Recent Accessions

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The Nantucket Historical Association has been the recipient of a number of valuable gifts during recent months which have added to the interesting collections maintained by the Association. The variety of the material adds to the interest and range.

One of the outstanding paintings on display at the Peter Foulger Museum is the Eastman Johnson canvas "Embers," which was loaned by I. Austin Kelly, III, in 1969. In December, 1971, Mr. Kelly made a gift of the painting, and thus it becomes the permanent possession of the Association. When the painting was first acquired from Mr. Kelly it was called Man at a Window, Nantucket," but it is now to be identified as "Embers.' It is a fitting example of the work which the great American artist accomplished during his residence in Nantucket in the last decades of the 19th century.

Mr. Kelly is the thoughtful contributor who, two years ago, presented our Library a first edition of Melville's classic, Moby-

Dick.

From the Nantucket Historical Trust we have received an unusually complete collection of papers from the Family of Captain Paul Pinkham, Jr., who moved from Nantucket to Maine at the turn of the 19'th century. Bills of sale of shares in Nantucket whaleships Hope, Be&vev and Uyiiovi, an account of the of the schooner Codfish, wrecked on Great Point in 1791; insurance policies and deeds, and documents and letters relating to Capt. Paul Pinkham, Sr., first Keeper of Great Point Lighthouse, are included.

A portion of the logbook of the bark So.ct avxcTito, Captain Thaddeus C. Defriez, and a framed photograph of Captain Defriez after he became Judge of the Probate Court, have been received from Mrs. Chauncey Gray, a great-granddaughter ot Captain Defriez.

On display at the Peter Foulger Museum is a collection of whaling craft once owned by the late Aletha Macy. The group was purchased by Mr. H. H. Kynett, of 118 Main Street, Nantucket and Philadelphia, and presented the Association for disnlav at the Peter Foulger Museum. Two native spears from Sumatra were also given by Mr. Kynett, and are on exhibit, also. \s an important addition to our Library, the donor has also presented a first edition of Captain Scammon s The Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast of North America.

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Through the interest of Mrs. Margaret Fawcett Barnes, Cldment Penrose and Howard Gill a large number of photographs relating to old 'Sconset and the famed "Actors' Colony" have been placed in the safekeeping of the Peter Foulger Museum's archives. The photographs include some of the leading theatrical folk of the 1880-1920 period, as well as other professional people of the theatre world whose careers continued well into this century. Such famous actors as Joseph Jefferson, W. H. Thompson, DeWolf Hopper, Digby Bell, Robert Hiiliard, Roy Webb, Vincent Serrano, and that renowned figure of the stage and silver screen, George Fawcett, are in the unusual collection, along with such beloved actresses as Percy Haswell (Mrs. George Fawcett), Mrs. Gilbert, Isabel Irving, Mary Shaw and Bertha Galland. There are also photographs of summer life on the beach, at the Casino, and on the golf course.

A collection of French china is the gift of Miss Esther Gibbs, and dates back to the late 18th century. Mrs. George A. Taylor (Florence Ingall) has enabled us to display several quarterboards of ships and schooners, including the Thomas Hicks, Maine and Abenaki. Mrs. Elizabeth Turner Block has presented a colorful oil painting of Sankaty Light in the 1880's, by the Nantucket artist James Walter Folger. A first edition of Alexander Starbuck's "History of the American Whale Fishery," and one of Scammon's " Marine Mammals," have come to us from Mrs. Irving S. Burnside of Shimmo and New York City. Mrs. Burnside also gave a painting by Elizabeth R. Coffin called "the Sleeping Cat," one of Miss Coffin's few animal paintings.

Robert Waggaman, for many years a member of our Association, is the donor of the original bell which once hung at the old town hall and South School on Orange Street. He also presented a collection of items including a small painting on wood by Wendell Macy; an oil by Dr. Arthur E. Jenks; a framed sampler made by Anna Meader in 1788, and another by Lydia Coffin in 1790; as well as a small wooden box containing three tin cannisters which once held Hyson tea, bearing dates of 181,8 and the name "Lydia Barrett."

F. Stuart Chadwick has made a gift of the painting of Andrew Brooks, Mate of the whaleship Ontario, of Nantucket, who was killed by a mutinous sailor in 1844, while the ship lay at anchor off the South American West Coast. A letter written by Andrew Brooks from the Falkland Islands in 1836 has also been presented by Mr. Alcon Chadwick.

An old stone jug that was once used on board the whaleship Ploughboy, of Nantucket, and was for years in the Samuel Barrett house on the Cliff, is a gift of Walter Barrett. An excellent addition to our Nantucket paintings has been donated by

RECENT ACCESSIONS 35

Theodore Strong. It is a view of Hayden's Salt Water Baths at

Beachside in the 1890's, with the Nantucket Hotel and Brant Point Light in the background. Mr. and Mrs. Marland Rounsville have given us a long-handled cranberry scoop, and the Sherburne Associates donated a regular designed scoop for our Foulger Museum display on cranberry culture.

Another gift from the Nantucket Historical Trust is the logbook of the ship Norman, of Nantucket, Captain Joseph C. Chase, containing entries from October 21, 1851, through September 5, 1854. The Norman returned home on August 4, 1855. The ship was owned by George and Matthew Starbuck, and the log-keeper was Henry Clark. Of great importance to our manuscript collections, and of vital value to our records of the Society of Friends on Nantucket are four slender volumes received from Mrs. Marion D. Stevens, of Lee, New Hampshire. These are the Minutes of Removals from 1813 to 1855; Cash Book from 1814 to 1885; Monthly Meeting of the Sandwich Society held at Nantucket from 1845 through 1885; and a smaller volume with an end date of 1875.

Among articles of interest is a cane-seated chair made on Nantucket in the late 18th century that once belonged to John Coffin Pinkham. It was donated by Mrs. Louise Pinkham Lorimer and Henry S. Pinkham, greaLgreat-grandchildren of John Coffin Pinkham. The chair was brought to the Island through the courtesy of Col. Charles Stone, a member of our Association and a friend of Mr. Pinkham. It is now on display at the Peter Foulger Museum.

From Mr. Bancel LaFarge, of Nantucket, we have received a most unusual collection of shore bird decoys. These came from Tuckernuck, and were originally brought to that Island by Dr. William S. Bigelow. They were patented on October 27, 1874, by Henry Strater, Jr., and William Sohier, both of whom visited Dr. Bigelow and hunted plover and ducks on Tuckernuck. The decoys are of metal and open into two halves which enables them to be carried in "nests" of several at a time. When pressed together to form a whole decoy they are set into the ground by long sticks that resembled small wooden standards still used for flags.