the guest’s services department at the Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum.
1894 Founders Society Through this Society, the Board of Trustees recognizes the cumulative giving by individuals who assist with the NHA’s annual operating needs. 1894 Founders Society members contribute $3,000 and up toward the annual fund, membership, and fundraising events, as well as to exhibitions and collections, plus scholarship and educational programs. Their generous support is greatly appreciated and welcomed by the community. $50,000 and above Julie Jensen Bryan & Robert Bryan Anne Delaney & Chip Carver Amanda B. Cross Mark H. Gottwald $25,000 to $49,999 Susan Blount & Richard Bard Deborah & Bruce Duncan Kelly Williams & Andrew Forsyth William A. Furman Barbara & Graham Goldsmith Victoria McManus & John McDermott Diane & Britt Newhouse Ella W. Prichard Laura & Bob Reynolds Helen & Chuck Schwab Melinda & Paul Sullivan $10,000 to $24,999 Nancy & Douglas Abbey Elizabeth & Lee Ainslie Gale H. Arnold Patricia Nilles & Hunter Boll Cornelius C. Bond Maureen & Edward Bousa Anne Marie & Doug Bratton Christy & Bill Camp Anita & Delos Cosgrove Mary Jane & Glenn Creamer John M. DeCiccio Robert Ebert Tracy & John Flannery Annabelle & Gregory Fowlkes Susanne & Zenas Hutcheson Cecelia Joyce Johnson Diane Pitt & Mitch Karlin Diane & Art Kelly
Jean Doyen de Montaillou & Michael Kovner Margaret Hallowell & Stephen Langer Paula & Bruce Lilly Sharon & Frank Lorenzo Bonnie & Peter McCausland Ashley & Jeffrey McDermott Ashley Gosnell Mody & Darshan Mody Mary & Al Novisssimo Margaret & John Ruttenberg Catherine Ebert & Karl Saberg Denise & Andrew Saul Janet & Rick Sherlund Georgia Snell Kathleen & Robert Stansky Harriet & Warren Stephens Merrielou & Ned† Symes Jason A. Tilroe Louise E. Turner Kim & Finn Wentworth Paul E. Willer Alisa & Alastair Wood $5,000 to $9,999 Anonymous Patricia & Thomas Anathan Mary-Randolph Ballinger Peter A. Barresi Deborah C. Belichick Jody & Brian Berger Donald A. Burns Meredith & Gene Clapp Beth A. Dempsey Elizabeth Miller & James Dinan Barbara & Robert Friedman Suzanne & David Frisbie Karyn M. Frist Julia & Cam Gammill
Robert I. Gease Nan & Chuck† Geschke Claire & Robert Greenspon Gordon Gund Amy & Brett Harsch Barbara & Amos Hostetter Wendy Hubbell Joy H. Ingham Carl Jelleme Cynthia & Evan Jones Jill & Stephen Karp Carolyn B. Kelly Anne & Todd Knutson Coco & Arie Kopelman Hellen & Will Little Debra & Vincent Maffeo Holly & Mark Maisto Ronay & Richard Menschel Franci Neely Carter & Chris Norton Liz & Jeff Peek Gary McBournie & William Richards Sharon & Frank Robinson Linda T. Saligman Mary G. Farland & J. Donald Shockey Kate Lubin & Glendon Sutton Ann & Peter Taylor Phoebe & Bobby Tudor Liz & Geoff Verney Susan W. Weatherley Leslie Forbes & David Worth Kirsten & Peter Zaffino Carlyn & Jon Zehner
$3,000 to $4,999 Susan D. Akers Lindsey & Merrick Axel Janet & Sam Bailey Carol & Harold Baxter Pam & Max Berry Susan & Bill Boardman Laura & Bill Buck Olivia & Felix Charney Jenny & Wylie Collins Kim & Alan Hartman Catherine & Richard Herbst Wendy & Randy Hudson Mary Ann & Paul Judy Alison & Owen King Helen Lynch Alice & J. Thomas Macy Mr. & Mrs. Peter def. Millard Laura & William Paulsen Candace Platt Ann & Chris Quick Maria & George Roach Janet L. Robinson Nancy & John Romankiewicz Erin & Joe Saluti Alison & Thomas Schneider Brooke & Michael Stanton Judith C. Tolsdorf Joe Olson & Clay Twombly This list represents donations from January–December 2021. † deceased
To learn more or become a member of the Society, call (508) 228-1894 ext. 122 or email giving@nha.org
NHA.org | Nantucket Historical Association
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NHA Decorative Arts Take a decorative arts class inspired by Nantucket History! Get creative and enjoy a hands-on experience at one of the NHA’s historic properties.
Sign up for a workshop today at NHA.org! Looking for a unique experience to do with your family and friends? Book a private workshop by emailing decoarts@nha.org
The Museum Shop Is Open! Members receive 10% off every purchase, and shop online at NantucketMuseumShop.org
PASSION AND PURSU
N A ND PURSUIT PA SSIOCO LLE CT ION TH E BIL LIN GS
of es the vision and passion This stunning book celebrat meticulously Hall Billings. Through David Billings and Beverly opportunity it offers an extraordinary detailed descriptions, over made s ge of these creation to expand our knowled h the throughout Asia. Althoug thousands of years ago al on China, there are addition collection concentrates Korea Burma, Cambodia, Tibet, masterpieces from India, and Japan.
Passion and Pursuit The Billings Collection
aries we become the benefici While viewing these pages, in collecting ment and dedication of the Billings’ commit treasures. so many noteworthy nd the complex understa to need we Now, more than ever, ly is thoroughly and stunning history and culture which d in Passion and Pursuit: documented and illustrate The Billings Collection.
CTI ON IT TH E BIL LIN GS CO LLE S COLL
EC
T HE
BI
ING
This stunning book celebrates the Billing's vision and passion. Through meticulously researched, detailed descriptions and context of their collection, it offers an extraordinary opportunity to expand our knowledge of these creations made over thousands of years ago throughout Asia.
ON TI
LL
By David Billings and Beverly Hall Billings
NA
NTUCKE
T
David Billings Beverly Hall Billings
Finial Gilt and Kingfisher Feather Page 328, Figure 588
MING PRESS
Shop NHA Exclusives
Hand-Printed Letterpress Card Set
Suzanne Dietsch Sailor’s Valentine Kit, Style 101
Hydrangea Lightship Basket Box
P.O. BOX 1016, NANTUCKET, MA 02554–1016
Garden Party, Sunday, July 24 Including an online auction featuring one-of-a-kind basket-related items!
Learn more at NHA.org
PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT NANTUCKET, MA AND ADDITIONAL ENTRY OFFICES
