Cover: Greater Light gates before restoration. Photo by Amanda Amaral.
Year-End Reflections
FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT AND GOSNELL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
As we approach the end of 2025, we reflect on the extraordinary year at the Nantucket Historical Association—a year filled with stories, history, and community.
From the Behind the Seams: Clothing and Textiles on Nantucket exhibition to the participation of more than 100 individuals and businesses in our Community Quilt Project, 2025 has reminded us of how deeply Nantucket’s history is woven into the modern day.
Thanks to generous supporters like you, the NHA welcomed over 100,000 visitors through its doors. It engaged with senior centers on and off the island, hosted 98 decorative arts classes, and welcomed more than 900 attendees at Community Day on August 6th at Children’s Beach. Our Research Library reference staff answered over 600 inquiries, and our collections grew by 461 new acquisitions, preserving even more of Nantucket’s rich legacy.
We also expanded our reach in new and meaningful ways:
• We launched a brand-new podcast to bring Nantucket’s stories to a broader audience.
• Welcomed 11 international trainees focused on resiliency for our historic buildings.
• The NHA acquired a new property at 91 Bartlett Road, ensuring important operational space to grow into the future.
All of this is possible because people like you believe in the importance of preserving and sharing the island’s legacy.
In this issue, enjoy a teaser for what is to come next year: a traveling exhibition, The Wider World and Scrimshaw; as well as some exciting articles on the topic of scrimshaw, a fun Q&A with the team behind our podcast (Season Two is coming), and an update on just a few of the many important preservation projects that are underway across our campus.
Thank you for being a part of the NHA story. We hope we can count on your support as we move into 2026 with excitement and continued dedication to our mission.
Warmest Holiday Wishes to you all,
Lucinda Ballard President, Board of Trustees
Niles Parker Gosnell Executive Director
THE WIDER WORLD AND SCRIMSHAW
The Wider World & Scrimshaw
The Nantucket Whaling Museum will be the first venue to host the traveling exhibition
The Wider World & Scrimshaw, organized by the New Bedford Whaling Museum with support provided by Art Bridges.
Opening at the Whaling Museum April 20, 2026,
The Wider World & Scrimshaw places scrimshaw (objects carved by whalers on the byproducts of marine mammals) in conversation with carved decorative arts and material culture made by Indigenous community members from across Oceania, the Pacific, and the Arctic. Engaging in questions about identity, place, and material, the exhibition considers how exploration and whaling impacted the production of material culture in the Pacific World between 1700 and today.
The Wider World & Scrimshaw is an interdisciplinary, community-driven, and collections-focused exhibition that showcases over three hundred cultural products, from Oceanic material culture and Arctic carvings to engraved sperm whale teeth. Organized in consultation with a diverse advisory board of artists, scholars, and culture bearers, and in partnership with NBWM curators, this sweeping exhibition explores the rich cultural traditions, carving forms, and material exchanges that emerged in cultural contact zones across the Pacific world and continue to shape artistic practices and communities today.
This exhibition was organized by the New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Generous support provided by Billy “Billiken” Komoneseok (Iñupiaq)
Cribbage board, 1908-1912
Engraved walrus ivory
New Bedford Whaling Museum, 2001.100.2255
The Ewer Tooth. The front of the tooth, engraved in the late 1820s, depicts an unidentified ship under sail behind a dense scene of whaling activity. The reverse bears a dedicatory inscription added at the request of Peter F. Ewer in 1846. Gift of the Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association, 1989.126.4.
Shipwreck and Scrimshaw:
The
Story of the Earl of Eglinton and the Ewer Tooth
By Michael R. Harrison
Michael Harrison is the chief curator and Obed Macy Research Chair at the NHA. This article first appeared in slightly shorter form in the summer 2025 issue of Scrimshaw Observer, the journal of the Antique Scrimshaw Collectors Association.
