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Editorial JANUS, THE TRADITIONAL God of the ancients for the first month of the new year, was endowed with two heads, which enabled him to look back to the past as well as to the future. We of the modern world are not so fortunate as Janus, as the inclination is to recapture the past — if we are old — or to regard only the present — if we are young. To review what has happened and ponder on what is to come, perhaps, requires more than two heads in our own times. But we must do so if, for no other reason, we gain a measure of perspective. The Nantucket Historical Association was created so that the preservation of the past may help us along the present road and enable us to plan, in a broad sense, the future. Nantucket, as a community, has been fortunate in having been able to keep the Town protected. Many of its citizens have acquired, either by birth or association, a sense of history, an awareness of the historical importance of Nantucket. This needs constant vigilance — a reassessment of how our community was established and why it is important to maintain its traditions in a rapidly changing world. Only through the logbook of history may we find the true story of what Nantucket has meant to the nation. The evolution of this whaling Town includes its cultural as well as economic identity; its transition from a maritime place to an outstanding resort; its reputation as a place where the atmosphere of the old lingers in the modern setting. And the dangers which threaten both present and future become stronger and more visible as we review the scene. Through its preservation of historic houses and places; with its exhibits of the relics of an exciting past, the Nantucket Historical Association brings out the essence of the Nantucket story. With the opening of its first displays at the Quaker Meeting House on Fair Street in 1895, the Association has kept constantly before the people the fact that the physical evidences of the past are in themselves the true milestones of what we once represented, how we have developed, and what are the qualities we hope to preserve as the true Nantucket traditions. The most recent of our major historical acquisitions — the Nantucket Lightship — is in itself a symbol of respect for the past and * faith in the future. To call for support of the Nantucket Historical Association in its endeavors is, by the same token, to call for the continued maintenance of an Island institution whose life is so closely woven into the life of our community.
—Edouard A. Stackpole
