Historic Nantucket
Spring 2011 Volume 61, No. 1
A Publication of the Nantucket Historical Association
75 MAIN STREET:
The
Henry Coffin House
NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Board of Trustees
Historic Nantucket A Publication of the Nantucket Historical Association
Spring 2011
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Vol. 61, No. 1
Janet L. Sherlund, PRESIDENT Kenneth L. Beaugrand, 1ST VICE PRESIDENT
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Hampton S. Lynch Jr., 2ND VICE PRESIDENT Thomas J. Anathan, TREASURER
Henry Coffin: A Portrait BETSY TYLER
William R. Congdon, CLERK
The young whale-oil magnate, horticulturalist, and traveler builds a Main Street mansion.
William J. Boardman Constance Cigarran Franci N. Crane Denis H. Gazaille
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Nancy A. Geschke Whitney A. Gifford
A Legacy in Brick: The Home of Henry Coffin
Georgia Gosnell, TRUSTEE EMERITA Susan Zises Green
MARK AVERY AND ANDY BUCCINO
Nina S. Hellman
The tale of a building from its construction by master builder Christopher Capen in the 1830s to the present restoration.
Kathryn L. Ketelsen FRIENDS OF THE NHA REPRESENTATIVE
Mary D. Malavase
10 Henry Coffin Carlisle’s Attic Museum
Sarah B. Newton Anne S. Obrecht Elizabeth T. Peek Christopher C. Quick
MILES CARLISLE
Laura C. Reynolds
A Nantucket enthusiast creates a private museum and gamming area.
David Ross FRIENDS OF THE NHA REPRESENTATIVE
L. Dennis Shapiro Nancy M. Soderberg
14 The Garden at 75 Main Street
Bette M. Spriggs Jason A. Tilroe
KATHRINA PEARL
EX OFFICIO
Henry Coffin creates one of the first ornamental pleasure gardens on Nantucket.
William J. Tramposch EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Editorial Committee Richard L. Duncan Peter J. Greenhalgh
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Amy Jenness
From the Executive Director WILLIAM J . TRAMPOSCH
Cecil Barron Jensen Robert F. Mooney
18 NHA News Notes
Elizabeth Oldham Nathaniel Philbrick Bette M. Spriggs James Sulzer Ben Simons
ON THE COVER: Henry Coffin Carlisle’s Attic Museum with gamming chairs. Photo by Jeffrey A. Allen.
EDITOR
Elizabeth Oldham COPY EDITOR
Historic Nantucket welcomes articles on any aspect of Nantucket history. Original research; firsthand accounts; reminiscences of island experiences; historic logs, letters, and photographs are examples of materials of interest to our readers.
Eileen Powers/Javatime Design
©2011 by the Nantucket Historical Association
DESIGN AND ART DIRECTION
Historic Nantucket (ISSN 0439-2248) is published by the Nantucket Historical Association, 15 Broad Street, Nantucket, Massachusetts. Periodical postage paid at Nantucket, MA, and additional entry offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Historic Nantucket, P.O. Box 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554 –1016; (508) 228–1894; fax: (508) 228–5618, info@nha.org For information log on to www.nha.org
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Printed in the USA on recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks.
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Of Private Museums and Passionate Collectors
N
ANTUCKET HAS MANY MORE
museums than one would guess. Tucked into attics, parlors, and backyard sheds are more “domestic museums” per capita than anywhere in the country. I am most fortunate to have been invited into many of these “cabinets of curiosities”: Behind one door is a world-class collection of Asian antiquities; behind another, several period rooms appear much as they did in the nineteenth century; and over there is a beguiling collection of twentieth-century Americana. We are an island of collectors. I want to tell you about the attic at 75 Main Street, where I made my first visit several years ago. Miles Carlisle, former owner of 75 Main, is the great-grandson of its builder, Henry Coffin (1807–1900), which makes Miles a ninth-generation descendant of Tristram. You will read all about Henry and his brother Charles in this issue of Historic Nantucket, so I will not dwell on biographical details. Miles and his father are really what this is about. In the 1950s, Miles’s father, Henry Coffin Carlisle, created a museum in the spacious beamed attic. His aim was to recreate the ambience of the great whaling era, on Nantucket and beyond, so he filled the space with half-hull models, flags, harpoons, lances, crew lists, maps, scrimshaw, quilts, etc. In the center of the attic, amidst these scattered treasures, was a round knee-high table, surrounded by seven captain’s chairs. The table was laid with decanters of port and
BILL TRAMPOSCH sherry, glasses, and open books. It felt as if a gam has just ended or another to begin—only that a slight layer of dust appeared on everything in sight. Even in the unpeopled space there was a certain energy coming from the always shimmering motes of dust—those “gay motes that people the sunbeams,” as Milton had it. This attic museum was very moving to me, as it represented one person’s direct connection with the past; a visit there reminded me of how these places called “museums” have usually begun—be it the Peale Museum or Colonial Williamsburg, the Ford Museum or Shelburne. They emerge almost always as the result of passionate people who are driven by fervor fueled by an almost palpable connection they feel for their own past, coupled with an intense need to preserve it for future generations. Remember that the NHA itself began in a similar way, in the West Brick in 1894, when kindred spirits gathered to ensure that “island treasures ” were collected and preserved and remained on island. Henry Coffin Carlisle’s treasures have been preserved because his son Miles donated the entire Attic Museum collection to the NHA, where it is currently being accessioned and catalogued. Miles Carlisle was obviously proud of his father’s attic museum; the historical family collection was not, however, limited to the attic but filled every room
in the house: account books, an original desk, portraits, currency from early Nantucket, and period furniture that made it look as if it had hardly moved since the last time Henry, the builder, sat down. When I first toured 75 Main Street, Miles was thinking about selling it, and was obviously concerned about what would become of this symbolic monument to Nantucket’s past. Miles Carlisle eventually found his kindred spirit in an avid collector and preservationist (and, by the way, a member of the NHA’s board of trustees who wishes to remain anonymous). The new owner of 75 Main has begun a world-class restoration of this architectural and historical treasure and its garden. It has been a pleasure, in fact inspiring, to observe these two men “bond” over their shared love of Nantucket and American history. It is fitting, then, that we dedicate this issue of Historic Nantucket to them and to those who nurtured the passion in them.
WILLIAM J. TRAMPOSCH
Executive Director
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Henry Coffin A Profile BY BETSY TYLER
Henry Coffin by James Hathaway, oil on canvas, circa 1840s. Private collection.
