Historic Nantucket, Summer 2017, Vol. 67, No. 1

H I S TO R I C

SUMMER 2017 | VOLUME 67, NO. 1

A PUBLICATION OF THE NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

M A RI NE RS, TE AC H ER S, B A S K ET MA K ER S A ND SC R I MS H A N D ER S SUMMER 2017

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SUMMER 2017 | VOLUME 67, NO. 1

Board of Trustees Kelly Williams PRESIDENT

Victoria McManus VICE PRESIDENT

William J. Boardman TREASURER

W. Michael Cozort CLERK

Sarah Alger Patricia Anathan Josette Blackmore Susan Blount Anne Marie Bratton SHI P S VI GI L A N T A N D H A R PO O N E R , PA IN T IN G BY W ILLIA M JOH N H UG G IN S, 1832.

CO U RTE SY OF T H E N AT I ON A L MA R I T IM E M US E UM , G RE E N W IC H, LON DON, G RE E N BL ACKWELL COLLECTION

Chip Carver Olivia Charney Wylie Collins

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inside the nha

Milestones by william j . tramposch

Cam Gammill John Hilton Wendy Hudson Carl Jelleme William Little

4

whaling

Nantucket Mariners in the British Southern Whale Fishery by dale chatwin and judith lund

Hampton Lynch FRIENDS OF THE NHA VICE PRESIDENT

Carla McDonald Kennedy Richardson Janet Sherlund TRUSTEE EMERITA

Daisy Soros

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island history

Carter Stewart

Teachers at the African School

Jason Tilroe

by frances ruley karttunen

Phoebe Tudor Jay Wilson FRIENDS OF THE NHA PRESIDENT

20 26

Alisa Wood crafting an icon

Nantucket Basket Makers & Scrimshanders

Ex Officio

by mary bergman and andrea wulffleff

INTERIM GOSNELL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

exhibitions

new staff

new executive director

News Notes

David D. Worth Jr.

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. ©2017 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

Milestones THIS ISSUE MARKS A significant milestone in our Associa-

tion’s history, because this is a year of transitions. Both Janet

even better: The Whaling Museum has been reaccredited

Sherlund, President of the Board, and I have stepped down

by the American Alliance of Museums, an honor bestowed

from our respective positions: Janet, because she has done

upon just over a thousand of the estimated 33,000 mu-

heroic service in our name, having served for eight years as

seums nationwide. Your NHA has filled its halls with en-

our President, attending every meeting and offering sup-

gaging community programs, exhibitions, and events; has

port to staff and board at every turn; I because after eleven

attracted more school groups than ever before, especially

years at the helm of this august association, it is time to re-

through our wildly popular sleep-over for fourth-graders;

tire and a perfect juncture for retirement. Both Janet and I

has offered ongoing free community lectures; has pro-

have had the pleasure of being in the right place at the right

duced a “gateway film” that surprises and delights people

time, and I speak for us both when I say that it has been a

about the significant international history of our “elbow of

privilege to work alongside so many avid supporters, board

sand”; has established myriad collaborations with com-

members, staff, and stakeholders as we tell “the inspiring

munity partners and first-tier academic institutions; and

stories of Nantucket through our collections, programs,

has redoubled its efforts to undertake oral histories.

and properties.”

abled us to restore Greater Light; the Fire Hose Cart House;

Below (pardon the statistics) I would like to show YOU

what YOU have achieved in the last decade: •

Our annual appeal has increased 76%;

•

Membership revenue has increased 20%;

and the Quaker Meeting House. In addition, your support has allowed us to address a huge island challenge, affordable housing for staff: We have built a duplex on Bartlett Road that provides year-round housing.

utreach and special community programs O have increased 906%;

•

Grants have increased 765%;

•

Sales in our Museum Shop have increased 21%;

•

ur “silent” endowment drive has increased O 252%, and by the time all pledges are in it will have increased 456%.

care of our most iconic properties — the Old Mill, the Oldest House, Hadwen House, and those mentioned above; we have endowed four key positions, up from one ten years ago; and we have endowed our major exhibition gallery.

Thank you for the difference you make to our esteemed

association, now in its 123rd year. Given your enthusiasm and dedication, it is clear that only increased vibrancy and relevance will follow.

s h i p s y r e n o f l o n d o n , p a i n t i n g b y m i l e s w a lt e r s , 1822

But wait, there is more! Through the endowment gifts

we have received we are now able to ensure the perpetual

•

on the cover:

In the midst of these programs, your support has en-

the Old Gaol; the Macy-Christian House on Liberty Street;

dmissions have increased 32%, while A admissions revenues have increased 40%;

•

On a wider, more narrative level though, the news is

Fair Winds,

1 9 1 0.4 1 . 1

SUMMER 2017

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N A N T UC KE T MARINERS IN THE BRITISH SOUTHERN WHA LE FIS HE RY

By Dale Chatwin and Judith Lund

THE BRITISH SOUTHERN WHALE FISHERY (BSWF) was established in London in 1775. For the next eighty years, the trade was carried out from there to the south and west of England and to the South Seas. Initially, transplanted Nantucket whalemen provided the technical leadership, masters, and crews on British whaleships. Some came directly, others via Dartmouth in Nova Scotia, then Milford Haven, and others via Dunkirk in France (see Jane Clayton, “Nantucket Whalers in Milford Haven, Wales,” HN Winter 2007.) British owners

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

OPPOSITE PAGE:

Ship Syren of London, painting by Miles Walters, 1822 1 9 1 0.4 1 . 1

LEFT:

Title page of Thomas Beale’s The Natural History of the Sperm Whale, 1839, NHA Research Library, Rare Book Collection Note: All whaling sketches in this article are from Beale’s History

even adopted the Nantucketer’s system of remuneration,

southern whaling don’t survive. In chapter thirty-two of

the “lay system,” which offered the ship’s company a prede-

Moby-Dick, Melville records: “There are only two books in

termined percentage of the value of the product returned

being which at all pretend to put the living sperm whale

instead of paying wages. As the trade developed, leadership

before you. . . . Those books are Beale’s and Bennett’s; both

passed into British hands, although the link with Nantucket

in their time surgeons to English South-Sea whale-ships.”

persisted. As late as the 1840s, there were still British whale-

Interestingly, Beale served part of the voyage that he record-

ships commanded by Nantucket-born masters.

ed under a Nantucket-born master, William Swain, whose profile follows later in this article. It was on my trip to Nan-

The BSWF Voyage and Crew Databases

tucket last October that I finally learned the fate of William Swain — “killed by a whale.”

My Nantucket visit also sought to follow up on work

In contrast to the magnificent record of the American whal-

that I and two colleagues—Rhys Richards from New Zea-

ing fleet, records of the British Southern Whale Fishery until

land and Mark Howard from Melbourne, Australia, have

recently can only be described as “scrappy and scattered.”

been involved in since 2013. We had determined that the

The BSWF, until the contributions of A. G. E. Jones in the

only way the story of the BSWF could ever be told was by

1980s and 1990s, had no Alexander Starbuck, Edouard Stack-

compiling a record of all the voyages. This we achieved in

pole, Elmo Hohman, or Herman Melville to record its story.

early 2016, when the University of Hull in England, which

That is not to say that good contemporary records of British

currently hosts the British Arctic Whaling website, agreed SUMMER 2017

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NANTUCKET-BORN MARINERS

to host our BSWF voyage and crew databases. The voyage database records the details of more than 2,550 British voyages to the South Seas and the crew database some 14,000 entries. The databases are found on a BSWF website that also provides profiles of the owners, ships, and masters.

