Administrator's Report

6

Miss Hanna Monaghan willed us her home "Greater Light" on Howard Street to be used as a museum. Plans for accepting and operating this are being considered.

Two rather sizable gifts have been received to make possible some "digs" by both professional and amateur archaeologists and two such programs are being planned for the summer. One will be under the charge of the Committee Chairman, Mr. Paul C. Morris, and the other of Mr. John Gilbert and Rev. Edward B. Anderson.

Plans are being considered for observing the National Conservation week of May 6th and for leading or actively participating in our country's Bicentennial Anniversary. Both are important to our organization but as of this writing, there is nothing more to report.

Col. A. M. Murray and Wesley A. Fordyce have contributed to our volunteer program and have been tremendously helpful in repairing and restoring many valuable artifacts long put aside for need of attention.

A wave of robberies in Historical Museums, especially in the Boston area, has caused us concern lest it spread to Nantucket. Our alarm system and an alert police force give us considerable security but all of us must be constantly vigilant.

Mrs. Harding U. Greene, Chairman of the Fair Street Museum, is working on plans for this exhibit. It will not be regulated to a specific era or type but we have a great many old and valuable items which do not fit into our other exhibits but should be displayed for public information and appreciation.

Through the removal of two small partitions at the Whaling Museum, we have acquired extra space around the admission desk and expect to fill this area with an appropriate exhibit.

Mr. Stackpole's Nantucket pictures and lectures at the Peter Foulger have proven very educational and entertaining and well attended. Also his aid to students and others doing research here and in answering no end of inquiries from away, even from foreign countries, is making a reality of the long-felt need of an expanding educational program.

Leroy H. True