‘All Aboard for Quisset’

from Yankee Magazine July/August 2016

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Baldwin Coolidge found inspiration in the comings and goings of Woods Hole scientists and students.

he intersection of art and science came together when Baldwin Coolidge (1845–1928) brought his heavy, large-format cameras and dry-plate glass negatives to the dock on Quissett Harbor in 1897, at a time when Woods Hole, a village in the town of Falmouth, Massachusetts, was already amassing a reputation for its oceanographic research. Coolidge had made his mark as a Boston photographer, especially with his exquisite portraits of art and priceless objects shown at the Museum of Fine Arts. But when summer came, he’d retreat to Cape Cod and a studio on Martha’s Vineyard. He was drawn to the countryside and to Quissett Harbor life (he spelled it Quisset), but especially to the Woods Hole students who spent days collecting marine specimens. On this voyage aboard the Vigilant in 1897 was 23-year-old Gertrude Stein. Just six years later she would move to Paris and in time become both a famous writer and a cultivator of artists and writers, including Picasso and Hemingway. But all that still lay ahead. Here she stands in the stern (at far right in this photo), a young woman immersed in the pursuit of tiny sea organisms, hopeful of becoming a doctor: one more image in a lifetime of frames preserved for history by Baldwin Coolidge. —Mel Allen

Historic New England has a collection of more than 2,000 regional images by Baldwin Coolidge. To learn more and to order prints, contact: archives@historicnewengland.org. To see additional Coolidge photos online, visit: woodshole museum.org/wordpress. The Woods Hole Historical Museum has also published a book of Coolidge’s work: New England Views: The Photography of Baldwin Coolidge (1845-1928)

The Pelatiah Leete House is one of the earliest surviving dwellings built in Guilford, CT in the early 18th century, by Pelatiah Leete, the grandson of Guilford founder, and Connecticut governor, William Leete. It is one of only a handful of properties in Guilford that is included on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1781, during the American Revolution, the Battle of Leetes Island was fought across the road from the house and its surviving 1705 barn, and Simeon Leete, who lived in the house at that time with his wife and three small children, was mortally wounded near the conclusion of the battle. He was brought back to the house, where he died, at age 28, the following day. His gravestone is around the corner from the house, on land owned by the Leete family since 1661, and an annual celebration of his life is held every June on the Sunday nearest June 19, the anniversary of his death date. The Sixth Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Line performs musket drills and live ﬁring at the event, which draws numerous neighbors and townspeople.

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