Historic Nantucket, Fall/Winter 2016, Vol. 66, No. 2

Nantucket H I S TO R I C

FALL/WINTER 2016–17 | VOLUME 66, NO. 2

A PUBLICATION OF THE NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

THE (MIS)ADVENTURES OF

WILLIAM ROTCH

MARITAL REGULATION IN THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY

FRIENDS MEETING WILLIAM WILKES MORRIS

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS THE SETH

FALL/WINTER 2016–17

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Board of Trustees Janet L. Sherlund PRESIDENT

Kelly Williams VICE PRESIDENT

Victoria McManus VICE PRESIDENT

William J. Boardman TREASURER

Michael Cozort CLERK

Sarah Alger Patricia Anathan Josette Blackmore SHI P WA SHI N G TO N, WAT ER COLOR PA IN T IN G BY W ILLIA M W ILK E S M ORRIS, 1825

2011. 1 81 . 1

Susan Blount Maureen F. Bousa Anne Marie Bratton

FALL/WINTER 2016–17 | VOLUME 66, NO. 2

Calvin R. Carver Jr. Olivia Charney

3 4

inside the nha

Wylie Collins

On Wellness

Ana Ericksen

by william j . tramposch

John Hilton Carl Jelleme

tinker , traitor , coward , spy !

The (Mis)adventures of William Rotch by sarah crabtree

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William Little Hampton Lynch FRIENDS OF THE NHA VICE PRESIDENT

Franci Neely Kennedy Richardson

wayward quaker women

Marital Regulation in the Eighteenth-century Friends Meeting

L. Dennis Shapiro Maria Spears Jason Tilroe

by jeffrey kovach

Phoebe Tudor

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william wilkes morris

A Man for All Seasons

Finn Wentworth Jay Wilson FRIENDS OF THE NHA PRESIDENT

by diana taylor brown

Alisa Wood

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David D. Worth Jr.

recent acquisition

The Seth Pinkham Papers

Ex Officio

by betsy t yler

24 26

William J. Tramposch GOSNELL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

update

NHA Research Fellows our nantucket

imls grant

quaker meeting house

News Notes

Historic Nantucket Editorial Committee Betsy Tyler EDITOR

Elizabeth Oldham COPY EDITOR

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 visit www.nha.org. ©2016 by the Nantucket Historical Association.

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Catherine A. Taylor DIRECTOR OF MUSEUM RESOURCES

Eileen Powers/Javatime Design DESIGN AND ART DIRECTION

INSIDE THE NHA » from

the gosnell executive director

On Wellness FOR THE LAST THREE YEARS, the NHA has been pur-

I watched as the youngsters entered the museum ten-

suing a “quiet campaign” for endowment funds, quiet

tatively, toting their sleeping bags, wondering just what

chiefly, because it has been important to defer to the

this was all about. Now, eight years later, they literal-

building campaign for a new island hospital, our island’s

ly bang on the door, eager to get in and get started on

key fund-raising need. Regardless, because of the gen-

their “Nightwatch” adventure! This place, our Whaling

erosity of so many of our supporters, we have recently

Museum, has become their place; it has become a deep

achieved our more modest goal of $12-million, and I am

part of their identity as islanders.

pleased to say that our endowment (once pledges arrive)

In New Zealand, as I have mentioned in earlier

will have doubled, all for ensuring the perpetual care of

pieces, the Maori have a term for it: Turangawaewae.

iconic historic properties, especially Hadwen House, the

It means ‘a place to stand’. These children, in their

Oldest House, the Old Mill, and Greater Light. We are

sleepovers, have, in Maori terms “warmed” and hon-

deeply appreciative of this support.

ored our objects with their own presence. To fall asleep,

Understandably, the success of any campaign rests

dream, and awake the next morning amidst our myriad

on effectively conveying the added value that the orga-

portraits, the whale skeleton, and the artifacts that de-

nization offers to its patrons. Let’s not ever underesti-

fine our history is an amazingly powerful experience.

mate the contribution that museums and historical

When Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in the ear-

associations, libraries, parks and reserves bring to the

ly nineteenth century, he observed the power of our

table. Consider the difference, for example, that Cen-

voluntary organizations, clubs, and associations. He

tral Park (often referred to as “the lungs of New York”)

noted how essential they were to the fabric of democ-

makes for the millions of city dwellers who surround it.

racy in America. He worried that any tendency toward

Nations are increasingly measuring the importance

“aloneness” might threaten this fabric. Our association

of wellbeing, and indicators for measuring this seem-

is a celebration of the importance of community—

ing intangible become clearer every year. At times,

present, past, and future. We are “a place to stand,” a

though, as I view our historic sites or stand in the gal-

place to get to know ourselves and one another better, a

leries of our Whaling Museum watching our visitors,

forum that emphasizes our connectedness to our com-

it seems so obvious that simple subjective measures

munity and our world. If we have done our job well, our

suffice. We see it in the “aha” moments that our guests

visitors leave informed, empowered, and ever more cu-

have when talking with our interpreters; we see it in

rious than before, and they will return again and again

the eyes of those who are so enwrapped in our Ric

because these places have become a part of their own

Burns Nantucket gateway film that they sit intently

internal and developing dialogues.

through the credits! It is especially apparent during our

This, it seems to me, is the very definition of “wellness.”

sleepovers, which have become a rite of passage for our island’s fourth graders. In the first year of this program,

O N T H E COV ER : N A N T U C K ET WOM E N IN T RA DIT ION A L QUA K E R AT T IRE , C IRC A 189 0S

GPN1 1 78

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The (Mis)adventures of William Rotch

By Sarah Crabtree

“I LITTLE EXPECTED EVER TO BE IN THE MIDST OF ANOTHER REVOLUTION AFTER THAT OF AMERICA WAS COMPLETED, BUT HERE WE ARE. . . .”

—William Rotch to Samuel Rodman, Dunkirk, 2 month 18, 1792

DEPENDING ON WHICH islander you asked, the Rotches were either a local family made good or a bunch of inter-

Yet, despite all of their worldly successes (or, perhaps,

lopers gone bad. Father Joseph, a cordwainer from Salem,

because of all their worldly successes), the Rotches courted

emigrated to the island about 1725 and married Love Macy

constant controversy. So by the time they decamped from

in 1733, joining his business acumen with her family’s polit-

the island in 1795, they had left behind an embittered com-

ical influence. Sons William (1734 –1828) and Francis (1750–

munity of back-biting naysayers. This essay is an attempt to

1822) then grew the family’s whaling firm into a commercial

explain what drove the Rotches from Nantucket and to offer

empire that spanned the globe. Grandsons William Rotch Jr.

a few thoughts about what the legacy of this complicated

(1759 –1850) and Samuel Rodman (1753 –1835), two of the

family might mean to the island today.

wealthiest and most philanthropically minded men in the 4

United States, cemented the family’s legacy.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

I am in the process of writing a book about William

TINKER, TRAITOR, COWARD, SPY!

Rotch Sr. Born on Nantucket, he spent more than fifty years at the forefront of the island’s economy, politics, religious life, and high society. Until his death, he considered Nantucket his true home, even though, at that point, he hadn’t resided there in nearly forty years. I arrived in Nantucket last December, hoping to discover more about this formative period in his life.

I had mapped out a research strategy that included tracking down every scrap of information I could find in the NHA’s collections. I was also on a quixotic mission to visit any remaining thresholds he might have graced, any remaining paths he might have walked, any unchanged view he might have seen.