H
ENRY COFFIN (1807–1900) was the youngest child of one of the richest men on Nantucket—Zenas Coffin, a whale-oil magnate. Henry grew up in the house at 9 Pine Street, built by his father around 1812. The large, unadorned dwelling is not one that suggests great wealth, but Zenas and his wife, Abial, were Quakers, and followed that religion’s belief in a subdued aesthetic expression, with clothing, architecture, and furnishings free of ornament and decoration. As the youngest of six children, Henry undoubtedly got a lot of attention, particularly from his three older sisters—Eunice, Lydia, and Mary—who were the firstborn of the family. When he was ten years old, his thirteen-year-old brother Frederick died, and he became even closer to his brother Charles G., who was sixteen. They were business partners, neighbors, and close associates for the rest of their lives. The best local education, in Quaker schools, was available to Henry, who also had the opportunity to study at the Friends School in Providence when he was twelve; but for reasons we do not know, he didn’t stay long. A few years earlier, in a letter to a business friend, Henry’s uncle, Isaac Coffin, referred to his young nephew as “a wild genius.” As an adult, Henry appears to have been somewhat quiet and retiring, at least in comparison to his older brother, but he obviously had a lively intellect that particularly relished the
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physical world. Perhaps he couldn’t sit still, or was homesick, or found no challenge in the Providence school, but he returned to Nantucket and learned the family business. Much of Henry’s real education came from travel. His letters reveal a particularly keen interest in botany and horticulture. On a trip to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1832, Henry noted in a letter home that “trees are set out all through the streets,” and when he visited Europe in 1833, his focus was still trees. In his first letter home from Paris he wrote, “We arrived here last eve at 8 o’clock . . . through a beautiful country & fruit trees full of fruit.” Growing up on a barren island, closecropped by sheep, Henry had a vision for a more verdant environment in his home town, and later in his life he did something about it. He was one of the prime movers of a plan to plant elm trees on Main Street in 1851, and in 1875 he was a partner in the cultivation of 40,000 slips of pine and larch trees imported from Scotland and planted near Miacomet Pond. In 1833, after he returned from Europe, Henry married Eliza Starbuck, daughter of Levi and Elizabeth. Eliza’s father and her brother, Obed, were successful whaling captains, and part of the island “oil aristocracy.” Her first cousins were the Starbuck brothers, who would later in the decade occupy the Three Bricks, but the house Henry built at 75 Main Street preceded those icons. His brother, Charles G., had built the
brick house across the street at 78 Main just a few years Lincoln Circle area, proved a popular location; Surfside did earlier, and Henry’s house was a close copy, except for the not, although it seemed at the time that the potential was addition of an elegant cupola and the use of light granite trim there. Henry, along with his brother Charles G., son Charles F., instead of brownstone. The Coffin brothers’ homes were the and two other local men, formed the Nantucket Surfside Land height of fashion, much different from the house on Pine Company in 1873, and produced a map of the area between Street where they grew up, where Quaker restraint had kept Weweeder Pond and Nobadeer Pond, divided into avenues things simple. A general trend among the elite of the island in and streets dotted with hundreds of house lots. Their the 1820s and ’30s was to build or remodel houses on Main promotion of Surfside helped to speed along the development Street into elegant expressions of a railroad, built in 1881 to of their wealth, and the key connect the town with Surfside, players in that move to Main where first a depot and Street were the sons and restaurant were situated, and daughters of Zenas Coffin and later a hotel, but Coffin’s vision of Joseph Starbuck. a summer-cottage community Not only did Charles and was not shared by those looking Henry build impressive houses for a seasonal retreat on the on Main Street, their three older island. sisters also established With wealth, energy, and a long themselves there. Eunice, the life on his side, the failure of eldest, and her husband, Surfside was not a major setback Thomas Macy, were at 99 Main for Henry, who was one of the Street; Lydia married Matthew largest landowners on the island. Crosby, who built the house at In 1897, he celebrated his 90 Main Street the year she died ninetieth birthday, with eighty 75 Main Street, 1960s, photo by John W. McCalley. P1766. (their four children grew up six-year-old Eliza, five surviving there); and Mary and her children, four grandchildren, husband, Henry Swift, remodeled the house at 91 Main and five great-grandchildren by his side. Three years later, Street. Starbuck cousins lived in the Three Bricks, and at 100 Henry was eulogized in the Inquirer and Mirror: He was distinctly old Nantucket. In every fibre and through Main Street, and later at 96 and 98 Main. All of those families and through. His ancestry on all sides is of and from the first were wealthy, well educated, cultured, and worldly; their settlers of the island. He was born a Quaker, and though in business interests connected them with mainland cities, later life he took no part with the sect, his quiet demeanor, European capitals, and ports and islands around the world. simple habits and abhorrence of war or violence of any kind, One could easily spend months studying the business even in speech, disclosed his Quaker origin. In recent years he papers of Charles G. and Henry Coffin, which take up has been nearly the only link connecting us of the present thirteen linear feet in the vault of the NHA’s Research Library with those of a glorious past. He is the last to go of all that [MS 152]. Described as “relating to shipbuilding, candles, goodly company of Nantucket shipowners who by their ship supplies, various iron companies, whaling, cordage, adventurous spirit and unswerving integrity made our island whale oil, Nantucket Camel Co., and other business known and respected in all the ports of the world. interests,” the collection reveals the intricacies involved in the ownership of a large fleet of whaleships, including the [For more information on Henry Coffin, see Will Gardner’s aptly named Charles and Henry, with a particularly The Coffin Saga: Nantucket’s Story, from Settlement to noteworthy crewmember in 1843: Herman Melville, Summer Visitors (Nantucket: Whaling Museum Publications, harpooner. These letters and other documents are 1949), and the following NHA Research Library manuscript fascinating, but they tell only a part of the story of Henry collections: 152: Business Papers of Charles G. and Henry Coffin, whose legacy includes the stately house on Main Coffin, 1829–62; 334: Coffin Family Papers: Charles G. Coffin Street, six children who lived to adulthood, elms on Main and Henry Coffin Business Papers/Carlisle Collection, 1768– Street and pines in Miacomet, as well as land-development 1890; and 490: Coffin Family Papers: Charles G. Coffin and schemes. Henry Coffin Business Papers/Carlisle Collection II.] As Nantucket moved from a maritime- to a tourism-based economy in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, Henry Betsy Tyler is an NHA Research Fellow and author of twenty-nine moved with the times, purchasing land and designing house and public-buildings histories published by the Nantucket neighborhoods for seasonal homes. Some of his projects Preservation Trust. were more successful than others: Sherburne Bluffs, in the
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The Home of Henry Coffin BY MARK AVERY
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AND
ANDY BUCCINO
The original eight-panel shutters and six-over-six windows were built with lavish attention to detail and remain largely intact; Right: HABS drawing of the window treatment showing the double-hung rolled-glass windows.
I
t has been suggested many times that the history of Nantucket is a direct reflection of the history of America in microcosm. Over the centuries, and through the confluence of circumstances and events, this notion continues to find merit. After the War of 1812, Nantucket, like the United States itself, began to emerge from the more tentative colonial period of the previous century, and as its influence and power in the world grew, a new spirit and confidence arose in the population. This was demonstrated in several key ways: through rapid population and infrastructure growth, a myriad of entrepreneurial business investments, and especially in the construction of public buildings and private homes. New architectural styles began to appear—styles that represented status and symbolism, as well as the practical aspects of the construction. This new consciousness in architecture and engineering date from the time just before the American Revolution, when private homes began to outwardly reflect a new affluence beyond the simple, rational, colonial shelter. The same was true for the grander civic and commercial buildings of this period. A new sense of place emerged, requiring
a new design philosophy and vocabulary that did not simply mimic trends in either the British or Continental monarchies. No longer satisfied with simply copying current European style, the new nation, founded on the ideals of democracy, began to find inspiration in the classical world. The burgeoning of what is now known as Federal style began, and soon after Greek Revival became the vogue. As the thirteen colonies became the United States, this newly introduced architecture captured the imagination and the essence of its young, dynamic, and confident people. At the dawn of the nineteenth century, many of the most significant American buildings of this type were built: e. g., the Massachusetts State House, the White House, and Monticello. Civic buildings and residences of wealthy Americans followed suit, and within a few decades many town centers and city blocks boasted of grand democratic buildings and stately mansions. In a home, the new style offered much more than additional living space. Classical detailing such as columns, arches, heavy cornices, and balustrades often embellished the façade, and Spring 2011
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HABS drawing of the 75 Main Street façade.