What astounded us once the work was achieved was the extent of the Nantucket connection. It was clear that hundreds of the voyages had been commanded by Nantucket-born men; we now know that it was more than 630 voyages. But we knew so little of them apart from their names; nothing about their lives, their marriages, their children, their fate, etc. All we knew about them was their success or failure as whalemen.

The “Finding” Trip I traveled to Nantucket in October 2016 to try and fill in the stories around some of these transplanted Nantucketers. In my work, I was joined by Judith Lund, whaling historian and

Catalogue of Nantucket

creator of American Offshore Whaling Voyages: 1667–1927

Whalers and Their

and the earlier database, nmdl.org, a record of more than

Voyages from 1815-1870

15,500 American whaling voyages. I was hoping that with Ju-

(Nantucket: Hussey &

dy’s assistance, I might at least be able to identify how many

Robinson, 1876)

Nantucket whalemen actually worked in both the American and British whaling trades and how many returned home.

We had some good records to start with, all meticulously catalogued and available in the Research Library of the Nantucket Historical Association. This included a list of Nantucket whalemen who commanded ships engaged in the whale fishery from French and English ports prior to 1812 [Catalogue of Nantucket Whalers (1876) pp. 53– 54]; the scrapbooks of Grace Brown Gardner [MS 57]; and the research and published work of Nantucket and whaling historian Edouard Stackpole. We also had access to the Barney Genealogical Record and the Vital Records of Nantucket.

What we did and didn’t find What did we find? First, we found that the list of Nantucketers who commanded ships from English ports was remarkably accurate and contained most of the names in our database—hardly a conflict with our data. Next, we found 6

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

NANTUCKET-BORN MARINERS

that few Nantucket masters appear to have ever returned home, probably only twenty out of the 166 Nantucket-born men we now know to have commanded British whaleships. Judy’s research has also shown that at least twenty Nantucketers commanded a vessel in both the American and British fleets.

What didn’t we find? It was far simpler to locate records that identified whaling masters than it was to identify those who served in other capacities on British whaleships. We suspect the number of Nantucket men who worked in the BSWF must be in the hundreds, possibly thousands, given average crew sizes were at least twenty men in the early years of the South Seas trade—but we have no crew lists or logs— just the names of the Nantucket masters who commanded at least 630 voyages.

WHAT ASTOUNDED US ONCE THE WORK WAS ACHIEVED WAS THE EXTENT OF THE NANTUCKET CONNECTION.

See flag (bottom) flown by ships in the BSWF. Signals and Instructions for Ships under Convoy (London: William Winchester & Son, 1801) c o u r t e s y o f t h e n a n t u c k e t at h e n e u m

SUMMER 2017

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NANTUCKET-BORN MARINERS

N A N T UCK E T-B O R N M A S T E RS I N THE BRITISH SOUTHERN WHALE FISHERY Ransom Jones (b. 1760)

Joseph Whiteus (b. 1770)

Not much is known of Ransom Jones, son of Silas Jones

The family name Whiteus /Whitteus can be found in Nan-

and Anna Heath of Nantucket, but he certainly had a

tucket land records at the end of the 1700s, but for the life

significant career in the BSWF. He was master on at least

of his career in the BSWF, Joseph Whiteus’ name was either

thirteen voyages working for at least four different owners,

anglicised to Whitehouse or misspelled Whitens. Joseph

beginning in the late 1780s. Initially, he appears to have

is first recorded in the BSWF as first mate on Daniel Ben-

sailed for the firm of Joseph Lucas, concentrating on voy-

nett’s whaleship Lively in 1803, and in 1804 he assumed

ages to the Brazil Banks, the bottom of the Atlantic, and the

command of the vessel. He took the vessel out again in

west coast of Africa. In 1794, he sailed on the first of eight

1806, and was wrecked on Mermaid Reef, northwest of

voyages for a new owner in the trade, Daniel Bennett. His

Australia, in the first half of 1808. Whiteus and the crew

first cargo was a tremendous success for Bennett, around

were rescued, probably by Ranger, another Bennett vessel,

1,500 barrels of oil, so Bennett continued to support him

as Whiteus, the crew, and oil from the Lively were landed in

with newly acquired vessels. Bennett also appears to have

London in late 1808 via the Ranger. Whiteus, however, took

directed Jones to the east of Africa and to the islands to the

hardly any time to recover as he then took Ranger out on

south, particularly Desolation [Kerguelen] Island. It is re-

her next voyage in late February 1809. Whiteus command-

corded that in May 1804, Jones returned to London with

ed at least four more voyages on Bennett vessels, with his

the largest cargo ever brought back—7,000 barrels of oil

last vessel appearing to be the Daniel on a voyage between

(including 600 of sperm) and 70,000 sealskins. Jones’s ship,

September 1819 and January 1821. All of his voyages, apart

African, was a former Danish man-of-war of more than

from the wreck of Lively, appear to have been successful.

600 tons; only a vessel of that size could have transported such a cargo.

8

Joseph married twice, the first time to Betsey Stokes. It appears that a daughter from this marriage, named Jane,

Jones made one further voyage in African. On its re-

married a Bennett whaling captain named John May.

turn, the vessel was in convoy when attacked by a French

In 1814, as a widower, Joseph married Sophia Charlotte

squadron. Newspapers of the time record African escaping

Bennett, a widow, and possibly a relative of his employ-

capture through her ‘’superior sailing abilities,” a clear re-

er. Joseph knew Frederick Coffin, of Syren fame, as corre-

flection on the capability of Ransom Jones as a command-

spondence between them and a painting of Joseph’s wife,

er as well as a successful whaling master. African was then

Sophia, were sold at auction in the UK in 2010. Joseph

put up for sale by Bennett, and Jones disappears from the

Whiteus died in either late 1838 or early 1839. His will re-

record. Whether he retired from the sea to live in England

veals him to be a very wealthy man able to provide for his

or returned to Nantucket or Hudson, New York, where

family, including leaving property in Nantucket to his sis-

some of his family resided, is unknown.

ter, Elizabeth Perkins.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

NANTUCKET-BORN MARINERS

Frederick Coffin (1779–1840) Frederick Coffin’s first known command in the BSWF was out of Milford Haven, Wales, on Hannah & Eliza. The annual Registers of Shipping record the owner as “B. Rooke,” but it is likely the owner was the Nantucketer Benjamin Rotch. Coffin took Hannah & Eliza out twice between May 1808 and late August 1813. We have incomplete records of the voyages, so it is difficult to establish how successful or otherwise he was. When whaling out of Milford Haven folded, Coffin based himself in London and took out the former Milford Haven whaler, Ann, for Birnie & Co. The vessel sailed in early April 1815 on a voyage to the Brazil Banks, returning in early June 1816 with a cargo of 2,200 barrels—a pretty successful outcome. Coffin then changed firms as his next command was the Enderby whaleship Mary. This voyage ran from late October 1817 until mid-July 1819.