This was my second time on the island, so I wasn’t surprised at how much it had changed since Rotch’s day. I was, however, surprised by how little of his family’s mark had survived.

Top: Rotch ship Maria, woodcut on paper by S.F. Brown, from Ballou’s Pictorial Drawing–Room Companion, 1855 1 9 9 5. 29 0. 1 7

Rotch market, at the foot of Main Street, 1959 P11197

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WILLIAM ROTCH

His dwelling-house, of course, had long since disappeared.

seph and brother Francis), did own the Dartmouth and

The old Quaker meetinghouse isn’t quite old enough to

Beaver but they by no means supported the Tea Party. Far

have witnessed their worship. There are a few noteworthy

from it. They infuriated Boston patriots with their rather

heirlooms in the Whaling Museum, but the only public

desperate and somewhat duplicitous attempts to outma-

trace is the plaque displayed on the west façade of the Pa-

neuver the Sons of Liberty and land their cargo. Only in the

cific Club: “This building was the Counting House of Wil-

eleventh hour (and in the face of mob violence), did they

liam Rotch, owner of the ships Dartmouth, Beaver & Elea-

resign themselves to the fate of their ships. And Francis,

nor of the Boston Tea Party. The Beaver was the first whaler

we should note, spent years petitioning Parliament for res-

to round Cape Horn. Also owner of the Bedford, first vessel

titution, swearing his unwavering loyalty to the crown and

to fly the Stars and Stripes in British waters in 1785.”

denouncing the illegality of the patriots’ action.

I was amazed. This commemoration would have made

Good businessmen, one might say, looking out for their

many of Rotch’s contemporaries roll their eyes if not grit

bottom line. Well, yes, that is certainly part of their story.

their teeth. Here, he is remembered primarily for his fleet

But the lives of the Rotches would continue to intersect

of ships—undoubtedly appropriate for a plaque commis-

with that of revolutionary causes in ways no one could

sioned by the Pacific Club. But it also depicts him as a true

have foreseen and few people—least of all the Rotches—

patriot, one who sacrificed much as part of the Boston

could believe. Only two years after the Tea Party, they again

tea party and risked much by boldly flying the American

ran afoul of the provisional Massachusetts government.

colors in a British port. The reality, as eighteenth-century

News reached the mainland that William possessed a large

Nantucketers knew all too well, was far more complex.

cache of bayonets—welcome news to the resource-starved

The Rotches (not William, as it happens, but father Jo6

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

patriots. But when an emissary arrived to commandeer

COURTESY OF MICHELE AND DONALD D’AMOUR MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS. GIFT OF LENORE B. AND SIDNEY A. ALPERT, SUPPLEMENTED WITH MUSEUM ACQUISITION FUNDS. PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID STANSBURY 2004.D03.165

The Destruction of Tea at Boston Harbor by Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives

TINKER, TRAITOR, COWARD, SPY!

A BRITISH BLOCKADE OF THE ISLAND, COMBINED WITH A POINTED REBUKE FROM THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE, PREVENTED ANY SUPPLIES FROM REACHING DESPERATE ISLANDERS.

the bayonets, Rotch was “not easy” to let him take them.

The Rotches were devout Quakers and therefore committed pacifists. In William’s mind, this meant that he could sell the guns he had acquired from the estate of a man indebted to him, as they could be used for hunting animals.

He could not, however, sell the bayonets that had come attached to the guns, as they were weapons used only for “blood-letting.” Thus, in rather dramatic fashion, William loaded the cargo in question onto a ship, sailed it out into the harbor, and, in a tea party of his own, sank them. The commissioner returned to the mainland empty-handed and “much dissatisfied.”

As the war dragged on, Nantucketers found themselves in an increasingly precarious position. Their economy, based almost entirely on whaling, had ground to a halt.

Any ships not seized by the British or Americans rotted in the harbor. Even more pressing, residents relied on trade for nearly all of their staples. A British blockade of the island, combined with a pointed rebuke from the Massachusetts legislature, prevented any supplies from reaching desperate islanders. Thus, in 1779, Rotch was appointed to a committee of prominent men to plead Nantucket’s case to both sides. They argued that the island was a neutral and independent political entity, and that its residents were ready to do business with whomever could offer immediate relief. Suffice it to say, this sat well with neither party. But it seemed to particularly offend the patriots, still harboring resentment, Rotch claimed, about the bayonets.

Only months later, the Mas-

Above: Silhouette of William Rotch Sr. (1734–1828), 1794

sachusetts Senate impeached

COURTESY OF THE NEW BEDFORD WHALING MUSEUM

Rotch and three other islanders for high treason, convicted

Portrait of William Rotch Sr., E.D. Marchant, 1825

of visiting a British port with-

P737

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WILLIAM ROTCH

out permission. Only the indefatigable efforts of his family

The events that unfolded in the ensuing six years inspired his

and business partners helped Rotch avoid imprisonment

rather understated quote at the opening of this piece.

and the sentence of execution.

Elsewhere, I cover Rotch’s turbulent years in France,

If Rotch’s story ended here, it would be incredible

but here, briefly: he was hauled in front of the National As-

enough. But remarkably, this was only the first chapter. The

sembly, threatened by angry mobs, and eventually forced

war’s end brought about the complete destruction of Nan-

to flee to England under the cover of night. Unfortunately,

tucket’s economy, as independence made it impossible for

the English then accused him and his son Benjamin of be-

whale oil to be sold in Britain. Thus, in a decision he would

ing French spies. The escalating war between France and

defend for the rest of his life, Rotch decided the only way to

England sank his business again, and he finally returned

save his family’s firm (and fortune) was to leave Nantucket.

to the United States in 1794. He remained in Nantucket for

He sailed to England in 1785—the very same year his ship,

less than a year before the social (and financial) climate

the Bedford, was credited with flying the Stars and Stripes in

became so hostile that he decided to relocate one last time

British waters—to negotiate the conditions under which he

to New Bedford.

would relocate his whaling operations to London. But Rotch

William mourned the loss of his Nantucket home and

and Prime Minister William Pitt were unable to come to

remained invested in island affairs. He relished updates

terms, so Rotch struck a more favorable deal with King Lou-

from friends and contributed (usually anonymously) to

is the XVI. In a twist of fate almost impossible to believe, in

its philanthropic causes. But he realized that his former

1787 Rotch thus relocated his firm and his family to France.

neighbors had turned their backs on his family. The prom-

New Bedford in 1807 or Old Four Corners, William Allen Wall, circa 1852–57 COURTESY OF THE NEW BEDFORD WHALING MUSEUM

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

TINKER, TRAITOR, COWARD, SPY!

inent Barker family never forgave Benjamin for taking

porate his decision to sink the bayonets.

their daughter Elizabeth to France and then England after

Rotch’s business succeeded because he (literally) off-

his prenuptial promise to remain on the island. Quakers

shored his corporation. His was among the first modern

also felt duped by William’s father, Joseph, who obtained

corporations to pit governments against one another in

permission to remove to New Bedford only after promising

a competition for the most business-friendly terms. His

not to take the family or its business with him. Many resi-

pursuit of personal profit played a critical role in the eco-

dents blamed William for his failed negotiations during the

nomic decline of Nantucket, as the island faced what we

Revolution, casting him as a traitor to their cause. Most res-

now recognize as the challenges of deindustrialization. His

idents, however, simply felt the entire family had betrayed

decisions speak to the very heart of contemporary debates

the island by seeking opportunity elsewhere and blamed

about globalization, encouraging us to re-examine the role

them, fairly or unfairly, for the island’s economic decline.