HABS drawing of the east elevation showing the 1860s ell addition in the rear. usually a strict symmetry was imposed on the whole. Building materials, such as brick, became more common as well, adding an air of permanence to the structure. The use of brick was also preferred for its obvious fire resistance, especially in denser urban centers. The placement of symmetrical chimneys in end walls allowed them to be incorporated into a continuous brick surface. Typical floor plans also changed considerably in this time, moving fireplaces and chimneys to the outside walls from what had been the more efficient central areas of the house, opening up the entire interior and providing space for grand central-staircase halls and back-to-back parlors that could open into one another. Fireplace surrounds, interior millwork, and even the plaster ceilings became much more than merely functional; they became expressions of wealth and taste for all visitors to see. Throughout the early nineteenth century, Nantucket’s whaling trade commanded interests from around the globe. Much of the global economy and international trade throughout the early nineteenth century started and ended with what the whaling industry provided. At the peak of the industry, few whaling families were as successful as the Coffins, widely considered to be among the
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wealthiest entrepreneurs in the country. Upon their father Zenas’s death in 1828, Henry and Charles G. Coffin inherited much of that wealth and with it the family enterprises. The brothers assumed that charge with dignity and a lively sense of responsibility. Each built his grand brick house opposite the other at 78 and 75 Main Street, begun in 1831 and 1833 respectively. Upon their completion, the Coffin family legacy was established. Henry Coffin was well traveled, as the bounty of the sea had afforded him adventures on the family whaleships. Just twenty-six years old in 1833, Henry had returned to Nantucket on one of those vessels after a lengthy sojourn in Europe, and brought with him a cosmopolitan incentive that he applied to the construction of his house, which would stand in contrast to his brother’s Quaker sensibility. We know from Coffin’s meticulously kept account books that 75 Main Street cost $8,200 to construct, including all materials and labor. Although a few brick commercial structures existed—e.g., the Pacific Club at the foot of Main Street (1774) and the Pacific Bank at the top (1818)—brick houses were rare on Nantucket when the Coffins built theirs. The first use of brick for a residence in the town was a Federal-style, gambrel-roofed house at 5 Orange Street (ca. 1774). At the time of its construction, it had brick end walls only, incorporating the chimneys, but the front façade and rear wall were of traditional wood framing. The front wall of the house was “bricked” later, in the 1830s, as brick came into more common use. The blossoming of this type of residence began in earnest when a handful of brick houses were well in the planning and construction phases at the start of the 1830s, which is when Charles G. Coffin began 78 Main Street (1831)—a stately house, but fairly restrained in its brownstone detailing. In 1831, Phillip Folger had begun building a brick house at 58 Main in a new style, common in Boston, with curved bays flanking the brownstone portico entry. Ground had been broken in 1829 for another large brick residence, Moors End at 19 Pleasant Street, being built by Henry’s first cousin, Jared Coffin, and not completed until 1834. This was the context in which Henry Coffin began construction of his own new house at 75 Main. He employed the same master mason, Christopher Capen, as his brother Charles had, and, indeed, almost replicated the floor plan of 78 Main. Here, however, is where dissimilar elements in the two houses begin to emerge. Henry did not ascribe to the same restraint of detailing as did Charles, and although the interiors of 75 and 78 Main are almost identical, 75 Main is more flamboyant in the rich detailing of the front entry, the use of granite instead of brownstone, parapeted end walls, ornate balustrade and cupola, and so on. Henry spared no expense in construction and decoration, and the house was masterfully crafted. Much of the original fabric of the house remains, a standing testament to the high level of craftsmanship Nantucket Island had available, and maintains to this day. The house rises up out of Main Street supported by Vermontquarried granite. The stone was highlighted on all elevations of the exterior, including the parapets and chimneys. The cupola stands a stately fifty-five feet over Main Street, affording the family panoramic views of the harbor and a lookout for its fleet of whaleships. Christopher Capen, mason for both brothers’ houses, was a native of Dorchester, Massachusetts; he had arrived in Nantucket in 1830,
staying in a boarding house before procuring work on Main Street; Henry and Charles G. Coffin were his first patrons. Building brick houses on Main Street was to be his livelihood for nearly a decade, for after his success with the Coffin houses, Capen proceeded up Main Street to build the Three Bricks for the Starbucks. He married, and eventually built his own house (not of brick) on India Street. The post-and-beam skeleton of 75 Main shows in the exposed roof framing. The joinery was executed with assured precision and stands uncompromised 175 years after construction. Wrapping the framing is the brick structure and façade, for which 30,000 English bricks were imported, perhaps serving as ballast in a whaleship. The brick is a foot thick, and between it and the plaster and lath is a six-inch framing cavity. Eighteen inches of building material between the exterior and the living space provide a fine insulator, helping to keep its occupants cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Beyond the construction fabric no insulation practices were applied. Including the now sealed kitchen fireplace, the house had eleven fireplaces, six of them burning coal. The four coal-burning fireplaces on the first floor are capped with identical French castiron surrounds, now being painstakingly restored by Douglas Pinney, a local preservation artisan. The ornamentation of the surrounds made them no less practical, as they created a concentric flue for the rather small firebox that assured a clean burn from small amounts of coal. In addition, a coal stove in the center of the basement heated the core of the home, with chutes leading to a storehouse in the basement. With completion of the ell on the north elevation in the 1860s, the house was now adorned with more than fifty-five windows, their frames crafted of rosewood and old-growth pine. They are of the finest craftsmanship, made with rolled glass and maintaining their integrity to this day. A dozen windows in the foundation provide abundant light for a basement kitchen and for the nerve center of the approximately four-thousand-square-foot original house. The rugged yet refined hardware came from local blacksmiths; original sash locks, door and shutter hinges, and fireplace ironwork are still in place. A pump in the yard provided the house with water. It is not yet known if the pump was from a functioning well in the yard or supplied the house from a cistern in the basement. The attic also had a pump, pulling water from the basement and gravity-feeding the lower floors. A luxury, the upper-level pump is a testament to the foresight the builders maintained as decades passed and necessity dictated upgrades for the Coffins. The large rooms are fitted with well-crafted six-panel fir pocket doors that serve both for privacy and to close off sections of the house that may not have been used during the winter months. The interior shutters were significant for the same reasons: each double-hung window throughout the house has a six- or eightpanel interior shutter system. When they are closed and combine with the paneled surrounds of the window itself, a beautifully conceived twelve-panel system—from the floor to the head of the window casing—serves as excellent weather proofing during the winter months and outperforms even the best double-insulated windows of today, though admitting no light.
Detail of the design for the ornamental cornice.