Coffin’s next command was the Enderby vessel Syren, which he took through Timor and the Moluccas to become the first British vessel “on the Japans.” The voyage was a tremendous success with a cargo of 2,768 barrels Coffin’s journal [Columbia River Maritime Museum, item 1982.8.30] indicates he was acting on intelligence gathered from a now unknown voyage by Captain James Gage in 1806, which noted “plenty of whales” at Latitude 34:52 N Longitude 158:22 E. Following his success, Coffin made one further voyage to the Japan grounds on the Syren, also with reasonable success (2,200 barrels). It appears that Coffin then retired

Portrait of Captain Frederick Coffin,

from the sea and returned to the United States where, given the existence of letters

circa 1810–15

addressed from him to Joseph Whiteus in the United Kingdom in 1826, he resided

1 9 23. 26. 1

in Poughkeepsie, New York.

“WHEN I ARRIVED ON BOARD THE

William Swain (1795–1844)

SARAH AND ELIZABETH, I WAS AT ONCE STRUCK WITH THE DIFFERENT SCENE THAT PRESENTED ITSELF TO

At least two William Swains, both born in Nantucket, com-

THAT WHICH I HAD SO RECENTLY LEFT. THE MEN

manded British whaleships and both worked at some time

WERE ELASTIC, AND MERRY, SMILING FACES APPEARED

of their career for Enderby & Sons. Consequently, there has

EVERYWHERE. THE CAPTAIN FIRM, BUT YET HUMANE,

at some time been confusion about their careers. The William Swain described here was born in 1795, as his age is recorded on the Matilda crew list when he sailed in command

WAS STRICT IN DISCIPLINE, BUT KIND IN HEART.” —Thomas Beale

in 1836 aged forty years. Swain moved from Nantucket to England soon after the end of the War of 1812 in company

Swain’s next commands, if any, remain unknown, but

with his cousin, Samuel Swain, in order to take up employ-

by 1830 he was in command of the Enderby whaleship Sar-

ment with Enderby & Sons. It appears that he started his

ah & Elizabeth. The later part of this voyage is described

career as mate on Indian on its 1817 voyage, as records indi-

by Thomas Beale in the book mentioned by Melville earli-

cate that the master named Sullivan died during the voyage

er in this article, The Natural History of the Sperm Whale.

and that William Swain took command. He was certainly

Beale transferred to Swain’s ship Sarah & Elizabeth from

in command when the vessel was at Sydney in August and

the whaler Kent, at the Bonin Islands on 1 June 1832, up-

September 1818.

set by the master of the Kent’s treatment of his crew. In the SUMMER 2017

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NANTUCKET-BORN MARINERS

book, Beale warmly praises the abilities of Swain both as

remained there until April 1844, when he shipped as mate

a captain and whaler. William Swain’s last English com-

on the American whaleship Christopher Mitchell. Less

mand was the Green, Wigrams & Green whaleship Matil-

than four weeks later, on 19 May 1844, he drowned during

da. When the vessel called at the Bay of Islands in February

a whale hunt. Swain’s wife stayed at the Bay of Islands with

1840, Swain and his wife removed from the ship and left

their children until a Maori uprising saw all her property

the first mate in command (the crew list for the Matilda

destroyed. Mrs. Swain then sailed for Nantucket aboard

records the master as having deserted). Perhaps Swain in-

the whaleship Monticello, arriving in mid-July 1845, “a

tended to settle in New Zealand at the Bay of Islands, be-

stranger among strangers, and far from the scenes of her

cause he and his English wife purchased land there. They

birth-place and home.” [Nantucket Inquirer, 17 July 1845]

Samuel Swain (1799–1842) Samuel Swain, was born on 5 October 1799, the fourth child and third son of the five children of James and Rebecca Swain of Nantucket. Samuel’s father was engaged in whaling out of Nantucket and fought in the 1812 war against the British. The family seems to have been Quakers up to this time, as it is recorded that James was one of many who were disowned by the Society of Friends for going to sea in an armed vessel.

Samuel followed his father into whaling on a Nantucket vessel, as evidenced by a Seaman’s Protection Certificate being granted to him at Nantucket on 2 August 1815.

Sometime between 1815 and the early 1820s, Samuel left

& Green whaleship Vigilant (1831–35). The Vigilant made a

Nantucket for England in company with an older cousin,

double voyage, transhipping its cargo of oil at Sydney in 1833.

William Swain. In London, Samuel shipped out on the

The captain’s journal (NHA Log 326) of the voyage survives, as

whaleship Indian, commanded by his cousin. Samuel also

well as a miniature of Samuel Swain.

served as mate under a Captain Garbutt, but the dates and name of the vessel are unknown.

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next command after his marriage was the Green, Wigrams

Not much is known of the next few years of Captain Swain’s life, though it is almost certain that he retired from

Swain went on to command the Enderby whaleship

the sea. Three very successful voyages such as he had made

Indian and made two voyages to the Pacific—1826 and

would certainly have made him a reasonably wealthy man,

1828. In the short break between Indian’s return in Janu-

able to live off his investments. Yet drafts of letters dating

ary 1831 and his departure as master of Vigilant in Octo-

from March 1841 reveal that the year was one of financial

ber 1831, Samuel Swain began a family. On 20 April 1831,

distress for Samuel Swain and his family. The letters mention

he married Louise Flowers Fulcher of Deptford. They had

the loss of a considerable amount of money invested in an

five children: Louisa Baker born in 1832 and not seen by

American bank, and Swain petitions an old whaling friend in

her father until 1835; Samuel Fulcher born 1836; James born

Sydney, Captain Robert Duke, for the return of £2,000 he had

1838; Thomas born 1840, and Edward Plant born in 1841, just

advanced him. Apparently the situation did not improve and

one month before his father’s last departure for the south-

Swain was forced to seek another whaling command in 1841

ern whale fisheries as commander of Bermondsey. Swain’s

after having been retired from the sea since 1835.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

NANTUCKET-BORN MARINERS

The Ships Vigilant and Harpooner Offshore, painting by William John Huggins, 1832 CO U R T ES Y OF T H E N AT I ON A L M A RIT IM E M US E UM , G RE E N W IC H, LON DON, G RE E N BL ACKWELL COLLECTION

In October 1841, Captain Samuel Swain left London in

A Lasting Influence

command of Bermondsey. The voyage did not go well. In late February 1842, the ship was forced to put into Sydney

One hundred and sixty-six Nantucket-born masters took

due to the “disorderly nature of her crew,” with only fifty

out over 630 voyages, which is one in four of all British

barrels of sperm oil on board. What occurred over the next

South Seas whaling voyages. They shared their skills and

three months is unclear, but Swain was probably engaged

methods and trained and led British whalemen. Some

in re-establishing control over his crew, trying to commu-

even fathered the next generation of British whaling mas-

nicate with the shipowner Robert Duke and shipping new

ters. They influenced the routes taken, the grounds fre-

hands. On 25 May 1842, Bermondsey sailed for the whale

quented, and the whaling techniques used. They certain-

fishery, but within six weeks put back into Sydney with

ly appear to have been successful in making owners and

Captain Swain gravely ill. The Sydney Gazette for Tuesday,

themselves wealthy. It’s a considerable legacy.