and responsibility of the state in the regulation of business,

In a span of just over twenty years, William Rotch had managed to tangle with seemingly every merchant, politi-

the impact of offshoring on local communities, and the accumulation of unparalleled wealth.

cian, and military officer on both sides of the Atlantic and

Finally, the Rotches’ complicated relationship with

personally offend every resident of Nantucket. Perhaps we

Nantucketers reflects important aspects of local history,

can now appreciate why their nineteenth-century neigh-

including the island’s Quaker heritage and the complex re-

bors might have chosen to commemorate the Rotches

lationship between the first proprietors and later émigrés,

differently (or, if truth be told, not at all). Yet, they are un-

the insecure position of residents during the Revolution

deniably essential to the history of the island. For a place

and their complicated attitude toward independence, the

so admirably committed to preserving its past, it might be

phenomenal success of the whalefishery, and the impact

worthwhile to reflect on what they mean to it today.

of this phenomenal wealth on those island residents left

The Rotches were positioned at the crossroads —and

behind.

crosshairs —of nearly every important political, econom-

In all of these ways, the Rotches underscore the unique

ic, and cultural development at the turn of the nineteenth

position of Nantucket and offer us an important opportu-

century. Many scholars have ably described their role in the

nity to engage in these timely conversations. Thus, in order

transformation of the whalefishery—the industry’s expan-

to pique the interest of locals and tourists alike, I humbly

sion into the Pacific, its technological innovations, its cul-

suggest that another plaque be affixed to the Pacific Club:

tural influence, its environmental and ecological impact, and crucially, its relocation to New Bedford. But the Rotches’ story—and Nantucket’s by extension—is also fundamental

This building was the Counting House of William Rotch—a man convicted of high treason in the United States, charged with disloyalty in France, and

to understanding the emergence of the modern nation-state,

accused of espionage in England. He was a committed

the concomitant rise of transnational capitalism, and the

Quaker, a poor diplomat, an astute businessman, and

changing tides in Nantucket. A close examination of William’s

a proud islander. He beseeched the government for

life highlights important questions relevant to many political

relief during wartime and became one of the most

debates today.

hated men in America. He off-shored his corporation

For example, Rotch ran afoul of government because the

immediately after independence and became one of

tenets of his religion clashed with the obligations of his citi-

the wealthiest men in the world. Above all else, he

zenship. We historians have not done a good enough job tell-

represents the complicated relationship between religion

ing the stories of those who opposed Independence. Rotch’s story encourages us to debate the meaning of patriotism,

and war, business and patriotism, and Nantucket and Massachusetts.

the obligations of citizenship, and the cost of war. His resis-

SARAH CRABTREE, the NHA’s 2015 E. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Thayer

tance also reveals a fundamental conflict between church

Verney Fellow, is the author of Holy Nation: The Transatlantic Quaker

and state, inviting us to consider whether our definition of

Ministry in an Age of Revolution (2015). She is an Assistant Professor

religious freedom is big enough and broad enough to incor-

at San Francisco State University.

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WAYWARD

Quaker Women Marital Regulation in the Eighteenth-century Friends Meeting

By Jeffrey Kovach

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

WAYWARD QUAKER WOMEN

some instances, Quaker marriage regulation was stricter than that of the Puritan civil government. For example, Quakers held to the standard that spouses had to be absent for seven years before their deaths could be declared, while Massachusetts law at the time required an absence

When John Frost left

of only three years. If the meeting had abided by the more forgiving civil law, rather than holding its membership to a more rigid standard, Tabitha Trott would not have been disowned for bigamy.

Friends also held a stricter standard when it came to marrying “too near of kin.” This usually applied to marriage between cousins, which was not uncommon in as in-

his position as a Nantucket schoolteacher to take to the

sular a community as Quaker Nantucket. Relations among

sea as a privateer, he also left behind his wife, Tabitha

Quakers were defined both by blood, or consanguinity,

Trott, and the couple’s son, Benjamin Frost. This career

and by marriage, or affinity. While civil law generally al-

change may have brought the excitement of the high

lowed for second and third cousins to marry, individual

seas to Frost, but it also placed him in positions of dan-

Quaker monthly meetings often had the authority to regu-

ger he would never have faced in the classroom. His

late against such marriages as they saw fit, so long as their

survival at sea was hardly guaranteed. So in 1713, after

standards did not conflict with the governing yearly meet-

Tabitha had not heard from her husband for a few years,

ings. The Nantucket Monthly Meeting, with the blessing of

she presumed him lost at sea and remarried, this time

the New England Yearly Meeting, could set its own stan-

to a doctor named Joseph Brown, from Newport, Rhode

dard on how to govern marriage between cousins.

Island,

Two marriages in 1721 demonstrated how the meet-

Trott’s decision to remarry would not have caused

ing could voice opposition to cousins marrying without

much of a stir had not her first husband reappeared on

resorting to disownment. The first couple, Mary Gorham

the island shortly after her second wedding. Trott had

and Andrew Gardner, were by a modern definition first

already raised eyebrows within Quaker circles with her

cousins once removed. Andrew’s paternal grandparents,

first marriage to Frost, since he was not a Friend, and

Richard Gardner and Sarah Shattuck, were also Mary’s

with her hasty (by Quaker standards) remarriage. But

mother’s paternal grandparents. In this case, the meeting

when she had two living husbands, the meeting had no

allowed the couple to marry, although the men’s monthly

choice but to act. This led to the first disownment by the

meeting noted in its investigation that although the couple

Nantucket Quaker Monthly Meeting, barely five years

had the meeting’s permission, it was “not in full unity they

after it had been formed in 1708. The Meeting’s decision

being second cousins.”

to disown Trott for bigamy had a long-lasting impact on the community. Trott and Joseph Brown left the island, settling in Brown’s hometown of Newport. Meanwhile, Trott’s mother, Anna, who was one of the nine original Friends to petition the New England Yearly Meeting for permission to form the Nantucket Monthly Meeting, stepped down in shame from her leadership role within the women’s meeting.

Beyond the impact to the Trott family, though, this disownment also established the monthly meeting as guardians of proper Quaker marriage on the island. In

The first couple, Mary Gorham and Andrew Gardner, were by a modern definition first cousins once removed.

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WAYWARD QUAKER WOMEN

Top left: Friends meeting house built in 1829 at 74–76 Main Street, moved in 1883 to Brant Point as center pavilion of the Nantucket Hotel and in 1905 to South Water Street to become part of the Dreamland Theatre, photo circa 1860s.

F2567

Top right: One of the last Quaker meetings at 7 Fair Street, 1887

F6175

Left and top of following page: Quaker meeting house plans

by Robert J. Leach, author of Quaker Nantucket: The Religious Community behind the Whaling Empire, 1997

12

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

WAYWARD QUAKER WOMEN

Throughout the eighteenth century, Quaker marriage on the island saw two major changes.