The detailing throughout the house is simple yet refined; with eighteen- and twenty-foot- high ceilings, the grand size of the main living spaces makes an opulent statement. The first-floor rooms made up for their lack of light in the winters and evenings with another highlight: ornamental gas-burning chandeliers. Each had gas jets with four controls per chandelier, affording light in the evenings for dining and entertaining. To accent their importance, a round plaster detail set them against the ceiling. An ornamental plaster cornice, nearly a foot wide, makes up the ceiling-to-wall transition in the firstfloor rooms. The original template is still in the house, crafted from copper on a wooden right-angle guide. The house is extremely well documented in both Henry Coffin’s personal records and the extensive files in the NHA Research Library, but it is still loaded with mystery. This issue of Historic Nantucket is a testament to the scope of research talent the Coffins warrant, but questions are left unanswered. It is a puzzle that will demand the full attention of the professional preservationists who are bringing the house back to life. The craftsmen who built it were meticulous in their attention to every detail. Detecting and reproducing their intentions require the highest levels of skill and dedication. With the completion of his house at 75 Main Street, Henry Coffin, along with his brother Charles at 78 Main, had architecturally defined both Nantucket’s whaling heritage and the island’s image for centuries to come. With the construction of the Starbucks’ Three Bricks seven doors up Main Street and the Frederick Mitchell house at 69 Main, the brick house had become a monument to the whaling industry. Henry Coffin’s house stands resolutely, virtually unchanged, and seemingly as permanent as the image he aspired to 177 years ago. Mark Avery is director of historic properties at the Nantucket Historical Association. Andy Buccino is overseeing the 75 Main restoration project for its owner.
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Henry Coffin Carlisle’s ATTIC MUSEUM BY MILES CARLISLE
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A corner of the attic with a mahogany cradle, a spinning wheel, a music box, and other items. Left: A carpet bag, the 1858 Walling Map, yarn winder, and other items.
House flag of the Charles G. and Henry Coffin whaling fleet; chests, tools, and whaling implements at right.
HOTOGRAPHY BY JEFFREY
A. ALLEN
A table covered with a miscellany of whalebone pestles, an ivory swift clamp, a lignum vitae dead-eye, a whalebone rolling pin, a block of spermaceti wax, and other items. Spring 2011
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Seventy-Five Main Street (the Henry Coffin House) is presently undergoing a major restoration designed to return it to its original grandeur. This article provides some background on the house, highlighting a prior renovation in the 1950s undertaken by Henry Coffin’s grandson, Henry Coffin Carlisle,
who was my father. This also serves as a remembrance and tribute to my father—a remarkable Nantucket enthusiast.
O
wnership of the house passed from Henry Coffin’s widow, Eliza (Starbuck) Coffin, to their daughter, Mary Swift Coffin Carlisle, and at her death to her daughter, Elsie Carlisle. On Elsie’s demise in 1951, ownership was conveyed to my father (her brother) with the agreement and support of their brother, G. Lister Carlisle. The house—uninhabited for many years—required major repairs and renovation, and my father took the project on with his usual enthusiasm and energy. An engineer who had gone West after college (Yale and Columbia) to pursue a successful career in mining, he was then able to spend summers on-island to supervise and often participate in the work at hand. Challenges included the lack of a ground-floor kitchen (the original had been in the basement); bathrooms (only one existed); as well as deteriorated or substandard roofing, electrical systems, plumbing, bricks, and more. Also, the house was not fully furnished, as much of the original furniture had been distributed over the years to other heirs of Henry Coffin and not replaced. With generous support from his brother, Lister, and Lister’s wife (owners at the time of Old North Wharf), appropriate furniture was procured—all consistent with the historic integrity of the house. My father’s most significant contribution to 75 Main was the creation of the unique Attic Museum. He assembled and displayed in the unfinished attic—with its original beams and high ceilings—an extensive collection of whaling memorabilia and other items of historical interest from a Nantucket perspective. Every item was found either in the house or in one of two small buildings on the property—the “shop” and the chaise house. Examples of the collection are harpoons, nautical charts, period clothing, an original survey of the Nantucket railroad, books, whaling papers, decoys, chests, and quilting bars. A recent appraisal identifies 121 items. While only one logbook surfaced, more than sixty letters from whaleship captains to the Coffin owners—constituting much more interesting reading—were discovered and transcribed into type. One letter refers to Herman Melville, who sailed on a Coffin ship for six months in the Pacific. Also, a wedding skirt—over three hundred years old and worn by five generations of Coffin brides—was found in perfect condition in an attic chest. It was given to the NHA by my brother and me and is now on display at “that other museum down on Broad Street.” My father was enthusiastic about every aspect of Nantucket, especially its history and its inhabitants. Upon completion of the Attic Museum, he would invite selected Nantucketers—especially
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Photos of Henry Coffin (1807–1900) and the Attic Museum’s creator, Henry Coffin Carlisle (1886–1964), hung above the attic entrance.
old-timers—over for a gam. They would gather at eleven in the morning for an attic tour and then be seated in a circle to tell stories. Although my parents were not at all heavy drinkers, the custom on those occasions was for my mother to appear at noon with a tray of martinis (straight up). The stories thereby became more expansive, if not also a tad taller. My father was one of the first—if not the first—to record interviews with many (I recall over thirty) islanders who had some particular experience or interest to describe; one of them was the last town crier. He gave all of the recordings to the NHA, where they have been digitized and are available online. With the death of my father in 1964, the house was maintained by his wife, Mary Carlisle, until 1985, and subsequently by my brother, Henry Coffin Carlisle Jr., and me. I bought his interests in 1998, and I became the sole steward. During that time, house tours continued and the Attic Museum remained very much in business—with a few improvements, although essentially as my father created it. I know he would be pleased indeed to know that everything in the museum was donated to the NHA. He would also appreciate that the new owner of the house is undertaking a major restoration project consistent with the historical integrity of every element of the structure. This will provide the basis for the house standing proudly for another century or two—or longer. Miles Carlisle, great-grandson of 75 Main Street’s builder, is a ninth-generation descendent of Tristram and Dionis Coffin.
Counter-clockwise from left: Framed documents including the 1835 probate of Zenas Coffin’s estate, a stock certificate for the Nantucket Railroad; a map of the Pacific Ocean with routes of major navigators; half-hull model of the Charles G. and Henry Coffin whaleship Constitution; photo of Henry Coffin Carlisle’s original gamming circle from the 1950s; “City of the Sea” survey chart depicting Great Neck and Smith’s Point and charting a “Maddequet” subdivision of 2,000 lots that were never built; the original 1880s Surfside Syndicate subdivision surveyor’s map.
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By Kathrina Pearl THE GARDEN AT 75 MAIN STREET, FIRST LAID OUT AROUND 1834 AS THE HOUSE WAS COMPLETED, WAS ONE OF THE FIRST OF A NEW TYPE OF GARDEN ON NANTUCKET—THE ORNAMENTAL GARDEN, OR PLEASURE GARDEN, THAT EMERGED TO COMPLEMENT THE MANSIONS OF TOWN IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY. IT WAS A CLEAR EXPRESSION OF THE DEEP INTEREST IN HORTICULTURE THAT A YOUNG HENRY COFFIN HAD ALREADY DEVELOPED, AN INTEREST ONLY RECENTLY BROADENED AND FURTHER FUELED BY A TRIP TO EUROPE IN 1833.
