Administrator's Report

13

JANUARY 4, 1972

We have been surprisingly active during the last three months, the reporting of which causes a conflict between the desire to cover all and to keep this report brief. Please call or write me if you wish more information about any of the items I am briefly reporting.

We have received notice that Mrs. George Christian left us her beautiful house and contents on Liberty Street with a trust fund of $50,000. The Council voted to have this open to the public next summer if possible.

Past President George W. Jones was appointed our delegate to the Bay State League and we hope this will make it possible to be in closer touch with the activities of other associations in the state.

An Archeological Department is being organized as part of our program. A great many details must be worked out but there is need and considerable enthusiasm for this.

We had American Whaling on the Chathams Grounds by Rhys Richards printed in paper book form. Copies are obtainable at the Old Town Building office or in the museums for $1.00 plus .25 for tax and mailing.

Our museums stayed open longer this fall and it proved well worthwhile. Also the Whaling and Peter Foulger Museums have been open every Saturday until now. It is possible that we cannot continue this because of low attendance but I think it has been appreciated by many who visited here on a weekend.

Preparations have been made to move our log books and valuable manuscripts from the Whaling Museum to the new vault at the Peter Foulger. Understandably, the people at the Whaling Museum hate to see these old friends leave but they are irreplaceable and the Peter Foulger vault is especially constructed to protect them.

The Friends Meeting House was used every Sunday this past summer for the meetings and on two occasions for weddings. We received a letter of appreciation and a contribution for its use from George A. Selleck in which he noted a sizable increase in attendance over previous summers.

Our Historian, Past President Edouard A. Stackpole, is working on an expanded educational program and has lectured to students in the local schools, the Nantucket Institute and the

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

eighth grade classes from the Mary C. Wheeler and Moses Brown schools, as well as with a number of people doing research in person and by letters.

Our Curator, Miss Dorothy Gardner, has been very busy correcting the master files and straightening out the records pertaining to the transfer from Fair Street to the Peter Foulger Museum.

A practical and economical way to move and arrange for exhibiting the Old Town Clock and Old Printing Press is still among our unsolved problems. Committees have been assigned to study this. Both have historic value but will be very expensive to move and for the press, at least, there seems to be no place to display it.

The need for expensive repairs to the 1800 House is becoming obligatory. In consequence, the Council voted to make the more pressing repairs and to continue this as one of our exhibits since it is so typical of a middle income home during an important era in our history.

We now have a supply of the "Coffin Family," a 575-page hard cover genealogy of that family. It is doubtful if this will be reprinted again so I urge all to secure copies for anticipated grandchildren. The price is $10.50 including tax and mailing.

Unfortunately, we must reshingle the roof of the Old Mill to preserve it but this will be done with fire resistant treated wooden shingles to minimize the objectional picture of newness.

The west side of the Whaling Museum has been recaulked and treated with a waterproof substance; expensive but very important preventive maintenance.

A team from the Museum of Fine Arts took pictures and information in the Whaling Museum. They tell us these will be used as part of a children's program on Channel 2 (Boston) starting on January 13 at 8 p.m.

Notice has been received that we were remembered in the will of Mrs. Laura K. G. Heeker.

Mr. Hugh Chace, in charge of the exhibit of the Old Town Office, tells us that four items predating 1850 are still greatly needed. They are a sail cloth or other floor covering, a box stove, an old safe or strong box and a captain's chair. We hope someone will have one or more of these items and will offer them to us. They would be tax deductible.

Most of the valuable artifacts were transferred from Fair Street to the Peter Foulger Museum but a number of things of interest and some of historic value are left, so it was voted to open Fair Street next summer from 2 to 5 p.m. We are hopeful of finding six volunteers, each to cover this one afternoon a week. Leroy H. True