Throughout the eighteenth century, Quaker marriage on the island saw two major changes. The first was an increased influence of the women’s meeting on regulating marriage. This was a result of the booming whaling industry, which forced many prominent Nantucket Quaker men to be off the island for long periods of time, sometimes being away from home two years or longer. The second

The second case,

change was a stricter discipline in the meeting over marital transgressions. Both of these changes can be found in the 1773 disownment of Dinah Folger by the women’s meeting for her marriage to first cousin Seth Jenkins, as the women’s meeting acted autonomously in expelling her — an action that would not have taken place earlier in the eighteenth century.

just four months later, was between Abigail Folger and

The women’s meeting would take its harshest stances,

Daniel Folger. A couple sharing a last name was not un-

though, against two other marital transgressions: fornica-

heard of in the early years of the Nantucket meeting, with

tion and exogamy. Charges of fornication came mostly in

relatively few English surnames on the island in the early

the form of premarital – as opposed to extramarital – sex.

eighteenth century. In this case, Abigail’s paternal grand-

The aforementioned case of Abigail Folger and Daniel

parents were Daniel’s paternal great-grandparents. This

Folger is one example. Throughout the first half-century

made the couple first cousins once removed, just as Mary

of the Quaker meeting’s existence on Nantucket, from its

Gorham and Andrew Gardner were. Abigail and Daniel

founding in 1708 to roughly 1760, the body would accept

also had ties from another branch, making them double

a public admission of transgression for couples who had

cousins. Their marriage may have been out of necessity,

engaged in premarital sex, as there were no disownments

though, as a son, Elishai, was born roughly six months af-

for fornication during that time period. After 1760, how-

ter the couple received the meeting’s permission to marry.

ever, the meeting became increasingly strict in enforcing

The transgression of having a child too soon after marry-

regulations against fornication, and by the 1770s, against

ing led to a harsher rebuke in 1723 than they would have

other marital transgressions including exogamy.

had based on their familial relation, as the couple had to

As was the case with Abigail and Daniel Folger, a child’s

publicly acknowledge to the meeting that they had en-

birth—either too soon or outside of marriage—was often

gaged in premarital sex.

the impetus for a charge of fornication. In 1793, the women’s FALL/WINTER 2016–17

13

WAYWARD QUAKER WOMEN

Quaker marriage certificate of Benjamin Folger and Phebe Worth, signed by forty witnesses, December 3, 1761 MS 383A NO. 2

meeting found that Lydia Hussey was “guilty of the sin of Fornication” after she became pregnant while not yet having married.

The women’s meeting record in this instance was notable for the direct language used to describe her offense. The language used in the meeting records to describe fornication changed over time, just as the discipline had.

Although fornication had long been considered a serious offense by Quakers, meeting minutes were often coy or reserved in describing the offense. In several instances, fornication was referred to as a “transgression” or a “folly.” By 1770, the women’s meeting noted that fornication was “unlawful intercourse” or “that Evil that is offensive” to God, and by the 1790s, as in the Lydia Hussey case, the women’s meeting spoke directly of fornication by name. Hussey had sexual relations with Laban Barnard before he went to sea, even

Twenty years before

though the couple had not yet declared their intentions to

14

marry. When she gave birth during his absence at sea, the

the Lydia Hussey case, the women’s meeting disowned

meeting had no choice but to discipline the couple. As she

another Friend for engaging in premarital sex. Margaret

was on the island and could not exactly deny the charge,

Gardner was disowned in 1773 for “having a Child Too

considering her pregnancy, she was the first to face the

Soon after Marriage,” as well as for marrying a non-Quak-

meeting, where she admitted her transgression. On his re-

er, Elishai Swain. In this instance, both her fornication and

turn to Nantucket, Laban faced the same charges from the

her decision to marry outside the meeting led to the wom-

men’s meeting that Lydia had faced from the women’s. He

en’s meeting disowning her. Friends on Nantucket took

was not as amenable to their discipline as she had been to

great care to preserve the community’s insular nature. The

the discipline of the women’s meeting, though, and as a

women’s meeting investigated all potential brides before

result was disowned.

marriage and witnessed all Friends weddings to ensure

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

WAYWARD QUAKER WOMEN

The expectation was for female Friends to marry Quakers, preferably from the island. they were conducted in a proper Quaker manner. The ex-

to the meeting’s authority. At the May 1773 monthly meet-

pectation was for female Friends to marry Quakers, prefer-

ing, Phebe Hussey rejected the discipline of the women’s

ably from the island.

meeting and opted for disownment. Throughout the rest

When female Friends did not marry Quakers, the wom-

of 1773, several women were disowned for refusing to sat-

en’s meeting demanded that the women publicly admit

isfy the women’s meeting desire for them to acknowledge

their wrongdoing or face disownment. However, before

the wrongdoing in their exogamous marriages. The trend

the New England Quarterly Meeting had sent out epistles

would continue, for in 1774, Mary Pinkham Clary elected

in 1772 and 1773 mandating that monthly meetings seek

to be disowned rather than submit to the meeting’s dis-

out exogamous Friends for discipline, and the matter of

cipline, and the next year, Anna Folger Gardner did the

marrying outside of Friends would usually only arise when

same. This more proactive approach by the meeting in

a woman wanted to remarry and approached the month-

seeking out women who had married outside the Friends

ly meeting. For example, Ruth Bunker had married John

led many women to reject the meeting’s authority.

Myrick outside the meeting—and thus, without the sanc-

The meeting’s increased discipline of exogamous wom-

tion of the meeting. Yet no action was taken against her by

en is yet another example of the larger role the women’s

the meeting until she approached the women’s meeting

meeting played in regulating marriage over the course of

in 1765. John Myrick had been lost at sea in 1761, and she

the eighteenth century. It also indicates how increasingly

wished to remarry, this time to a Quaker, Shubael Barnard.

strict the women’s meeting was regarding marriage. But

After apologizing publicly to the women’s meeting for her

what makes those two particular movements important is

previous exogamous marriage, she was permitted to marry

that they placed greater public authority over preserving

Barnard, this time with the blessing of the meeting.

the moral and social order of the island into the hands of

When the New England Yearly Meeting’s epistles forced

the island’s female Quaker population. While many of the

the monthly meetings within its oversight to proactive-

island’s men were off at sea securing Nantucket’s whaling

ly seek out exogamous Friends, women who had left the

fortunes, the island’s women assumed leadership roles in

meeting to marry non-Quakers would either be forced to

religion and in other facets of Nantucket society. These

admit wrongdoing in their existing marriage or face dis-

women became the foundation in the eighteenth centu-

ownment. The women’s meeting sent out committees

ry for a vibrant generation of nineteenth-century female

of Friends, usually composed of two prominent Quaker

activists who shared Nantucket roots. Lucretia Mott and

women, to meet with the women and investigate whether

Martha Coffin Wright, sisters from Nantucket, helped

they wished to “make Satisfaction” with the meeting by ac-

shape the women’s rights movement at Seneca Falls in

knowledging their wrongdoing.

1848, while Nantucketer Anna Gardner led abolitionist

Some women made amends with the meeting after they

movements and conventions. Other female leaders, in-

had been visited by the committees. In the second meet-

cluding astronomer Maria Mitchell and minister Phebe

ing of 1773, Abigail Macy acknowledged her wrongdoing,

Coffin Hanaford, emerged from the same Nantucket Quak-

and the meeting accepted her acknowledgment. The next

er tradition. And perhaps just a bit of the rebellious spirit

month, Judith Russell did the same. By the late summer

of the island’s more “wayward” Quaker women rubbed off

of 1773, the meeting minutes are replete with such ac-

on these nineteenth-century female leaders.

knowledgments. In the late eighteenth century, however, some women who had married outside the meeting were

JEFFREY KOVACH is the NHA’s 2016 E. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Thay-

not inclined to renounce their actions to appease the

er Verney Fellow. He earned his Ph.D. in History from the University

meeting. The women’s meeting records have instances of

of Massachusetts Amherst in 2015, and teaches at Charter Oak State

women who chose to be disowned rather than acquiesce

College and Gateway Community College.