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THIS GARDEN, and the broader range of horticultural pursuits that would interest Henry Coffin throughout the century, were also a reflection of social and economic trends on the island and even farther afield. As a young man, before his marriage to Eliza Starbuck in November 1833, Henry had the opportunity to travel. From surviving correspondence and a diary (now in the NHA’s manuscript collection), it appears that these trips were undertaken partly (perhaps mostly?) to improve his health— especially the trip to Europe, which included stays in Madeira, London, Rouen, and Paris. Henry Coffin’s letters and travel diary are filled with descriptions of the boats on which he traveled, weather conditions, routes taken, business contacts, shipping news from the ports of call, and “news of the fleet” (the fleet of whaleships of which he was co-owner with his brother Charles). But these writings also contain descriptions of the landscapes through which he traveled, the gardens and parks he visited, and the unique flora he encountered in faraway places. It is an incomplete record and the horticultural references are brief. Yet, they provide an immensely valuable insight into Henry Coffin’s fascination with plants, gardens, crops, and landscapes and a deeper understanding of how this would find expression on Nantucket. They indicate, too, Henry’s wide-ranging interest, which gave equal weight to the most ornate of gardens and the humblest stand of wildflowers. Henry took advantage of his travels and the web of sea commerce of which he was a part to do some plant collecting. In a letter to brother Charles from Providence (dated October 5, 1831), Henry described a pleasant passage and noted his time of arrival in Providence. Then, “I have sent by Capt. Swain a bundle of cloathes [sic] & a small paper of roots please take care of them.” After his signature, he added “the roots may be put down cellar as they are, in the paper.” Letters from Charleston, South Carolina, to the family (“Dear Mother, Brothers & Sisters”), sent in April 1832, mention a ride out to the Botanic Garden three miles from town where he “saw some rare flowers.” He also noted, as he later would from Paris, that “trees are set out all through the streets.” Henry departed for Europe on the Coffin brothers’ new ship, the Charles and Henry, in the late fall of 1832, leaving the ship at Madeira while she sailed on to the Pacific. He remained in Madeira until late April. This must have been a wondrous experience for a young man who had grown up on an almost treeless, windswept island, and a diary entry conveys a sense of awe. After attempting to describe a trip into the mountains on horseback, he wrote: “The few words that I am master of fall so far short of a correct description of the scenes that I will say no more.” Another diary entry gives a long list of trees that he had seen, using common names and also botanical Latin (presumably where he could ascertain the scientific names). And, on“4mo. 17th Wednesday,” he “went and saw a handsome garden & many fine rare flowers.”
Garden and rear of house showing ivy-covered ell, 1950s. P12186
Of particular interest, and also concerning the future Nantucket garden, is a letter to “Dear Brother Charles,” dated March 10, 1833, from Madeira. Here, Henry is shipping a variety of items “by the schooner Stephen Olney Capt. Lincoln bound for New York” and is instructing Charles about their proper distribution upon arrival at Nantucket. There are quarter casks of fine wine, one each for Charles and himself and one each for brothers-in-law Thomas Macy, Matthew Crosby, and Henry Swift. There are also casks of “new wine,” and boxes of nuts and preserved citron to be divided among the family; and gifts for the children—Henry’s nieces and nephews. And then: “3 and½ bbls [barrels] of roots shoots and plants these are for Eunice. . . . I have wrote [sic] the particulars in Eunice’s letter.” This is indeed telling of the depth of Henry’s interest in plants—to have gathered so much to be sent home in barrels to Nantucket, and interesting, too, that they were sent to Eunice. Eunice was Henry’s oldest (and, at this stage, only surviving) sister, who was married to Thomas Macy, also an avid gardener. Some of the plants sent in barrels may have been for Thomas and Eunice, but Henry was undoubtedly entrusting this precious cargo to people whom he knew had the skill and interest to care for them until his return.
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After Madeira, Henry spent some time on the Portuguese mainland, near Lisbon, where he spent his time “visiting all that is curious,” and again took the opportunity to ship “a tub of plants,” around May 13, 1833, on the brig Herald, headed for Boston. Diary entries from this period include many observations on farms, gardens, and the broader landscape. He admired a fine garden of orange trees, choice grapes, pears, and olives: “This was a pleasant place and we sat down under the arbour on seats made of corkwood and fancifully ornamented.” Yet he also noticed (and duly recorded) the smaller details of cultivation, such as how the grapevines were pruned, and the simple beauty of wildflowers growing among Moorish ruins. The voyage from Portugal to Portsmouth, England, took twenty days because of unfavorable winds; then he was in London seeing the sights on foot and by omnibus— Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, St. Paul’s. He strolled through St. James’s Park—“a fine place to walk under the trees and see the fashions,”—and Hyde Park. After crossing the English Channel to France on June 19, he noted the “wild and romantic scenery,” as his boat sailed up the river Seine for Rouen. From there, on the stagecoach journey to Paris, “We passed through a fine country and small towns and on either side was a row of fruit trees all the way and orchards of cherry trees red with ripe fruit, apple, pear, walnut, apricots ripe, and all kinds of fruits, fields of grain and grass and all unenclosed, the ground under tilth made it look very pleasant.” Paris, where he arrived on June 24, struck him in much the same way that London had: “I cannot name one half the curiosities there is to be seen.” And what a sight Versailles must have been for him: “ [We] went through the gardens of many acres extent all regularly laid out in walks and the trees trimmed in fanciful forms then took a view of the Orangery where are large trees in 4 feet square boxes, and many now in bloom and are moved under cover in cold weather.” Yet, the following entry perhaps indicates that something far humbler than the splendors of Versailles may have meant more to him: “The trees are thick enough all over the city to draw the birds and their [sic] is constant music.” Henry Coffin returned to London to book his passage for New York and, according to his diary, spent a busy week meeting with business acquaintances and making preparations for the long voyage home, before departing on July 10. It is interesting that in the midst of this busy period he again visited Hyde Park, a place he had been to less than a month before. The manicured scenery of the park and the mature trees and ornamental plantings may have impressed him enough to find time for another visit. At that time also, American cities had yet to build their first public parks, making London’s parks a novelty to visiting Americans. Henry arrived home to Nantucket on August 18, 1833, soon to begin his own house and garden.
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Historic Nantucket
“We PASsed
through a fine country and small towns and on either side was a row of fruit trees all the way and orchards of cherry trees red with ripe fruit, apple, pear, walnut, apricots ripe, and all kinds of fruits, fields of grain and grass and all unenclosed. . .”
