Conserving the Cased Photograph Collection

The NHA holds a significant collection of early photographs, 276 cased daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes. Dating from 1845 to the mid-1870s, the images in the collection are often the only photographic documentation of the island’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. Many of the individuals depicted in these portraits are identified and in conjunction with the NHA’s extensive genealogical resources, can be linked to specific individuals and stories from Nantucket’s past.

Building off of a 2018 National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistance Grant for Smaller Institutions, the NHA recently conserved 19 cased photographs (13 daguerreotypes, 6 ambrotypes). Senior Photograph Conservator Monique Fischer completed the treatment at the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Mass. Daguerreotypes are generally considered to be the first fully successful and practicable photographic process. Commonly in use from 1839 to the late 1850s, they were made using a copper plate coated in silver. The image was captured directly on the plate (“direct positive”), so images are laterally reversed, as in a mirror image. The primary conservation concern with the NHA’s daguerreotypes is the deteriorating cover glass, which has created spotting on a number of images. This is the result of the glass exuding an alkaline liquid that appears opaque, and, if untreated, may chemically attach the daguerreotype, pitting the silver, and exposing the copper beneath. Treatment for these objects included replacing the original glass (which was retained) with more stable borosilicate glass.

Ambrotypes, most popular in the mid-1850s, were commonly available from 1852 until 1881. These were made by sensitizing a plate of glass using the wet plate collodion emulsion process. The image captured on the glass is a negative. To make it appear as a positive image, the plate was backed with a black material. Like daguerreotypes, the image captured was mirrored, but ambrotypes could correct for this by flipping the plate over (emulsion side down) to apply black backing. The conservation concern with the NHA’s ambrotypes is flaking of the black backing layer and collodion, which was consolidated during the treatment process.

Due to the fragile nature of the cased photographs, the collection was digitized in 2022, with support from Connie and Tom Cigarran. As part of the digitization process, catalog records were updated to reflect current metadata standards and best practices, with the ultimate goal of increased discoverability of the collection. Future plans include improved housing for the collection and further conservation on the most at-risk images.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this update do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Research Library Undergoing Major Restoration Project Pending Town Approval

Starting this spring, the NHA will be conducting a major restoration project at the Research Library, located at 7 Fair Street, funded by the Nantucket Community Preservation Committee (CPC), pending approval at the next Town Meeting. The Research Library and adjacent Friends Meeting House will close to visitors for the season in early April in preparation for this potential project.

The project will include conservation and stabilization of the historic concrete façade to ensure the building is structurally sound, as well as replacement of windows, doors, and entryway roof, installation of a new HVAC control system, fire suppression system, and water and drainage system, as well as some electrical relocation work. All while ensuring the restoration work is physically compatible with this important historic building and guaranteeing the conservation and security of the collection housed within the building.

The Research Library is significant in the history of the development of reinforced concrete and was one of the first poured-in-place concrete structures built in the United States in 1904 to house the NHA’s collection in a fireproof building.

Just three years after its inception, the NHA recognized the need for safe storage of the treasures in its care. Recording secretary Mary E. Starbuck wrote in her 1897 report: “More than anything, we need a fireproof building. We have land enough at the rear of the Meeting-house for a brick extension of sufficient size for our purposes, and when we have such an addition, many valuable relics will come back to the island.”

In 1897, the association made a pivotal decision. Rather than buying and “fitting up” a whaleship, an idea that was briefly considered but deemed too expensive, it was voted that the fund accumulating for that purpose be convert- ed to a fund for “the most pressing need of the Association — the erection of a fire-proof building.” Instead of brick, concrete was chosen as the building material by architect George W. Watson of Boston. As an early adapter of this building technology, the Research Library is the second reinforced concrete structure in the State of Massachusetts (after Harvard Stadium) and the first reinforced concrete structure in Massachusetts, if not the United States, with a flat roof.

The collection of artifacts and documents that had been growing for ten years was moved from the Friends Meeting House to the new fireproof building in 1905. The fireproof building was for years known as the Fair Street Museum, the primary exhibition space of the association, with collections arranged in a “cabinet of curiosities” style on both floors of the building. The Fair Street Museum was the heart of the NHA, overflowing with everything from projectile points to whaling logbooks, along with larger items like furniture and firehose carts. As the association expanded its properties in the twentieth century, which created additional exhibition and storage spaces, the aging fireproof building sat ripe for a new use that honored the aspirations of the founders of the NHA.