FALL/WINTER 2016–17

15

A Man for All Seasons

By Diana Taylor Brown

MY ANCESTOR, William Wilkes Morris (1780–1847), was a man of

many talents—artist, teacher, mariner, navigator, and inventor.

His great-grandfather, John Morris, a widower with three children, came to Nantucket from Holland. In 1762, he purchased the house at 16 Pearl (India) Street, which he operated as an inn. Later, he purchased the house at 9 Darling Street, which remained in the Morris family for more than six decades, passing to his four grandsons, one of whom was William’s father, Jonathan. My mother told me it was full of paintings and ship carvings by William Wilkes Morris, and all the furnishings were sold, as was often customary, to the buyer.

Little is known about William’s early life, but he probably went to sea when he was sixteen or seventeen. By 1802, at the age of twenty-two, he was appointed first mate of the ship Hero of New 16

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

WILLIAM WILKES MORRIS

Opening pages of Wilkes’s journal of the voyage of the ship Hero, 1802 Opposite page: Morris’s signature and decorative embellishment MS250-FOLDER1

York, under Captain Stephen Rawson of Nantucket. While on that voyage to France with a cargo of mahogany, coffee, and pepper, William kept a journal. In addition to an account of the voyage, the journal includes poetry; a description of perpetual motion; recipes for varnish, artist’s techniques, and colors; instructions for preserving food; several pages of illustrations of coats of arms that relate to Nantucket names, and other varied notations that give us some idea of the interests of the young man.

Morris’s voyage on the Hero was eventful. After arriving in France and offloading cargo, the Hero was fitted out as a whaler, with a crew of French, English, and American sailors. Off the coast of Africa, she met up with the Baleine, under Captain Reuben Baxter of Nantucket, and sailed in company with her to St. Catherine’s Island near Rio de Janeiro, where both ships were seized by the English privateer Swallow. First mate Morris was offered Left: Family daguerreotype believed

command of the Swallow to carry out whaling under the English flag, if

to be William Wilkes Morris

he would consent to arm the ship with guns. He refused, staying on the

COLLECTION OF THE AUTHOR

Hero with prize-master David Smyth and sailing to England. There, in the FALL/WINTER 2016–17

17

A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS

Mariners’ School With the advent of his Mariners’ School, Morris turned his attention to educating the next generation of Nantucket seamen, and he contemplated solutions for the major impediment to Nantucket whaling—the problem of the shallow entrance to the harbor that prevented access to the increasingly larger ships of the fleet. In 1828, Morris proposed that Nantucket adopt the use of “camels”— floating dry-docks that had proved successful in Holland. The drawings and details he circulated around town were noted in the Nantucket Inquirer: “They exhibit great skill and ingenuity, and reflect much credit on the taste and nautical science of captain M.,” but he was ahead of his time. Not until fifteen years later did the camels become a reality, in an effort led by Peter Folger Ewer. (See Historic Nantucket, Spring 2015).

Page of heraldic designs of Nantucket families,

by William Wilkes Morris

MS250-FOLDER1

spring of 1804, he was discharged, with no payment for his services, no decent clothing, and no means of returning home.

We don’t know how William eventually found his way back to Nantucket, but records show that he went to sea again in the whaleship Union in 1807. That ship ran into a whale in the North Atlantic and sank, the crew surviving in whaleboats as they made their way 600 miles to the Azores.

Finding maritime employment altogether too risky after his two unfortunate voyages, William and his wife, Priscilla Chase, and daughter Eliza, moved to Ohio, where a group of Nantucket families had settled just before the War of 1812. In 1818, his wife died, prompting Wilkes and tenyear-old Eliza to return to Nantucket where they moved in with his mother at 9 Darling Street. He opened a school in his mother’s house, where he taught “Arithmetic, Geography, Trigonometry, Navigation, and the Lunar observa-

18

tions. Also, in the art of ship-drafting by which a ship’s sails

Advertisement in the Nantucket Inquirer,

and rigging may be fashioned with the greatest Accuracy.”

December 2, 1823

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

WILLIAM WILKES MORRIS

Ship Hero of Nantucket Leaving Gay Head Light Bound for the Coast of Japan in 1824, attributed to William Wilkes Morris, 1824 1896.140.1

Morris was an accomplished artist who undoubtedly mentored a number of Nantucket youth who later illustrated their maritime journals with impressive, accurate drawings of ships seen at sea. His portrait of the Washington, now in the collection of the NHA, depicts a ship under full sail scudding along over stylized blue waves. On board the vessel men are employed in various tasks, two of them climbing up the ratlines and one man balancing on the bowsprit, pulling in a large fish with a hand line. Another unsigned ship portrait, of a later Hero (built in Rochester, Massachusetts, in 1816) is more than likely by Ship Washington, William Wilkes Morris, 1825

Morris, too. Both display intricately drawn sails and rigging, a

2011.181

specialty of the artist.

Morris was an accomplished

children. Details of his later life are unknown, but with his me-

artist who undoubtedly mentored a number of Nantucket youth

William Wilkes Morris and second wife, Lucinda, had seven chanically inventive mind, artistic talent, knowledge of mathematics and navigation, and dedication to the education of island youth, he undoubtedly held a respected position in the community. Morris died September 28, 1847, a fact not reported in the newspaper of record, nor is a gravestone standing in any of the island’s cemeteries.

DIANA TAYLOR BROWN and her late husband, Colin, wrote The Whaler and the Privateer, (1992), a detailed examination of the fate of the ships Hero and Swallow.

FALL/WINTER 2016–17

19

RECENT ACQUISITION

Seth Pinkham (1786–1844) and Mary Brown Pinkham (1791–1874), attributed to William Swain, circa 1839

1989.128.1, 1989.128.2

The Seth Pinkham Papers REVEALING THE MIND OF A MAN AT SEA

By Betsy Tyler

20

IN THE ARCHIVAL VAULT at the NHA Research Library,

Although the family were Quakers, Jethro was known to

among other treasures, are letters and documents re-

sneak and play the fiddle on occasion, and although living in

lating to Nantucket founding families—Coffins, Macys,

a bustling maritime community, he was a cobbler by trade,

Starbucks, Bunkers, and other first settlers and their de-

not a sailor. The family struggled to survive during the lean

scendants. Among the collections are found the Pinkham

years of the Revolutionary War. Lacking proper schooling

family papers, relics of the descendants of Richard

and opportunity, youngest son, Seth Pinkham (1786 –1844),

Pinkham, who came to Nantucket from the Isle of Wight

began work in a ropewalk when he was just ten years old.

in the 1680s and married Mary Coffin, a granddaughter

At fourteen, he went whaling in the Clio. Fifteen years later,

of Tristram Coffin, with whom he had nine children. After

he was captain of the Dauphin on two voyages (1815 –17,

several generations, a large clan of Pinkhams lived on the

1817–19), followed in 1820 by a three-year cruise in the

island. Jethro, a grandson of Richard and Mary, married

Galen, which brought home more than 2,200 barrels of

Susannah Coffin in 1765. They built the house at 43 Fair

sperm oil. Pinkham retired from the sea at the age of thir-

Street and there presided over a brood of ten children.

ty-seven.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

THE SETH PINKHAM PAPERS

Seth Pinkham married Mary Brown in 1811; two years later they settled in the house he purchased at 42 Fair Street, across the street from his parents. He was a self-educated man and a lifelong learner, corrected in grammar and pronunciation by his better-educated wife, and the avid reader of books loaned by his good friend William Coffin, a writer and teacher.