No contemporary record or plan has been found for the making of the (now vanished) original garden 75 Main Street, although details of labor and materials involved in building the greenhouse survive in Henry Coffin’s account books. For the garden, fortunately, we have Mary Coffin Carlisle’s notes written about 1925, in which she describes the original layout of her father Henry’s garden. (The handwritten notes, on hotel stationery, are also in the NHA’s manuscript collection.) Mrs. Carlisle states that her father “brought with him on his return to his native island of Nantucket, the intention of reproducing an English house and garden for his future residence,” and describes it as follows: “The garden was in the beginning laid out in a large circle, with the usual tall fir tree in the Centre, and straight walks with, in time, thick box borders, running from the circle, through the entire grounds.” The beds and borders were planted with “choice” and “rare” plants, including those shipped home from Europe. Mrs. Carlisle mentions in particular the beautiful laburnum trees, “then rare in the eastern states,” and English ivy. Such an arrangement of boxedged beds would indeed have been fairly typical of a Georgian town garden, many of which Henry had surely encountered in London (and elsewhere). Planting the beds with a selection of rare and choice plants was also the tendency of sophisticated gardeners in an age of increasing plant availability through commercial nurseries. This, however, was something new for Nantucket, and Mary Coffin Carlisle’s comment that her father was “not so strict” a
1935 HABS drawing of Mary and Henry Swift’s garden at 91 Main Street, which also had a boxwood terrace and lower terrace with fruit trees, 2010.17.1, gift of Jill Wolfe Hill.
Quaker as her Uncle Charles, probably has some relevance here. There is no record of ornamental gardening of this type on Nantucket prior to the nineteenth century. The development of such “ornamental” or “pleasure” gardens coincides with the era of consolidated fortunes and a lessening of Quaker influence that became known as Nantucket’s “Golden Age.” Of the few detailed accounts that remain today of those gardens (besides Mrs. Carlisle’s description), two are of gardens on Upper Main Street, and both of them belonged to sisters and brothers-in-law of Henry Coffin. As previously mentioned, Thomas Macy was an enthusiastic gardener. The garden he and Eunice (Coffin) Macy tended at 99 Main Street was described as three terraces of box-edged beds, filled with flowering shrubs and
fruit bushes, with hothouses at the lower end where oranges, lemons, and delicate tropical plants were grown. The garden at 91 Main Street, begun by Mary Coffin (who died in 1827) and her husband, Henry Swift, also had a boxwood terrace and a lower terrace where fruit trees were grown. It survived into the mid-twentieth century, and was measured and drawn by HABS surveyors in 1935 (see illustration above). The garden at 75 Main Street was therefore one of several laid out in a similar style at that time. The gentlemen and ladies of Nantucket’s business elite also enjoyed their greenhouses. There are records of many such structures around town, and Henry Coffin was no exception. From his account books and a materials list, it is clear that Henry had a greenhouse at 75 Main as early as 1836. Although the greenhouse may have
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changed form over the years through many cycles of repair and rebuilding, it is obvious from the materials list that this was a vinery, or grape house. It would have been a glass- and wood-framed structure, four feet high in front, with a wide roof sloping back toward the high brick wall at the back of the garden, to which it was attached. Mrs. Carlisle also mentions in her notes that the greenhouse ran along the back wall of the garden, along Liberty Street. We can be certain that Henry Coffin grew grapes in this greenhouse as they are part of the materials list: “18 Grapevines@75 cents.” And, according to Mrs. Carlisle, her father also grew peaches, plums, and figs in his garden. The large variety of pears that Henry Coffin eventually grew and exhibited at the annual fairs of the Nantucket Agricultural Society must surely have been grown on the other land and farms owned by him, considering that this relatively small garden already contained many ornamentals, boxwood hedges, fruit bushes, and the greenhouse. Indeed, a glance through the annual transactions of the Nantucket Agricultural Society (founded in 1856) would appear to indicate that there was some kind of fruit-growing craze on Nantucket in the mid-nineteenth century. Consider the following entries: 1857: Pears were in the ascendant, in quantity, in the number of varieties, and in the quality of fruit. Thirty kinds were on exhibition. Thomas Macy exhibited beautiful specimens of President peach. A beautiful orange tree, in fruit, was sent in by Thos. Macy, and added an exotic feature to the products of our colder climate. 1861:Very good Isabella grapes were shown by Henry Coffin. 1863: James Thompson exhibited 23 varieties of pears, Henry Coffin, 21 varieties. 1864: Henry Coffin exhibited thirteen varieties [of pears]. Charles G. Coffin, 25 varieties.
The variety of fruit being grown at the time might astonish us today but, in fact, the gentlemen horticulturists of Nantucket were merely part of a wider regional phenomenon. After the organization of the first horticultural societies in the early nineteenth century, an intense interest in the cultivation of fruit developed. Fruit breeders and nurserymen were developing hundreds of varieties, providing the almost perfect (and productive!) pastime for those with the time, money, and space. On Nantucket, however, this elite hobby was tempered by a very real sense of urgency, as islanders began to search for ways to avert a looming economic recession. Encouraged, no doubt, by the successful cultivation of fruit by Henry Coffin and his peers, the Agricultural Society attempted to promote this endeavor as something for everyone: “The necessity of fruit, for the
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Historic Nantucket
This photograph shows the greenhouse of Samuel King, florist, at 61 South Pleasant Street, circa 1897. PH53-N2
Although
The greenhouse may have changed form over the years through many cycles of repair and rebuilding, it is obvious from the materials list that this was a vinery, or grape house.
A LIST
health of man, and consequently for his perfection, physically, morally, and intellectually, is generally admitted; and therefore, every person who can command a rod of earth, should do something toward increasing its production. A list of shrubs and flowers . . .Thousands of dollars go from here annually for fruit, to enrich the people of other places, who have no better soil or growing in east and west advantages of any kind for the culture of fruit, than we have. Instead of being importers, we should be exporters.” Henry gardens, within the past five Coffin was also one of a small group of men (most of them members of the Agricultural Society, as he was) who used years in bloom at different some of their land to attempt to establish forestry plantations and shelter belts; he grew Scotch pines and larches on land seasons of year”. he owned at Miacomet. The exhortations and experimentations of the Henry Coffin’s record of what Agricultural Society would was growing in his garden at continue until losing that time, written sometime momentum in the last quarter of between 1895 and his death in the nineteenth century. 1900. The reference to an But Henry Coffin’s lasting “east” and “west” garden horticultural legacy to the town provides another clue as to of Nantucket would be the what the earlier nineteenthplanting of the street trees, the century garden actually graceful elms that would reach looked like. The 1887 Sanborn perfection as the century came map of Nantucket does in fact to a close. Henry and his brother show a division of the garden Charles were the driving force into three spaces: a large behind the first street tree space on the west side and a planting program on Nantucket. smaller one on the east, with The elms, which the brothers presumably a work or utility purchased as a gift to the area in the middle. This town, were planted along separation of a utility yard Main Street beginning in 1851; The 1887 Sanborn Fire Insurance map shows from the garden areas would other streets were planted in the 75 Main Street and garden. make perfect sense as the well following years. The developing was (and still is) located in this leafy canopy must have been of immense area and access to the basement is on this east side of the satisfaction to the man who had once so admired the parks of house. Deliveries to the house were probably made through London and the boulevards of Paris that he commented “The the gate between the sheds on the Liberty Street side. With trees are thick enough all over the city to draw the birds.” this arrangement of space, the formal boxwood design Within the enclosure of his own garden at 75 Main Street, described by Mrs. Carlisle would most likely have been Henry Coffin tended his fruit trees and vines, and enjoyed the located in the larger west garden, with more fruit trees and long succession of flowers provided by bulbs, perennials, flowers (and perhaps space for the children to play) in the shrubs, and roses, in the box-edged borders. There is a sheet east garden. And, in the heyday of the garden, was the long of paper tucked in with Mary Coffin Carlisle’s notes on the greenhouse along the brick wall in the back, with its garden. It is a nursery order form, headed: “Pitcher&Manda espaliered fig trees and draperies of grapevines. (Inc.), Nurserymen, Seedsmen, and Florists, Short Hills, N.J., It was a garden of order and variety, beauty and utility, Order Sheet 1895.” The order form is blank, but on the reverse peace and contentment. Mary Coffin Carlisle touched on the side, in what appears to be Henry Coffin’s hand, is this universal meaning of gardens when she said of her father’s: heading: “A list of shrubs and flowers growing in east and west “This garden was his especial joy through life.” gardens, within the past five years in bloom at different seasons of year,” followed by a list of some fifty different Kathrina Pearl is landscape and garden manager at the Nantucket species, including peony, lilac, weigela, deutzia, laburnum, Historical Association. and many bulbs and perennials. So it appears that this is
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G r e a t e r
L i g h t
History in the making! Greater Light will open in July, offering a rare glimpse into Nantucket’s art colony.