12 July 1842, records, “The Bermondsey, whaler, returned

We, at the BSWF, would like your assistance. Already,

to port on Saturday last owing to the illness of the Captain,

by making available the data in the voyage and crew data-

whom, we are sorry to state, expired on the same evening.

bases, we have received contributions from families and

His complaint was consumption.” Captain Samuel Swain

researchers that have assisted us in filling out the individ-

died at forty-three years of age in Sydney Harbour on Sat-

ual profiles of owners, masters, and crews. As outlined, we

urday, 9 July 1842. His funeral was held on the jetty, Mac-

believe the great majority of Nantucket whalemen in the

quarie Place, on 11 July 1842. In England, he left a widow

BSWF never returned home. Can you help us find them? If

and five young children with no financial support.

so, e-mail us at: bswfdb@gmail.com.

DALE CHATWIN is an Australia-based retired librarian and independent researcher.

JUDITH LUND, author and independent researcher, is a former curator at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

SUMMER 2017

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TEACHERS AT THE AFRICAN SCHOOL

By Frances Ruley Karttunen

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

ON JANUARY 4, 1825, A NEW BUILDING ON THE CORNER OF PLEASANT STREET AND YORK STREET WAS DEDICATED AS A PLACE OF WORSHIP.

NOW KNOWN AS THE African Meeting House on Nantucket, it stood in the heart of a vibrant neighborhood largely inhabited by people of African heritage. The neighborhood had taken shape in the latter half of the 1700s.

Descendants of enslaved people who had been brought to Nantucket and eventually manumitted, together with “free blacks,” Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, and anyone else considered at the time as non-white, acquired and consolidated property to form a village that was variously known as Negro Town, Negro Village, Negro Hill, or New Guinea. “New Guinea,” like the nearby Angola Street, reflected the place of origin of people who had been forcibly transported from Africa in the 1600s and 1700s.

Origins of the African School A deed issued for the land on which the new building stood directed that in addition to religious services, a school should be maintained in the building. This was Nantucket’s African School, and it went into operation nearly two years before the Town of Nantucket belatedly established a public-school system. The building was not yet finished at the time of its dedication, but by mid-April 1825, classes were under way there. In fact, work was still continuing on

New Guinea neighborhood as seen on

the building two years later when Absalom Boston, in his

Map of the Town of Nantucket in the State of

capacity as secretary of the trustees of the African School,

Massachusetts by William Coffin Jr., 1834 (top),

appealed to the Society for Propagating the Gospel among

and Map of the Counties of Barnstable, Dukes

the Indians and Others in North America for fifty dollars

and Nantucket, Mass. by H. F. Walling, 1858

to finish the interior and to install seating. Inspecting the

MS1 000. 3.4. 5; MS1 000-ROLLED3 0

newly housed school in 1825, Frederick Baylies of the society reported that among fifty-two pupils being instructed

by Mrs. Sally Thompson, there were three white students.

In enumerating the students at various levels, he made no distinction in his report between male and female.

SUMMER 2017

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TEACHERS AT THE AFRICAN SCHOOL

CONFUSION ARISES about the identities of the first teachers in the African School. New Guinea was a location within the larger area on the expanding south edge of town known as Newtown. Historian Obed Macy reported that in 1819 fire had damaged a classroom in Rhoda Harris’s school in Newtown. There were black Harrises living in New Guinea at the time, and Peter Boston’s wife’s name was Rhoda. Rhoda Way Harris is, however, to be found in the Eliza Starbuck Barney Genealogical Record, which does not include people of color. A descendant of the first English settlers on Nantucket, she was born in 1761 and died in 1825, the year the school in the African Meeting House was opened. Her husband, Obed Harris, was also a descendant of the English settlers. Rhoda Harris was not a teacher at the African School.

Despite assertions to the contrary, Wilson Rawson (1754–1836), a contemporary of Rhoda Harris, was not a teacher in the African School either. Rawson, grandson of an earlier Wilson Rawson on Nantucket, was a descendant of the English settlers, and a member of Nantucket’s Union Lodge. His headstone in Old North Cemetery bears a Masonic device, and the epitaph reads, “Erected by his Masonic Brethren.”

An April 18, 1829, newspaper article in the Inquirer reported that there had been at the African School a “quarterly examination of this School, which was instituted by Deacon Wilson Rawson and others, about six years ago.”

14

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Anna Gardner taught at the African School 1836–38

GPN1319

TEACHERS AT THE AFRICAN SCHOOL

MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY HAD BEGUN BUILDING THE MEETING HOUSE IN 1823.

This has been taken to mean that Rawson was the ini-

Movers and Shakers

tial teacher at the African School, but this is not what the newspaper article says. What is more, six years previous

Research at the Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Muse-

to 1829, the African Meeting House had not yet been

um in Salem by Teresa Dujnic Bulger has revealed the roles

built. Back in 1822, however, the Inquirer reported that

of Joseph Lake and Frederick Baylies in the early history of

a Sabbath school in New Guinea had resumed and was

the African School. Joseph Lake, who described himself as

offering instruction for an hour a week to about thirty

of the same “complexion” as the people of New Guinea, was

“coloured youths.” This is likely what Wilson Rawson, in

intermittently on-island from the fall of 1823 to the day in

his role as a deacon of Nantucket’s First Congregational

January 1825, when he preached at the dedication of the

Church, had helped to organize.

African Meeting House as a place of worship. According to

That said, Union Lodge—of which Wilson Rawson

Lake, members of the community had begun building the

was a brother—has been enduringly supportive of the

Meeting House already in 1823. They didn’t receive a deed

African Meeting House and the African School that met

to the land from local black businessman Jeffrey Summons

in it. On June 17, 1837, the members of the Colored Bap-

until the spring of 1825, however, when the Trustees of the

tist Church and Society of Nantucket thanked the Lodge

School Fund for the Coloured People paid for it with the to-

brothers, “who recently furnished their Meeting House

ken sum of $10.50 and agreed to the proviso that ”a school

with an elegant chandelier.” And then, more than forty

be kept in it [the African Meeting House] forever.”

years later, on January 31, 1880, the Inquirer and Mirror

Joseph Lake had earlier undertaken missionary work

reported that, “the church was presented with a hand-

on Martha’s Vineyard and then came to Nantucket with

some chandelier by Capt. Albert A. Gardner and others,

financial support from the Society for Propagating the

Rev. J. B. Morrison tendering the gift on their behalf.” The

Gospel. Lake found the people of New Guinea receptive

Rev. Morrison held a high office in the Grand Lodge.

to his efforts and spent the next two years fund-raising for

L I BRA RY OF CON G R ES S, P R I N TS A N D PH OTOG RA PH S DIV IS ION, H A BS M A S S,10-N ANT, 3 2-, SHEET 3

SUMMER 2017

15

African Meeting House, early 1900s F 3 970

the trustees of the African School. He succeeded in raising $160 for completion of the building, which he dedicated in its unfinished state in January 1825, but Lake was not a teacher in the school either.

Frederick Baylies and the First Teachers In 1823, the same year that Joseph Lake first visited Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard-based Frederick Baylies (1774– 1836) came to the island. Baylies was from a large white family that had moved to Edgartown shortly after his birth.

He had already written in 1822 to Jeffrey Summons and members of the Boston family, and it was to Baylies that Essex Boston, Peter Boston, and Jeffrey Summons had, on May 17, 1822, addressed the famous assertion about “remains of the Indians”: We hereby certify that there are among the coloured people of this place remains of the Nantucket Indians and that nearly every family in our village are partly descended from the original inhabitants of this and neighboring places.

When the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and Others in North America was founded by

16

a group of Congregationalist clergy and laymen in 1787, its

Children on West Dover Street, circa 1880s

mission was to the indigenous peoples of the new nation.