Seth and Mary had one daughter, Mary B., before he took command of the Dauphin in 1815, and another, Elizabeth, born while he was at sea. Rebecca arrived during the second voyage of that ship, and Malvina in 1820. From 1823 on, Seth was home on Nantucket, tending a small farm, investing in whaleships, enliven-

Seth Pinkham’s whale stamp

1984.48.22

ing family life with readings of Robert Burns and, like his father, playing the violin. The family boasted fine singing voices, a love of literature, and a joie de vivre that were not reminiscent of Seth’s boyhood Quaker household, where his father was scolded for indulging in an occasional tune. When still a young man, Seth switched his allegiance to the Second Congregational Society, which worshiped in the grand meeting house on Orange Street. A fifth daughter, Harriett, was born in 1828, shortly before the family moved to the new house built next door at 40 Fair Street. Son Seth Pinkham Jr. was born there in 1831, followed by a sixth daughter, Helen, born in 1834.

40 and 42 Fair Street, 2016

THE PINKHAM FAMILY was not unlike many other Nantucket households in the first half of the nineteenth century. Mariners in the whaling industry might be absent for two or three years at a stretch, leaving pregnant wives on the wharf when they sailed away and returning to meet the newest member of the family before repeating the process. We learn about many of these families by studying genealogies, deeds, census records, and other documents that help us understand who lived where and at what time; and statistics of the whaling industry provide lengths of voyages, returns of oil, and loss at sea. But what we FALL/WINTER 2016–17

21

RECENT ACQUISITION

don’t usually have access to are the hopes and dreams of these families, the details of domestic life on the island and at sea, the intimate stories of challenges, hard decisions, affections, and tastes.

Thanks to the beneficence of an anonymous donor, the NHA has acquired a collection of letters and musings of Seth Pinkham written while at sea from 1840 to 1844, including a “waste book” titled Scraps, Scrolls, and Other Things; copies of letters he wrote to family, friends, and business associates; and most poignantly, a thirty-seven page letter of advice penned to his young son and namesake, Seth Pinkham Jr., who was nine years old when his father sailed away never to return. Perusing the bare facts of the Pinkham family, one might wonder why Seth, at the age of fifty-four, chose to go on another whaling voyage as captain of the Henry Astor—he had retired from the sea seventeen years earlier. And one would note that he died on the homeward voyage, while his wife lived for another thirty years, and all of his children married and thrived.

In a letter to his wife, Seth explains, for the record, why he decided to make one more voyage: At length, finding our pecuniary means of living stealing slowly and silently from my grasp, and with a view to make good our losses, I resolved again to try the mountain wave in the year 1840.

Letter from Seth Pinkham to his son, written on the ship Henry Astor at sea off

I took charge of the good ship Henry

the island of Juan Fernandez, March 4, 1832

Astor for this purpose. During the 17

MS164-FOLDER17

years that I remained on shore (aside from bodily pains which could neither

THANKS TO THE BENEFICENCE OF AN ANONYMOUS DONOR, THE NHA HAS ACQUIRED A COLLECTION OF LETTERS AND MUSINGS OF SETH PINKHAM WRITTEN WHILE AT SEA FROM 1840 TO 1844

be foreseen nor prevented) I enjoyed my family, full up to the measure of my expectations. Whenever a moderate share of health pervaded the group, my wife and children were happy—We lived in some respects with the strictest economy, yet not niggardly. It is true,

22

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

THE SETH PINKHAM PAPERS

Boy riding a Galapagos tortoise at the New York Zoological Park, from Charles Haskin Townsend’s Galapagos Tortoises in Relation to the Whaling Industry, New York Zoological Society, 1925

I have put on board the ship Magnolia, Barnard, of N.B. a good sized terrapin (or land tortoise) as a present for you, and as something which has lived and moved my wife might have rode less; our children need not

(though slow) and had its being on board the Henry

have sung, nor played, nor danced so much; they could

Astor. This singular quadruped was taken from the

have lived without the luxury of a horse and chaise, or a

almost inaccessible mountains on the West side of the

Pianoforte; and it would have been reasonable that they

South Head of Albemarle, one of the Galapagos group.

should, provided these pleasures had not been paid for with our own earnings.

Seth wrote to his daughters as well, but felt it more important to commune from afar with his only son, as explained in

Well, now my dear friends, I have abundant opportunity for to think of these things: am I sorry that this extra expenditure of money has been laid out for the gratification of my family? Does any conscience reprove me for it? Not at all; thank God! I have nothing to take back. I have earned my money cheerfully and I have spent it with a hearty good will; the end and aim has been answered because it has been laid out for the support and gratification of those I love.

Paternal advice to son Seth flowed freely from the fa-

this letter to Harriet, three years older than Seth Jr.: My dear child, You must not think much at the voluminous mode that I have adopted in addressing your little brother (Seth Jr.) Although you may not discover it now, you will soon perceive when a few summer suns have rolled round, that his sphere of action in life is destined by nature to be vastly different from yours—He is a boy: and his destiny like other boys is upon the world’s wide stage, to look out for himself—a few short years and he will be thrown

ther’s pen. In page after page he admonished the child to

upon his own resources to act his part in the great drama

be temperate, respectful, to read and study, to avoid glut-

of life for better or for worse; knowing this to be the

tony, and not to be naïve:

inevitable consequence to all such as him, I have pointed out some of the evils of this wicked world in a series of

You are not bound to believe every rabble that is floating

letters from an old scrap-book wherein I put down a

in the breeze; neither are you to consider it your duty

stray thought, now and then, to keep them from flying

to contradict a person who may take the pains to relate

off into space.

to you a foolish story which came from his old grand dam 40 years ago: he may believe the tale but that is not

On his voyage home in 1844, Seth Pinkham fell ill. He

a sufficient reason for you to take it into safe keeping.

died in Pernambuco, Brazil, just a few weeks before the

If a young man should tell you that he has repeatedly

Henry Astor arrived in port at Nantucket, where Seth’s fam-

drove from town to Siasconsett [sic] in the short span

ily eagerly awaited his return.

of 35 or 40 minutes, you can just say to him, by way of

For more about the Pinkham fami-

gentle rebuke, that you have yourself travelled the road

ly, check out Through the Hawse-Hole:

a few times but aside from the rebuke, which in all cases

The True Story of a Nantucket Whaling

should be modest, you have your private opinion, in the exercise of which you may conclude that he has either told a lie or killed a horse!

Captain, (NY: MacMillan, 1932) written by his great-granddaughter, Florence Bennett Anderson.

Father Seth softened his lengthy epistle with the promise of a special gift for his son:

BETSY TYLER is the editor of Historic Nantucket and an NHA Research Fellow.