“It
was once an old livestock barn, and the pigpen is now a dining room! Two girls . . . two girls built this house,” was whispered throughout the town in the early 1930s, when Quaker sisters Gertrude and Hanna Monaghan bought the 1790 barn at 8 Howard Street and converted it into a summer home and art studio, naming it Greater Light. Greater Light will be one of three featured homes on the NHA’s new Historic House Walking Tour slated to begin May 28, leaving from the Hadwen House each afternoon at 2:15. From July 20 to September 30, Greater Light will also host an Open House for visitors each Wednesday and Friday, 4–5 P.M. The charming restored garden will be open to the public daily for quiet relaxation and reflection. Through the generosity of its many supporters and a grant from the Nantucket Community Preservation Committee, the NHA is now completing the two-year project of restoring Greater Light and its garden, to be ready for the opening dedication and celebratory events, including an original theatrical performance and an exhibition and auction of works by Nantucket artists inspired by the property. The Monaghan sisters believed that art was an expression of the Inner Light, and thus embellished their home with architectural flourishes that included a gilded fireplace surround, decorative pillars, and massive wrought-iron gates opening onto the summer patio. Visitors will find a number of the items from their eclectic collection of furnishings and art again displayed throughout the house, and in Hanna’s fully restored bedroom and parlor—while also experiencing Nantucket’s early art colony era through vivid historic imagery, an intimate art exhibit, and oral histories presented on a touch-screen computer. Greater Light will offer both a reflection of the past and a glimpse into the future, telling the story of Nantucket’s emergence as an art colony and resort in the early twentieth century; it will be a place for the arts to flourish, and a venue for lifelong learning as well as a magical location for small community gatherings that extol the arts and culture, much as it was used by the Monaghan sisters. The NHA is continuing efforts to secure $300,000 of additional funding to complete the conservation of the interior and fully develop educational programs. For more information about Greater Light or to contribute to the project, please call (508) 228–1894, ext.114, or go to www.nha.org.
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The Monaghan sisters, right, with their sister Florence, left, their niece Anne, and their parents on the patio of Greater Light, circa 1930s. PH37-N17
Hanna Monaghan’s bedroom. P9809
News Notes & Highlights APRIL 15 – DECEMBER 31
2011
E X H I B I T I O N DAT E S
Eastman Johnson and His Contemporaries: An Exhibition of Late-Nineteenth-Century Masters on Nantucket THE WHITNEY GALLERY
APRIL 15 – DECEMBER 31
An Exhibition of Late-Nineteenth-Century Masters on Nantucket WHITNEY GALLERY NHA RESEARCH LIBRARY
MAY 27 – NOVEMBER 7
Nantucket A to Z: The Island’s Cabinet of Curiosities PETER FOULGER GALLERY THE WHALING MUSEUM • Members Opening Reception,May 26
JULY 20 – SEPTEMBER 30
Greater Light WEDNESDAYS & FRIDAYS GREATER LIGHT OPEN HOUSE, 4 – 5 P.M. 8 HOWARD STREET
RESEARCH LIBRARY, 7 FAIR STREET
Major nineteenth-century genre painter, portraitist, and chronicler of American life, Eastman Johnson first visited Nantucket in 1869, and soon took up seasonal residence on island, purchasing a home and artist studio on North Street (now Cliff In the Fields (1778–79), oil on canvas, gift of the Road) in the area known as Friends of the NHA The Cliff—on the North Shore facing Nantucket Sound. The artist’s island sojourns would inspire some of his most enduring works, including his masterpiece, The Cranberry Harvest, Island of Nantucket (1880). With the completion of The Cranberry Harvest, the artist turned his attention to portraiture, taking advantage of the community of grizzled veterans of the sea who haunted Nantucket in the twilight of the nineteenth century. Living on The Cliff surrounded by neighbors who included retired mariners, civic officials, and practicing artists, Johnson used many of his new island acquaintances as the subjects of his paintings. During the post-whaling era of the 1870s–90s, other prominent American artists were drawn to Nantucket for its antiquated charm and picturesque vistas. Johnson’s major contemporaries George Inness and William Trost Richards visited the island— joining the ranks of Nantucket-descended W. Ferdinand Macy and Johnson’s friend and neighbor John Alexander MacDougall Jr.—in portraying the island’s lush natural settings, interesting characters, and alluring seascapes and landscapes.
MAY 27 – NOVEMBER 7
Nantucket A to Z:The Island’s Cabinet of Curiosities PETER FOULGER GALLERY, WHALING MUSEUM, 13 BROAD STREET
The major exhibition in the Whaling Museum’s Peter Foulger Gallery will be Nantucket A to Z: The Island’s Cabinet of Curiosities. Inspired by Nantucket’s early museums, especially the original “Fair Street Rooms,” the exhibition will showcase iconic curios, oddities, and other island treasures from the NHA collections, presenting an encapsulated “A to Z” overview of Nantucket history. Such curios as the model of the Nantucket Camels; the bell from the railroad engine Dionis; the tiller of the whaleship Lima; the famous wax doll of Louis XVII, Dauphin of France, brought back by a Nantucket captain; and many more items will be taken from storage and placed on display for the first time in years. Another exciting component of the exhibition will be movies from old Nantucket, including footage from the 1930s to 1950s playing on an antique television in a 1950s living room setting.Visitors will have a chance to enter Josiah Freeman’s Photo Studio and have their portrait taken, to smell spermaceti and ambergris, to color a copy of the Tony Sarg Alphabet Book with their children and families; to send a Nantucket postcard to friends; and revisit the model of the Nantucket railroad. Members Preview,May 26. Spring 2011
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News Notes & Highlights Wine Auction Dinner to Benefit NHA The Nantucket Wine Festival’s Wine Auction Dinner—which benefits the NHA—will be held on Saturday, May 21, 2011, at the White Elephant. This elegant dinner is considered the marquee event of this year’s festival, and will feature the cuisine of Brooke Vosika, executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel, Boston. The evening will showcase the wines of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin and Newton Vineyards of Napa Valley. According to Denis Toner, NWF president and founder, this year’s exciting auction will feature large-format bottles and numerous unopened cases in their original wooden crates. “We are delighted once again to have the Nantucket Historical Association as charity partner and beneficiary of the Wine Auction Dinner,” said Toner. “The NHA is central to preserving the history and traditions of Nantucket, just as history and tradition are essential to understanding great wines.” On another high note, Tim Mondavi of the Robert Mondavi Winery family, and owner of Continum Vineyard, will be receiving the respected Luminary Award at this year’s dinner. Proceeds from the Wine Auction Dinner support the NHA’s expanding schedule of educational programs for children. For further information,please contact Stacey Stuart at (508) 228–1894,ext.130,or sstuart@nha.org.