What better place for a library and research center than a fireproof building? Therefore, it was retrofitted, restored, and enlarged in 2001 for irreplaceable primary-source documents, including logbooks, account books, family papers, maps, journals, business records, and photographs that record the history of Nantucket to be housed in a climate-controlled space.

Today, the building serves as a research center for historians, students, journalists, homeowners searching for information about their Nantucket houses, genealogists filling in the branches of their family trees, and more!

Special thanks to the Nantucket Community Preservation Committee (CPC) for their continued support and generosity over the years, most recently supporting projects including the exterior and interior rehabilitation of the Thomas Macy Warehouse and the Whaling Museum’s Hadwen & Barney Oil and Candle Factory.

Includes excerpts from the Nantucket Historical Association Properties Guide, Quaker Meeting House/Research Library by Betsy Tyler, 2015.

Notice

The Research Library and Friends Meeting House will be closed to the public from April through November 2023. Throughout this closure, Research Library staff will still be responding to inquiries at library@nha.org and accommodating research appointments on a case-by-case basis.

To learn more about the history of the Research Library, please visit www.NHA.org

Verney Fellowship Research Update

Kayci Merritte’s research trips to the NHA’s Research Library focused on recovering narratives from the archive about Black people as they were found in spaces ranging from the historic whaleship to the still-forming spaces of tourism on Nantucket. Her research was informed by a variety of materials, including personal letters, newspaper clippings, ships’ logs, postcards, and tourist manuals. This research fits into her broader academic work and teaching focused on notions of Black space and place. Her dissertation for her Ph.D. in Modern Culture and Media at Brown University works within the areas of Black geographies and environmental humanities and analyzes perilous everyday environments and materials.

In an effort to enhance the public’s knowledge and understanding of the heritage of Nantucket, Mass., the NHA offers an annual fellowship, the E. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Thayer Verney Fellowship. Established in 1999, the award encourages research in the collections of the Nantucket Historical Association Research Library and is open to academics, graduate students, and independent scholars.

Applications or inquiries may be sent to Amelia Holmes, NHA Director of Collections & Research Services, at aholmes@nha.org

NHA Launches Climate Change Assessment Project at Historic Properties this Summer

Building from the invigorating Climate Change and Cultural Heritage Symposium the NHA hosted this past December with the National Park Service, we have been fortunate to work with ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) based in Rome, the University of Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation graduate program, and ICR-ICC (Integrated Conservation Resources Inc. and Integrated Conservation Contracting, Inc.). ICR-ICC is a group of architectural conservators who design conservation programs for historic buildings, monuments, and sites. Glenn Boornazian started this company in 1987, but before that, Glenn worked for the NHA and oversaw the maintenance and repair of our structures.

After many discussions, an exciting multiyear project is being developed to host a group of UPenn student interns to spend ten weeks on the island this summer to evaluate the NHA’s properties. The interns will be led by Glenn and Dr. Rohit Jigyasu, an international expert and project manager at ICCROM, specializing in risk management related to disasters and climate change at cultural heritage sites. The student interns will also work with local environmental experts to understand the risks to the Nantucket environment. In addition, we will conduct reviews of each of our properties to create Conservation Management Plans (CMPs). These plans would include a resilience review of our properties by assessing the risks of disasters and climate change and integrating the results into the CMPs. This would position the NHA in a leadership role on this subject, particularly as it relates to historic structural and building materials. In addition, ICR-ICC will also provide support to prioritize our specific building issues, including those unrelated to disasters and climate change, and develop coordinated implementation plans with associated budgets. These plans would include our own immediate priorities and those we uncover as we implement the conservation management plans for our properties, which will explore any risks from their surrounding context.

The project will then continue through the fall and winter as we install weather stations and monitors to collect data at each property, to be incorporated through software with overarching climate trends to help guide the site work for the following year. The NHA is thrilled about this collaboration with ICCROM, UPenn, and ICR-ICC to develop more data to help design and implement programs to protect historic properties, provide resources to others on Nantucket, and reach out to other communities that find themselves facing similar losses and risks. Stay tuned for more information as this project launches this summer!