FALL/WINTER 2016–17

23

NHA UPDATE

NHA Research Fellows

FALL/WINTER 2016–17

MARY K. BERCAW EDWARDS WRITING AND SPEAKING

Mary K. Bercaw Edwards continues to focus on Herman Melville and Jack ly their maritime connections. She

MARGARET MOORE BOOKER

ERIC JAY DOLIN

recently completed a chapter for a

RETURN OF A FAVORITE TITLE

BRILLIANT BEACONS: A HISTORY OF

book on Herman

Margaret Moore Booker celebrated

THE AMERICAN LIGHTHOUSE

Melville’s Billy Budd

the release of her book, Southwest Art

Eric Jay Dolin spent the spring and

titled “Performing

Defined: An Illustrated Guide, in the

summer giving more than sixty talks on

the Sailor in Billy Budd, Sailor,” and spoke

paperback edition, in the spring of 2016.

his new book, Brilliant Beacons: A History

at a Jack London conference in Napa,

She and co-authors Pat Butler and

of the American Lighthouse, including

California, on “Jack London: Square-Rig

Rose Gonnella are taking steps to have

one to a sold-out crowd at the Nantuck-

Sailor.” She plans to speak next summer

their popular (and currently out-of-

et Whaling Museum in June (more talks

at the Eleventh International Melville

print) book—Sea Captains’ Houses and

are scheduled into next year). He also

Conference in London, on “Perform-

Rose-Covered Cottages: the Architectural

spoke about the book on the TV pro-

ing the Sailor in Melville’s Works.” Her

Heritage of Nantucket Island—reprinted

grams “CBS This Morning” and “Chroni-

current book project is titled Sailor Talk:

in 2017.

cle,” as well as on a number of National

Labor, Utterance, and Meaning in the

Public Radio shows. Eric is now at work

Works of Melville, Conrad, and London.

on a book about American pirates.

PAULA HENDERSON ENGLISH GARDENS

Paula Henderson continues to lecture and write on Tudor and early Stuart architecture and landscapes,

ROBERT HELLMAN

mostly in the United Kingdom. Publications this year

DONATION TO WHALING MUSEUM

include the chapter on “Gardens” in The Cambridge Guide to

Robert Hellman and his wife, Nina, loaned a portion of their

the Worlds of Shakespeare, 1500–1660 (Cambridge University

extensive whaling and whalecraft artifact collection to the NHA

Press, 2016) and “The Gardens and Park” in Hardwick Hall (to be

for display when the new Whaling Museum opened in 2005.

published in November by the National Trust and Yale Univer-

They are now finalizing the donation of these significant items

sity Press). She is also editing and contributing to Architecture,

to the NHA.

Patrons and Craftsmen in Tudor and Jacobean England, to be published next year.

24

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

DAN MIL L ER , 201 2

London, especial-

RESEARCH FELLOWS

FRANCES RULEY KARTTUNEN

TED MELILLO

SLIDE SHOW AT OUR ISLAND HOME AND THE SALTMARSH CENTER

STRANGERS ON FAMILIAR SOIL:

Frances Ruley Karttunen has been presenting a weekly slide

REDISCOVERING THE CHILE–CALIFORNIA

show for the residents of Nantucket’s Our Island Home, fea-

CONNECTION

turing topics of local interest, including a five-part series on

Ted Melillo’s book, Strangers on Familiar

Nantucket’s Portuguese heritage. She is currently creating a

Soil: Rediscovering the Chile–California

Siasconset series for presenting at both Our Island Home and

Connection (Yale University Press, 2015)

the Saltmarsh Center.

is the Western History Association’s winner of this year’s Caughey Western History Prize for the most distinguished book on the history of the American West,

HERSHEL PARKER

broadly defined. He received the prize on October 22 at the association’s annual meeting in St. Paul, Minnesota.

3RD NORTON CRITICAL EDITION OF MOBY-DICK

Hershel Parker edited the 3rd Norton

NATHANIEL PHILBRICK

Critical Edition of Moby-Dick early in 2016; It includes a piece by NHA Re-

BEN’S REVOLUTION: BENJAMIN RUSSELL

search Fellows Wyn Kelley and Mary K.

AND THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL

Bercaw Edwards on the significance of the Moby-Dick reading

Nathaniel Philbrick is in the process of

marathons. He is working with five other scholars to complete

researching and writing a third book

the final volume in the fifteen-volume edition of The Writings

about the Revolution that focuses on

of Herman Melville, also published by Norton. He is currently

the year leading up to Yorktown. He’s

writing about Indian and Patriot women and children in Revolu-

also written the text for a children’s book with illustrations by

tionary North Carolina.

Wendell Minor called Ben’s Revolution: Benjamin Russell and the Battle of Bunker Hill, which is coming out in 2017.

BARBARA WHITE THE LIFE OF ANNA GARDNER

Barbara White continues to research the life of Anna Gardner (1816–1901) as

DANIEL VICKERS

she finishes her biography. She gave a talk to the

FROM SEA TO FARM

African American Genealogical Society on January 26, 2016, in

Daniel Vickers is currently on research leave from the Univer-

Charlottesville, Virginia, about Anna’s work in establishing the

sity of British Columbia, finishing a book on the borrowing and

Jefferson School there for freedmen at the end of the Civil War.

lending habits of an eighteenth-century New Hampshire farmer

She recently explored resources at the Massachusetts Historical

named Matthew Patten. Although farming takes him away from

Society, the Massachusetts State Archives, and the American

the sea, Vickers says that his interest in credit stems from years

Antiquarian Society in Worcester.

of studying indebted native peoples on Nantucket.

FALL/WINTER 2016–17

25

News Notes & Highlights INSIDE THE NHA

New Staff boosts Education programs at the NHA

Brianne Roth

Elizabeth Clark

Evan Schwanfelder

Brianne Roth received her B.A. in

Elizabeth “Libby” Clark attended

Evan Schwanfelder holds a B.A. in

History from Randolph College and

Hobart and William Smith Colleges,

history from Lewis and Clark College

earned an M.A. in History with a

where she obtained a B.A. in

in Portland, Oregon, and an M.A.

concentration in Public History from

Anthropology and a minor in Religious

in Teaching with a certification in

American University in May 2015.

Studies. In 2014, she began her studies

Secondary History/Social Studies

While attending American University,

at the University of North Carolina-

from Quinnipiac University. He

she was a Visitor Services Associate

Greensboro, working toward a master’s

worked as a seventh-grade history

at Ford’s Theatre National Historic

in history with a concentration in

teacher and an elementary school

Site. Through her experiences

museum studies. Clark was an NHA

librarian in the Connecticut public

at Ford’s Theatre, highlighted by

Public Programs intern during the

school system. Nantucket has always

working with the public and assisting

summer of 2015. She loved her time

held a special place in his heart since

with the 150th commemoration of

working with the NHA and living

he first vacationed here as a child.

Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, she

on the island so much that after her

After spending this past summer

gained a growing interest in public

graduation from UNCG in May 2016

working with the NHA as a Museum

programming and outreach. As the

she accepted an offer to return to the

Educator and Historic Site Interpreter,

Public Programs Coordinator at the

NHA as Lead Educator for summer

Schwanfelder quickly realized that

NHA, she enjoys sharing her passion

2016. Now, as the NHA’s new Visitor

the island would be a wonderful place

for museums and history through

Operations Coordinator, Clark

to call home. He is thrilled to accept

creative programs.

combines her love of history and

the full-time position as Manager of

service to bring history to the public in

Education at the NHA.

accessible and exciting ways.