GPN4 6 5

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

TEACHERS AT THE AFRICAN SCHOOL

Later in the 1800s, its mission was extended to indigent whites and, after the Civil War, to freedmen. In the early 1820s, however, it was important to the society for there to be Indians on Nantucket if it were to support a school on

Children of the Newtown neighborhood, corner of Orange and York Streets, 1860s SG6 53 7

the island. It was common knowledge that the Wampanoag community at Miacomet had been wiped out by the Indian

tion between Lake and the New Guinea residents who built

Sickness of 1763–64, but the statement from the New Guin-

the Meeting House was that they were organized as an Af-

ea community asserting its Wampanoag roots gave Baylies

rican Baptist Society, and he was a Congregationalist. The

the requisite justification and documentation.

members of the African Baptist Society also believed that

On his visit in 1823, Baylies met with a number of prom-

they should control the funds that had been donated to the

inent white Nantucketers, including Reverend Seth F. Swift

building campaign. Consequently, it was Frederick Baylies

of the Second Congregational Church, to outline his plan

who came to teach and organize.

for a school in New Guinea supported by the Society. Upon

In 1823, two years before the African Meeting House

consultation with Reverend Swift, Reverend Stephen Bai-

was even built, Baylies had created a school in New Guin-

ley, and Justice of the Peace Josiah Hussey, Esq., Baylies re-

ea with funds from the Society for Propagating the Gospel.

ported to the Society that there were 274 “people of color”

Starting in early July of that year, Baylies taught for five

on Nantucket, “many of them part Indian,” and a school

weeks, instructing a total of fifty-three students in the al-

would do them good.

phabet, spelling, and Bible-reading. We do not know where

Although Joseph Lake had been the fund-raiser for the

that school was meeting at the time. In addition to the

African Meeting House and the speaker at its dedication,

school that taught basic reading, writing, and arithmetic,

there was a falling out between him and some members

Baylies organized a women’s school to provide instruction

of the New Guinea community. The main point of conten-

in knitting, sewing, and other domestic arts. He reported SUMMER 2017

17

TEACHERS AT THE AFRICAN SCHOOL

expenses for the Nantucket women’s school in 1823.

Based on the Vineyard, and having altogether five schools under his supervision (three on the Vineyard, one on the mainland, and one on Nantucket), Baylies was only temporarily at any one of them. In all cases, he staffed the schools with locals, often women, who carried on the teaching. Before moving on from Nantucket, he hired two young women from the New Guinea community to continue his work. One was sixteen-year-old Mary Ann Boston, daughter of Revolutionary War veteran Peter Boston and his Mashpee Wampanoag wife Rhoda Jolly, and the other was “Mrs. Sally Thompson,” whom he describes as an Indian woman. Teresa Bulger identifies her as twenty-twoyear-old seamstress Sarah Thompson. Alternatively, Mrs. Thompson was not Sarah Thompson, but another of Peter and Rhoda Boston’s daughters, Priscilla. Priscilla (“Cilly”), whose mother, Rhoda, was Wampanoag, had been widowed after a brief marriage to John Thompson. “Mrs. Thompson,” whether Sarah or Priscilla, taught twelve

Prominent New Guinea resident, Captain Absalom Boston 1 9 06. 56. 1

weeks a year between visits from Baylies.

Whichever woman was the Mrs. Thompson of record, she married again after taking her position as teacher. In

leader Absalom Boston referred when he reported to the

1828, Sarah Thompson married James Dennison, one of

Society on March 18, 1827, that “we have for our pastor a

the 1831 charter members of the reorganized York Street

young man of colour with whose preaching we are all very

Baptist Church (previously the African Baptist Society). In

well satisfied; he is a truly pious young man and well quali-

1832, Priscilla Thompson, also an original member of the

fied to impart religious Instructions.” Absalom Boston’s let-

reorganized church, married Frederick Quoin, another

ter made a case to the society for a donation of fifty dollars

New Guinea businessman. She died just two years later, in

to finish the interior of the school and install permanent

1834, of tuberculosis.

seating. In making his case for further support, Boston em-

The African School, conducted in the African Meeting House, was absorbed into the newly formed Nantucket pub-

Baylies have made great improvement.”

lic school system in 1827, enabling it to receive town funding.

In the spring of 1834, on the eve of retirement, Baylies

Nonetheless, it was Frederick Baylies who continued to man-

reported that the school conducted in the African Meeting

age it. For the years 1827 through 1830, Baylies reported to the

House was doing well and was able to stay open more than

society that he spent four weeks each year teaching in Nan-

half the year because of its subsidy from the Town of Nantuck-

tucket and employed Jacob Perry to teach for twelve weeks

et. At this juncture, twenty-two-year-old Eliza Bailey became

each year. Consistent with the first year, there were slightly

the first white woman teacher at the African School. The

over fifty students attending the African School. Perry, whom

daughter of Benjamin Bailey and Abigail Folger Gurrell Bailey,

Baylies describes as “an intelligent and worthy man of colour,

she taught for just two years before epilepsy made it impossi-

who also officiates as minister to the coloured people of the

ble for her to continue. In 1841, at the age of twenty-nine, she

town,” was praised for his management of the school, but he

died and was interred in Prospect Hill Cemetery. Her head-

protested that his salary was so small that he would have to

stone reads, “Formerly teacher of the African School.”

leave the island to seek more adequate income.

Jacob Perry is most likely the man to whom community 18

phasized that “our children under the Instruction of Mr.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Anna Gardner was the next teacher of record at the African School, hired in 1836 at the age of twenty. Five years

TEACHERS AT THE AFRICAN SCHOOL

previously, while still in her mid-teens, she had already

After the controversy was settled in 1846 and the public

been teaching black children in a private school. It was

schools were integrated, the York Street School became an

an established practice at the time for schools to show off

introductory and primary school for white and black chil-

their students’ progress in what was called a public exam-

dren in the neighborhood. In fact, the school committee

ination. A letter submitted to the Inquirer in 1831 written

closed a white primary school on Fair Street at the same

by “JMF” said that he (or she) had attended an examina-

time. Deborah Brown was hired to teach in the York Street

tion at Anna Gardner’s primary school. JMF observed that

School. She later went on to become a principal of West In-

her pupils “were neat in their personal dress, and their

termediate School. The next person recorded as a teacher

behaviour through the entire examination, impressed the

at the York Street School is Harriet P. Clapp. She was princi-

mind with a belief, that much care had been extended to-

pal of the school from 1847 until it closed at the end of the

wards the morals of that most interesting class of society”

1851 school year.

(coded language for children of color). JMF noted that

The deed requirement that a school be maintained in

their “reading, spelling, and their answers to various ques-

the African Meeting House went into abeyance at the end

tions put to them, apparently gave general satisfaction to

of the 1830s, and use of the building as a place of worship

the visitors” and concluded that the students “did credit to

and a community center came completely to an end in

the exertions of the schoolmistress.”

1912. Thereafter, the building was repurposed mainly for

It was during Anna Gardner’s subsequent tenure at the

storage. It deteriorated until the 1990s, when it was res-

African School (1836 – 38) that an intense and ugly battle

cued from decrepitude, restored, and opened to the public

began over school segregation, spurred on by her desire to

in 1999 with its educational mission re-established.

place advanced students, beginning with her mentee Eunice Ross, in the first public high school on the island.