Nantucket Wine Festival artwork by artist Kerry Hallam
34th August Antiques Show August 5 – 7, 2011, at Bartlett’s Farm Known for many years as one of the best shows on the east coast and a highlight of the Nantucket summer social season, the 34th annual August Antiques Show is slated to open on August 5 and run through August 7. The show and preview party will once again be held under a festive white tent at Bartlett’s Farm, 33 Bartlett Farm Road, where visitors from across the United States and abroad travel to Nantucket Island to view and purchase the exceptional American and English furniture, fine art, Oriental rugs, books, maritime antiques, folk art, and Nantucket memorabilia that can be found at the show. The major fund-raising event for The NHA’s preservation and education programs, this year’s show is being chaired by Sara B. Boyce and vice chair Anne Marie Bratton. The Antiques Council— an organization dedicated to ensuring the quality of antiques and historical works of art—will continue to manage the August Antiques Show. Antiques Show week will kick off on Tuesday, August 2, at 6 P.M., with a lecture sponsored by the Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association, held in the Whaling Museum with a reception immediately following. For the eighth consecutive year, the August
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Antiques Show Preview Party is sponsored by EatonVance Investment Counsel. On Thursday, August 4, from 6 to 9 P.M., guests will enjoy their first glance of these world-class antiques while cocktails and passed hors d’oeuvres will be provided by Simply with Style. New for this season, Saturday’s Sara B. Boyce gala dinner will be held surrounded by the dealers’ booths under the tent at Bartlett’s Farm. Trianon/Seaman Schepps is graciously underwriting the dinner for the thirteenth consecutive year. The August Antiques Show hours are Friday and Saturday, 10 A.M.– 5 P.M. and Sunday,10 A.M.–4 P.M. , Bartlett’s Farm, 33 Bartlett Farm Road. For more information about the 34th August Antiques Show or to reserve tickets, please contact Stacey Stuart at the Nantucket Historical Association: (508) 228–1894, ext.130, or sstuart@nha.org, or visit www.nha.org.
Nantucket: NHA’s film by Ric Burns Premieres on July 2 In the distinctive Burns style, this film short will capture the historical significance of this “elbow of sand,” as Herman Melville called it, and will weave an engaging and transporting tale of the island’s place in national and world history. The film will premiere on July 2, and then will be shown daily in the Whaling Museum’s Gosnell Hall, making it a “must-see” experience for visitors and residents alike. Ric Burns, an internationally recognized documentary filmmaker and writer, has been writing, directing, and producing historical documentaries for nearly twenty years. Educated at both Columbia and Cambridge Universities, he has won numerous awards for his film work, including two Emmys for his work on The Civil War, as well as the Producer of the Year Award from the Producers Guild of America. He founded Steeplechase Films in 1989. In May of 2010, Burns released the documentary film Into the Deep: America,Whaling & the World, and the NHA—in cooperation with WGBH-FM and Steeplechase Films—had the opportunity to broadcast the national premiere of the film at the Whaling Museum. Into the Deep is a fantastic sea adventure and a
Nantucket: A Treasure Island Program is a huge success “Nantucket is an island filled with treasures great and small. Treasures come in all shapes and sizes. It can be things that we can see, ideas that we value, or people that we love.” The Whaling Museum was filled with the sounds of excited children when the NHA hosted, “Nantucket: A Treasure Island” during the February school vacation week. The NHA is extremely grateful to the Nantucket Golf Club Foundation for providing grant support for this important family program, which attracted more than three hundred guests. Throughout the week, Gosnell Hall was transformed into a circa 1830 representation of the wharves and downtown area, including a shop on Petticoat Row and a café that served real snacks and juices. The Hadwen & Barney Candle Factory featured nineteenth-century dress-up clothes and a carte-de-visite (similar to a calling card of the era) and the second floor held the popular representation of Mrs. McCleave’s Main Street house museum. The daily offerings allowed visitors to visually explore, and physically interact with, artifacts and treasures from the NHA’s collections.
mythic saga of man and nature as it relates the harrowing tale of the wreck of the whaleship Essex. Portions of the film were shot in the Whaling Museum’s Discovery Room, and a number of artifacts from the NHA collection were used in the movie. Burns and his company first approached the NHA in 2007 with an interest in filming a documentary on the history of the American whaling Filmmaker Ric Burns industry; the NHA worked closely with him throughout the initial research and documentation of the film. During that time, the NHA began discussions with Burns about producing a film exclusively for the NHA—to highlight the island’s history and natural beauty—which then morphed into this summer’s release of Nantucket.
1800 House Programs offer Art Inspired by Nantucket History Dedicated to celebrating and reviving Nantucket’s rich tradition in historic Early American arts and crafts, 2011 marks the seventh season of educational programs at the NHA’s 1800 House. Classes will begin on June 29 and run through mid-October. Participants can look forward to more diverse class offerings, lectures in Primitive painting at the 1800 House the Whaling Museum by course instructors, and one-day workshops designed to accommodate busy local residents. Additional one-day classes will be offered in the fall. Among the classes are: bent-willow furniture, italic calligraphy, sailors valentines, folk-art whirligigs, historic bargello ditty bags, and a nest of shaker boxes. A number of one-day and holiday workshops will also be offered. Class size is limited in some instances.Fee includes all materials. Reservations and prepayment are required,NHA member discounts available.Please go to www.nha.org/1800house for full course listings and registration information. Spring 2011
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www.nha.org
Warren Jagger
P.O. Box 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554-1016
Periodical POSTAGE PAID at Nantucket, MA and Additional Entry Offices
THE HERITAGE SOCIETY with Tax-Free Gifts from IRA Accounts
T
oin the members of the Nantucket Historical Associa-
tion who are taking advantage of legislation that allows
Barbara Hathaway, 2010 August Antiques Show Chair
your income and federal taxes, and it would count toward your mandatory IRA withdrawals.
certain individuals to make charitable gifts directly to the
As with other gifts, you can direct your charitable IRA
NHA from their IRA accounts without incurring income tax.
rollover to an area of particular interest at the NHA—the
If you are age 70½ or older, you can transfer up to $100,000
annual fund, endowment, or a special project or program,
from a traditional or Roth IRA directly to the NHA through
such as the restoration of Greater Light, collections and
December 31, 2011. This amount would be excluded from
exhibitions, or educational programs.
For more information, consult with your personal financial advisor and contact Cristin Merck, director of development,
508 228 1894, ext. 114
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Historic Nantucket
email: cmerck@nha.org