26

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Sacerdote Chair of Education Marjan Shirzad (center) with performers and participants at the Mexico community celebration in the Whaling Museum

PROGRAMS

Our Nantucket Highlighting the rich diversity of today’s islanders Focused on the rich and varied cultures that make up

and were entertained by Boston-based performer and

the island community, each presentation of the Our

teacher Veronica Robles of the Veronica Robles Cultural

Nantucket diversity series celebrates a different country,

Center. Robles and her musicians regaled the audience

highlighting the customs of the countries of origin of

with mariachi music, a presentation on Aztec culture, and

today’s Nantucketers. The NHA first offered this series

dancing by students aged seven to fifteen, who performed

in 2015, celebrating Nepal, Bulgaria, and El Salvador,

traditional Mexican songs and dances.

and met with great success. On Sunday, September 18,

The Our Nantucket series is made possible by the

2016, the latest installment of this popular cultural-

generous support of the Community Foundation for

diversity program featured Mexico. Two hundred-plus

Nantucket; Nantucket Bank, a Division of Blue Hills Bank;

Nantucketers filled the halls of the Whaling Museum and

and the M. S. Worthington Foundation. Thanks to the NHA

were treated to samples of delicious Mexican cuisine,

staff and community leaders Maria Partida and Jackie

heard an informative panel of guest speakers who shared

Echeverria, as well as the many students and community

their individual stories of immigrating to the island,

volunteers who make these programs possible.

FALL/WINTER 2016–17

27

IN PROGRESS

Historic Rehabilitation at the Quaker Meeting House The NHA is the recipient of a $40,000 grant from the Nantucket Community Preservation Committee (CPC) to make repairs to the Quaker Meeting House. The only surviving Quaker religious site on island in its original location and configuration, the Quaker Meeting House represents a crucial aspect of Nantucket’s social, religious, and architectural history. The funds from the CPC are helping the NHA continue to preserve this important historic structure for future generations. The project includes an updated structural assessment and repairs to the balcony that will allow the space to again be open to the general public.

In addition, all fourteen windows will be removed and repaired. Plaster wall finishes will be restored in locations where cracking and loose plaster are present and new wooden storm windows will be fabricated. Rehabilitation work began in November and is expected to be completed by the spring. Contractors include John Wathne, principal of Structures North; Ben Moore Woodworking; Jeff Carr Plastering; and Dean Miller Painting.

28

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

News Notes & Highlights PROPERTIES

7 Fair Street NHA Research Library building a national treasure The Great Fire of 1846 changed the history of Nantucket

two years earlier, in 1904? In the previous year, a Boston

in ways that were dramatic, and ultimately led to the

firm called the Aberthaw Construction Company was

construction of a unique historic building—the concrete

hired by Harvard University to construct a new football

structure at 7 Fair Street, contiguous to the Quaker Meeting

stadium. Described in an early brochure as “the first

House. Larger fires in Chicago and Boston (in 1871 and

Company in New England to begin specializing in

1872, respectively) caused the issue of fire safety to become

reinforced concrete construction,” Aberthaw completed

a national obsession. Americans turned to stone and brick

the project in 133 working days, and with much fanfare

construction, and to a relatively new material—concrete.

the stadium was ready for the 1903 Harvard–Yale game.

Domestic manufacturing of portland cement, which

Documents in the archives of the NHA show that

was originally produced in Portland, England, began on

Aberthaw was then engaged to build the “Fair Street

a relatively small scale, in eastern Pennsylvania, at the

Rooms,” and thus provide a fireproof facility for the

same time as the Chicago and Boston fires. Production

association’s collections. This remarkable building is

expanded considerably in the final decade of the

among a handful of pre-1906 concrete structures in

nineteenth century, and by 1900 there were at least fifty

this country. It represents the development of new

cement plants located around the country. Concrete

technology at the very start of the twentieth century, and

had been used mostly for infrastructure and very rarely

is truly a national treasure. Today, the NHA Research

in architecture, expanding only after a small number

Library is located at 7 Fair Street.

of concrete buildings survived the San Francisco

NORMAN WEISS teaches at Columbia University’s School of Archi-

earthquake and fire of 1906.

tecture, Planning, and Preservation. He is a frequent guest lecturer

So how did the Fair Street building come to be built

at Preservation Institute: Nantucket.

Left: Fair Street Museum, circa 1904 GPN2842

FALL/WINTER 2016–17

29

News Notes & Highlights GIVING

The NHA’s Whaling Museum, historic proper-

charitable giving goals as well as your per-

ties, and programs bring to life Nantucket his-

sonal financial goals—with bequests of cash,

tory, inspiring us and awakening our curiosity

artifacts, and real estate; gifts of life insurance

about other times and other people.

policies, appreciated securities, and other

For more than a century, planned gifts have helped the NHA carry out its mission—

NHA will continue to tell the inspiring stories

tions to building the endowment to ensure

of Nantucket through its collections, pro-

the perpetual care of our iconic properties.

grams, and properties.

To learn more about the Heritage Society,

NHA’s Heritage Society with your planned

please contact the Development Office at

gift. Such gifts can help you to meet your

(508) 228-1894 or plannedgiving@nha.org.

GRANT

NHA awarded prestigious Grant from the Museum of America program On September 15, the NHA received confirmation of a grant from the prestigious Museums for America program of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to improve the management and care of its 2,000-item costume and textile collection and expand access to the collection. One of 206 museums selected from a pool of 548 applicants, the NHA was awarded $150,000.

The funds will enable the association to inventory, re-catalog, photograph, and assess the condition of objects in storage; rehouse the collection and place it in space-efficient compact shelving units; and make information about the objects available to the public through the association’s website.

“The NHA’s costume and textile collection represents nearly 250 years of island history. Visitors love seeing how people used to dress, and we want to display more of these fascinating objects in our galleries. This grant will help better organize what we have and will make it easier for us to bring these pieces out of storage,” said Michael Harrison, NHA Robyn and John Davis Chief Curator.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Through your vision and generosity, the

from adding significant artifacts to the collec-

We invite you to become a member of the

30

estate planning methods.

COLLECTIONS

Gosnold Collections Center Receiving Room cleared and ready to accept textile materials being processed for the IMLS grant

Behind the Scenes Collections Care NHA makes space at the Gosnold Center Annex building In preparation for the IMLS grant-funded project, the NHA staff has been hard at work clearing space to stage the major move of collections required for the project. This has involved cleaning out the Annex building behind the NHA’s Gosnold Collections Center. For a long time, the Annex has housed items in the collections that have not been on display in years. Clearing the building earlier this month allowed for some sensitive pieces to be taken into safe storage with some pieces covered for added protection and long-term preservation purposes. Other objects will be catalogued and properly stored as part of this effort. The long-term plan for the Annex and Collections Center will be to convert the current Maintenance Workshop area within the Gosnold Collections Center

Storage for large objects in the Annex

building to air-conditioned collections storage and processing space, and then convert the Annex Building to the Maintenance Workshop and storage.

FALL/WINTER 2016–17

31

PERIODICAL POSTAGE PAID AT NANTUCKET, MA AND ADDITIONAL ENTRY OFFICES

P.O. BOX 1016, NANTUCKET, MA 02554–1016

Collecting Nantucket THE FRIENDS OF THE NHA HELP PRESERVE THE HISTORY OF NANTUCKET FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS

Islander Charles P. Gardner (1832–78) manned a lightship off Nantucket for a time in the 1860s and 1870s. During his spare hours, he carved decorative items such as shelf brackets, picture frames, and this set of miniature furniture, which was exhibited at the 1876 Nantucket Agricultural Society Fair.

For thirty years, the Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association have helped preserve unique island treasures such as Gardner’s furniture. When objects of high historic or artistic merit appear for

TO DONATE COLLECTIONS TO

sale or at auction, the Friends work with the NHA’s curators to bring

THE NHA, PLEASE CONTACT OUR

important pieces into the collection and into public view. Over

CURATORIAL DEPARTMENT AT

one hundred items to date have been permanently preserved for everyone to enjoy, thanks to the Friends’ ongoing efforts.

(508) 228–1894