FRANCES RULEY KARTTUNEN is an NHA Research Fellow and au-

After Anna Gardner’s years at the African School, the re-

thor of The Other Islanders: People Who Pulled Nantucket’s Oars

cords are incomplete. The person who took on the job after

(Spinner, 2005); Nantucket’s North Shore (Spinner, 2014) and numer-

her resignation did not last long, teaching only to the end of

ous other books and articles about Nantucket.

one school year and about a month into the next. When he or she left, an advertisement in the Inquirer sought “either male or female Teachers.” The teacher the school committee hired did not stay for more than a few months either. Four

James Bradford Ames Fellows

months later, yet another advertisement in the paper called for a teacher at the school on York Street, stipulating that only

The James Bradford Ames Fellowships for the study of

males would be considered for the job.

African and Cape Verdean history on Nantucket were

The York Street Baptist Church had refused to allow

established in 1996 by Mrs. Adele Ames to honor the

the Nantucket school committee to continue to house a

memory of her husband, a descendant of the West family

segregated school in the African Meeting House. The town

of Nantucket. The author and contributors Barbara White

provided a building on the same street and called it the

and Teresa Dujnic Bulger have all been named Ames

York Street School rather than the African School. Both the

Fellows: Karttunen in 2000, White in 2004, and Bulger

name change and the committee’s reason for hiring a male

in 2010. They are unanimous in their gratitude to Mrs.

teacher had everything to do with the controversy then

Ames for the support of their research. While an Ames

raging in Nantucket over the attempt to keep black stu-

Fellow, Barbara White published an essay about Anna

dents out of the white schools. The hiring of a male teacher

Gardner and is now completing a book-length biography.

(male teachers being considered superior to female teach-

Karttunen and White are Nantucket Historical Association

ers) was probably intended to create the impression that

Research Fellows.

all levels of students were being adequately taught at the segregated school.

SUMMER 2017

19

By Mary Bergman & Andrea Wulffleff

F E W O B J EC T S A R E A S L I N K E D W I T H T H E I D E N T I T Y O F N A N T U C K ET A S T H E L I G H T S H I P B A S K E T.

20

MADE AT FIRST BY MEN who had, in some form or anoth-

baskets share similar features in their construction (solid

er, taken to the sea, these tightly woven baskets became

bases, vertical ribs, assembled from component parts) with

icons of an isolated island’s maritime heritage. By the

the oil casks and barrels coopers aboard whaleships would

1880s, lightship baskets could be found in sundry shops,

have constructed. Nantucket baskets are woven with rattan,

snatched up by tourists looking for a reminder of their vis-

a climbing vine that grows in the tropical regions of Africa,

it. The 1950s saw the rise of an unexpected status symbol

Asia, and Australia—places as far away from Nantucket as

as covered baskets became coveted fashion accessories,

anything could be, but that echo the route of Nantucket’s

adorned with fanciful ivory carvings. Today, the lightship

whaling fleet.

basket has been redesigned and reinvented into every-

It can be difficult to determine exactly who was making

thing from jewelry to golf-club bags to pendant lamps.

these baskets and when. Many of the earliest basket makers

Whatever their shape or size, lightship baskets serve as a

did not sign their work; instead, baskets were branded or

reminder of Nantucket’s prosperity as a resort destination

signed by their owners. Frequently, time has worn away pa-

while paying homage to the old salts who started it all.

per labels that once bore the maker’s signature. Some mak-

The enduring popularity of lightship baskets is owed to

ers made only a handful of baskets for friends and families;

the skilled hands that crafted them. It is hard to pinpoint ex-

others were prolific in their work, supporting themselves

actly when the lightship, or rattan (as they were called in the

wholly or in part through basket making.

1850s and 1860s) basket form first originated. Partly inspired

A few common threads are woven throughout the lives

by a New Hampshire split or ash basket, Nantucket baskets

of basket makers. Some were retired whalemen or lightship

are made on a mold, have a one-piece wooden base, and are

sailors; men who were used to long periods of isolation and

woven with rattan. They were the original brown paper bag,

boredom. Others were carpenters and coopers, men who

used to carry everything from eggs and wool to apples and

knew their way around a woodshop. Many held a variety of

blueberry pies.

jobs throughout their lives, sometimes holding down sever-

Although they owe their names to the floating light-

al at a time, as is still the case with many on Nantucket to-

houses that warned mariners off Nantucket’s dangerous

day. People often turned to basket making in retirement, or

shoals, it is believed that the form of the basket originated

during other periods of unemployment, such as the end of

before the first lightship went into service in 1854. Rattan

the whaling era and the Great Depression of the 1930s.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

THE SETH PINKHAM PAPERS

James Wyer

R (1816 – 99)R Captain James Wyer spent sixteen of his first thirty-seven years at sea. Born on Nantucket in 1816 to Obed Wyer Jr. and Polly Gorham, James was the middle child of three boys. He studied two trades that were important to any whaleman (and basket maker), cooperage and carpentry.

Wyer sailed on four whaling voyages, including one lasting more than five years. His second voyage, on the new vessel Monticello, took him to the Sandwich Islands and the coast of Japan. His third voyage was exceptionally fruitful; Wyer’s vessel returned to Nantucket with 2,600 barrels of sperm-whale oil. In 1851, he married Harriet N. Thompson before his final voyage, which lasted only two years as he was able to purchase whale oil at auction

Captain James Wyer

from a condemned ship in the Navigator Islands.

P1560

Harriet suffered a long illness and died in 1860. Perhaps that is why after only one voyage as captain, Wyer retired from the sea. Following Harriet’s death, like many Nantucket men, Wyer left Nantucket for California to pan for gold. Although the work was dangerous, it was still considerably safer than the grizzly business of whaling. He worked there as a carpenter for four years before returning to Nantucket.

Wyer married Lois N. (Pease) Starbuck in 1866.

She was the widow of another great whaling captain, Charles E. Starbuck. Lois had two children from her first marriage, Mary Eliza and Henry Pease, to whom Wyer became a stepfather. (Mary Eliza Starbuck served as the first secretary of the Nantucket Historical Association, and donated some of her stepfather’s baskets to the NHA.) The old captain made baskets between the 1870s and 1890s, exhibiting his work at agricultural fairs on the island, even winning first prize in 1879. Wyer showed no sign of slowing down. He was “the first of our octogenarians to attempt to master a bicycle,” the Inquirer and Mirror reported. One of the original purchasers of the Pacific Club building, Captain Wyer died in 1899.

Nest of lightship baskets by Captain James Wyer, circa 1870

1900.46.1 a

SUMMER 2017

21

Frederick Chadwick

R (1857–1936)R The various jobs that Frederick Chadwick held all seem to have had one thing in common—the improvement and preservation of Nantucket Island. Chadwick served as the First Assistant Chief of the Nantucket Fire Department, was custodian of the Old Mill, and worked at the New York Yacht Club Station Nantucket as an attendant, welcoming visitors at Steamboat Wharf. (Chadwick passed this love of Nantucket’s history and people along to his nephew, George William Jones, who at one time served as president of the Nantucket Historical Association.)

A carpenter by trade, Chadwick began weaving baskets in the later years of his life. He learned basket making from renowned island weaver Clinton Mitchell “Mitchy” Ray. In 1933, Chadwick’s works were chosen, along with those of basket maker Ferdinand Sylvaro, to represent lightship baskets in an exhibition of Nantucket handicrafts shown in Washington, DC. When Chadwick was weaving baskets, it was thought that the craft did not have much of a future. In a 1933 article in the Inquirer and Mirror, Henry K. Bush-Brown remarked that “Basket-making of this sort is a real Nantucket product, but there are barely half a dozen men on the island today who can do this work—and when they go the ability to fashion such baskets may go with them.” In fact, it was Mitchy Ray, Chadwick’s mentor, who taught dozens of men to pass their idle hours in making Nantucket baskets, ensuring that the craft would continue to survive as long as it has.

In the 1950s, another of Mitchy Ray’s protégées, José Formoso Reyes, transformed the open carryall basket into a covered purse, which he playfully titled the “friendship” purse. It was Muriel “Mickey” Sayle who suggested that Reyes adorn the lids of his baskets with whale carvings made by her husband, noted maritime historian and ivory carver Charlie Sayle.

Although originally the dominion of men aboard whaleships, two of Nantucket’s greatest ivory carvers of the last century were women.

FROM TOP:

Oval lightship basket by Frederick Chadwick, circa 1920

2 0 0 7. 3 0. 2 0

Frederick Chadwick on dock at New York Yacht Club Station Nantucket José Formoso Reyes 22

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

F2875

A44-59

THE SETH PINKHAM PAPERS Mitchy Ray in his workshop, 1950s P 2 1652

SUMMER 2017

23

Aletha Macy in Lincoln Ceely’s workshop, 1940s

SC 6 0 5 - 2

Aletha Macy

R (1901–71)R A direct descendant of Thomas Macy, one of the origi-

looking for assistance. Although she had not yet worked in

nal purchasers of Nantucket, Aletha Macy was a talented

ivory, Macy agreed and it became her preferred medium.

woodworker and ivory carver. By the age of eleven, after

While she began with the traditional sperm whales and

school she went regularly to watch cabinetmaker Lincoln

gulls, Macy, spurred by her love of the outdoors, began to

Ceely at work in his shop, the Cooperage. There he made

carve other animals, birds, and fish. Soon, she opened her

furniture, clock cases, weather vanes, and the iconic Nan-

own shop, Ivory of the Sea, on Madaket Road. Away from

tucket sailor-boy whirligigs.

the shop, Aletha was an avid outdoorswoman—fishing,

Ceely saw potential in Aletha and took her under his

hunting, and horseback riding were among her passions.

wing, making her his full-time apprentice after her junior

She and her horse, Rimlap Gal, often won first place in the

year of high school. She would work with him for over thirty

sulky races held at Miacomet Raceway. Macy passed along

years, learning woodworking, cabinet making, and reverse

her technique to at least one other Nantucket artist, the

painting on glass. As a teenager, she displayed her pieces in

late Mary Patricia “Pat” Gardner (1926 –2001), who, in her

the Agricultural Society’s annual exhibition, quickly gain-

wood carvings, commemorated, among other birds, the

ing a reputation for her fine workmanship. In 1921, Aletha

island’s piping plovers.

married John Sanders of Sayville, NY. Their marriage was

In a tribute written after Macy’s death in 1971, her

brief, but some of the pieces she made during this time

friend, the great Nantucket historian and former NHA

were signed Aletha Macy Sanders.

president Edouard A. Stackpole, wrote, “Her talent was a

In the mid-1950s, she was approached by José Reyes to carve ivory pieces for the tops of his famous friendship baskets. He had more orders than he could fill and was 24

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

blend of her character—natural and unadorned—and of her skill — so carefully obtained and nurtured.”

nancy Chase

R

R

(1931– 2016)

LEFT: Scrimshander Nancy Chase in her studio, 1990s,

Photo by Beverly Hall

PH9 - 1 1 - 8

ABOVE: Lightship basket purse by Karl and Susan Ottison;

lid carving by Nancy Chase, 1991

A descendent of whaling captains, carpenters, Chases,

favorites of tourists and light-

and Coffins, Nancy Chase was in many ways the mother of

ship basket collectors. Some of

modern scrimshaw. She practiced her craft at her shop on

her finest collaborations were

Cobble Court for over fifty years.

with her sister, basket maker

A woodcarver since childhood, Chase was given a piece of whale jawbone by her grandfather, Warren Benson Chase,

1 9 9 8. 2 6

Susan Chase Ottison.

Tired of carving whales,

and transformed it into a map of Nantucket. Her career tru-

Nancy was eager to try any-

ly began when William Coffin, owner of Coffin’s Pharmacy

thing her clients could dream

where Nancy was working as a soda jerk, asked her to carve

up. She carved everything from

ivory sperm-whale pins to sell to tourists.

the usual maps of Nantuck-

Years later, her carvings caught the eye of José Reyes, just

et and gulls, to the exotic and Samples of Nancy’s work

as Macy’s had. Reyes approached Nancy to make a hundred

whimsical. During the 1980 in her Cobblestone Court

three-inch sperm whales for the tops of his baskets. She

presidential election, Chase studio, 2011

agreed, eventually leaving her job at Pacific National Bank to

was commissioned to carve the

complete the order. It was a risky move, as the bank was one

presidential seal to top a basket for future First Lady, Nancy

of a handful of year-round employers at the time.

Reagan. Had he lost the election, she said in a 2007 interview,

Ready to set out on her own and turn her craft into a flour-

she was to somehow change the carving.

ishing business, she opened the Ivory Shop on Cobble Court.

“I take away what don’t belong there,” she once said of her

Known for the custom basket-top ornaments she did for Reyes

immense talent, “and leave the rest.” A former NHA trustee,

and other basket makers, her intricate carvings soon became

Chase died in June of 2016.

Ivory carving and basket making developed simultaneously, as two very different but

MARY BERGMAN AND

complementary crafts. Today, about a dozen people on Nantucket make their living prac-

ANDREA WULFFLEFF

ticing these traditional crafts. Countless others across the country and as far away as Japan

are the Executive Director and

have dabbled, testing the waters of traditional maritime craftwork. These crafts endure

Director, respectively, of the

in part because there is such a real, tangible connection to the island’s history and all the

Nantucket Lightship Basket

people who have come before us. As to any concerns that this is a “dying” art—as long as

Museum.

there are Nantucketers, there will be Nantucket baskets.

SUMMER 2017

25

News Notes & Highlights

ON VIEW

“Dear Absent Ones”: The Seafaring Pinkhams

Whaleship Henry Astor Helen Marshall

Whaling Museum, March through December 2017 Experience Nantucket seafaring through the eyes of the Pinkhams, a local family whose sons and daughters went to sea over multiple generations. The exhibition focuses on Seth Pinkham and Mary Brown Pinkham (a whaling captain and his wife); Malvina Pinkham Marshall and Joseph Marshall (Seth and Mary’s daughter and her whaling master husband, whom she accompanied on whaling voyages); and Helen Marshall (Malvina and Joseph’s daughter, who was born in the Azores and went on whaling voyages with her family). Visitors will explore stories of adventure, love, melancholy, and loss as evidenced in the family’s letters, clothing, toys, furniture, and portraits. Featured for the first time are some of Captain Seth Pinkham’s letters to his family and friends, acquired at auction for the NHA in 2016 through the generosity of an anonymous donor. Additional artifacts highlighted in the exhibition are textiles that belonged to Malvina Pinkham Marshall and a scrimshaw-handled jump rope made for Helen Marshall by the second mate on the Aurora.

Portrait of Seth Pinkham, attributed to William Swain, circa 1840

26

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

1 9 8 9. 1 2 8. 1

C281

1 9 0 5. 5 9. 1

ON VIEW

Out of the Box:

Unpacking Nantucket Stories Whaling Museum, May through December 2017 Rarely seen objects from the NHA’s artifact and archival collections tell the stories of real Nantucket people over four centuries. Selected and filtered through the lenses of race, gender, ethnicity, and class, these objects celebrate the island’s rich tradition of diversity. The exhibition is organized by themes to form helpful lenses for exploring people’s lives on island over time: “Nantucket at Sea” reveals the centrality of water to island life and history; “Nantucket at Home” looks at women, men, and children in the domestic sphere; “Nantucket at Work” goes beyond whaling to show the island’s other economic pursuits; “Nantucket at Heart” exhibits island places and things that have long been loved; “Nantucket at Play” looks at the island as a tourist destination; and “Nantucket on the Map” brings together a handful of the collection’s best maps to provide a sense of place for the other theme areas. A special interactive feature, “Nantucket Seen,” presents a gallery of Nantucket portraits and includes a photo booth to offer visitors the opportunity to capture in a portrait their own memories of their visit.

SUMMER 2017

27

News Notes & Highlights WELCOME

The NHA welcomes new staff in Membership and at the Research Library Amelia Holmes Amelia Holmes, Library and Archives Manager, holds an M.S. in Library Science with a concentration in archives and records management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.A. in English and Studio Art from Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, North Carolina. While at UNC, she was the Carolina Academic Library Associate for Special Collections Technical Services at UNC’s Wilson Special Collections Library. She has also served as the Josiah Charles Trent Intern for the History of Medicine Collections at Duke University and the Digital Projects and Outreach Intern for UNC’s North Carolina Collection. As the Library and Archives Manager, Amelia will combine her skills and experience from these previous positions to document the island’s rich history and make it available to the public.

Lexi Norton Lexi Norton, Membership Coordinator, received her Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. Upon graduating, she moved to Washington, D.C., and worked as an intern in the Education Department at the Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site. While she had a wonderful experience in that culturally rich city, she soon followed her love of the mountains and adventure and moved to Telluride, Colorado.

There, she worked in the Guest Services Department at the Telluride Historical Museum while taking courses in the Museum and Field Studies Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Lexi is looking forward to combining her love of museums and her experience in fund-raising at the Nantucket Historical Association.

28

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

INSIDE THE NHA

E. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Thayer Verney Fellow 2017 A doctoral candidate in the English Department at Northwestern University, Meaghan M. Fritz is the NHA’s 2017 Verney Fellow. She will use the NHA Research Library’s manuscript collection to complete her dissertation “American Widows Willed: Extralegal Citizenship and the Literature of Widowhood,” which examines the singular conditions of widowhood that changed the lives of American women beginning with the Salem witch trials up to the Civil War. Fritz holds B.A.s in English and Spanish from Georgia State University and an M.A. in English from Georgetown University, where she received the English Department’s 2016 Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award. Other awards include a Graduate Research Grant from Northwestern University, to pursue research at the Sandwich Historical Society, and the Melville Society’s 2017 Walter E. Bezanson Research Fellowship, which will allow her two weeks at the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Research Library.

The E. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Thayer Verney Fellowship was established in 1999 in an effort to enhance the public’s knowledge and understanding of the heritage of Nantucket and encourage research in the collections of the NHA Research Library. Verney Fellows are awarded travel funds, a small stipend, and three weeks’ residency in the NHA’s Thomas Macy House at 99 Main Street.

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UPDATE

Grant for Inventory and Care of NHA Textile Collections

Through the inventory process, we are rediscovering some

for our collections of costumes, accessories, and textiles.

of the most delicate and beautiful treasures of the NHA’s

We have moved the textile collection into the new storage

collections that have been hidden in boxes for years. From

spaces, and continue to inventory our collections and

eighteenth-century quilted petticoats to wedding dresses

improve storage methods, a project that will take us to the

to intricately hand-worked wall hangings with special fam-

end of the year. Dresses are getting new padding to pre-

ily histories. Some highlights we have uncovered during

vent creases, and rugs and other textiles are being rolled

the inventory are a printed apron made by the Nantucket

on acid-free archival tubes. These preservation efforts will

Silk Factory in the late 1830s, a wonderful needlework wall

ensure that these fragile objects will be properly cared for

hanging by the Gilbreth family of Cheaper by the Dozen

well into the future.

fame, complete with imagery of “The Shoe,” and the “Bug

We continue to inventory and rehouse dresses, shoes,

Lights,” and an embroidered tablecloth that features sig-

hats, bonnets, children’s wear, quilts, and household

natures and doodles of several friends gathered in ’Sconset

textiles, as well as costume and textile collections from our

at the turn of the twentieth century, many of them notable

sites including Greater Light and Hadwen House. We’ll

characters active in the theater scene at the time.

be sharing more of these pieces with the public through

In April, compact shelving was installed, giving us six

exhibitions, programming, and our online catalog.

new aisles of storage space with a combination of shelves,

JENNIFER NEILING is the NHA’s Project Costume and Textiles

drawers, trays, and roll storage to provide proper housing

Specialist, a position funded by the IMLS grant.

T H E N H A I S G R AT EF U L TO T H E IM LS FOR H AV IN G BE E N C H OS E N FROM A M ONG 54 8 APP LICANTS TO RECEIVE THIS P RESTIGIOUS $1 50,000 AWARD TO IMPROVE THE MANAGEMENT, C A R E, A N D EXPA N D ED ACC E S S TO IT S COS T UM E A N D T E X T ILE COLLEC T ION.

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

News Notes & Highlights WELCOME

Meet the NHA’s new Gosnell Executive Director The NHA welcomes James P. Russell The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) Board of Trustees is pleased to announce that James P. Russell has been unanimously selected as the organization’s Gosnell Executive Director. Mr. Russell will join the NHA September 5, 2017.

He comes to the NHA from the New Bedford Whaling Museum (NBWM), where he has been President and CEO since 2008. During his tenure, the museum leveraged its world-class collection to frame whaling history in a global, historical, ecological, and societal context with relevance for diverse audiences today. Mr. Russell has guided the museum in engaging its audience with comprehensive, content-rich, and experiential exhibitions and programming that draw comparisons and lessons for today.

“I fully expect that the job will be both exhilarating and challenging and am eager to work with the Board, and indeed the entire membership as we shape a suite of programs that speak to the many constituencies within the association,” said Mr. Russell.

Russell initiated a High School Apprenticeship program at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, providing low-income academically motivated students with access to experiences that cultivate college and career success; increased museum attendance each year; oversaw funding and building of a new Education Facility; installed climate control throughout the campus, and restored two historic buildings while maintaining a high level of volunteerism, a healthy endowment, and a balanced budget.

James and his wife, Delia, have two grown children, Aine and Owen. They are looking forward to immersing themselves in all the island has to offer, getting to know the community, and working in partnership with peer organizations. The NHA Board looks forward to working with James as he carries forward the NHA’s mission to tell the inspiring stories of Nantucket in a vibrant, inclusive, inspiring, and above all, welcoming manner.

“ I fully expect that the job will be both exhilarating and challenging . . . and am eager to work,” said Mr. Russell.

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