The “Ewer Tooth”
The so-called “Ewer tooth,” held in the collection of the Nantucket Historical Association, has long been attributed to Edward Burdett (1805–1833) of Nantucket, the earliest documented American engraver of pictorial sperm-whale teeth. In recent years, scholars have proposed that the tooth may actually be the work of a British artist known as the Britannia Engraver (probably Captain William Buckle [1787–1850]). Either way, the tooth is noteworthy for the inscription it bears on the reverse:
A Sperm Whales Tooth / Presented by Peter F Ewer / of Nantucket U.S.A. / to / Richard Niven Esq. / Chrome Hall. / March 15, 1846
Peter Ewer was a merchant on Nantucket. Richard Niven was a Scottish-born textile merchant with a home and works business in the north of Ireland. The connection between these two men has not previously been well understood, but the recent rediscovery of a ledger in the NHA collection has prompted new research into these men’s biographies and into the dramatic event that prompted the inscription on the tooth.1
The ledger in question came to the NHA in 1969. Inside its front cover is written “March 15, 1846,” surrounded by pasted newspaper clippings: “Ship
1 The Ewer tooth (NHA acc. no. 1989.126.4) was previously in “a major Cape Cod Collection” and was sold by Richard A. Bourne, Hyannis, Mass., March 20, 1984, lot 66, to Jeffery and Francine Cohen of Washington, D.C., and Nantucket. The tooth was sold again by Bourne, July 31, 1989, lot 131, to the Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association for the permanent collection of the Nantucket Historical Association.
Wreck and Loss of Life.” “ The Wrecked Strangers.” “Sale of Wreck.” One clipping reads, “NOTICE. Should any person pick up along shore, any part of the cargo of the wrecked ship Earl of Eglinton, a handsome salvage will be awarded the finder of the same, by leaving it with the Wreck Master. PETER F. EWER.” Further down, we read, “Ship Wreck and Loss of Life.—Ship Earl of Eglinton, Capt. John Niven, of Greenock, Scotland, from Liverpool for Boston, struck, supposed on South Shoal, on Saturday last . . . .” On the facing page is written, in Peter Ewer’s hand: “Capt John Niven (Late master of Barque Earl of Eglinton of Greenock, Scotland) was born in Manchester, County of Lancashire, England on the 17th of March 1817. His Father, Richard Niven Esq was born in Scotland, now resides at Chrome Hall, Lisburn, north of Ireland. His mother also Scotch.”
Here is the crux of the connection: Captain John Niven, son of Richard Niven, was shipwrecked on Nantucket March 15, 1846. That very day, according to a letter copied in the ledger, he met and hired Peter Ewer to act as his agent to manage the business of salvaging the wrecked ship. The ledger is Ewer’s account book for the work and contains complete documentation of the wreck and its aftermath, including financial accounts, letters, surveys, and affidavits. While the story of the tooth is unlocked on the ledger’s first pages, the whole book, set alongside what turns out to be a surprisingly large amount of other surviving period documentation, provides a deep understanding of what happened.
Peter F. Ewer
Peter Folger Ewer (1800–1855) was the only son of Nantucket ship owner and whale-oil merchant Sylvanus Ewer (1767–1836). With his father’s assistance, he became an enterprising merchant on and off the island during the last decades of Nantucket’s whaling industry. Ewer married Eunice Cartwright (1799–1822) in 1820, uniting his family with that of Captain John Cartwright (1752–1837), a successful island mariner and owner of candle houses and cooperages. They had two children. After his wife’s untimely death, Ewer married her sister Mary (1797–1877) in 1825, and they, also, had two children. He first worked in the shipping trade on Nantucket. In 1824, he purchased and installed the first milestones along the road from Nantucket to Siasconset. Around 1828, he moved to Providence, Rhode Island, and established the shipping and import firm of Peter F. Ewer & Co. In 1834, Ewer moved his family to New York City, where he was an investor in steamboats, a commission merchant, and an oil refiner. Upon coming into his inheritance at his father’s death in 1836, he retired from business and went traveling for several years with his wife. They resettled on Nantucket in 1841. From 1840 to 1842, Ewer was the prime mover
The cover and opening page of Peter Ewer’s Earl of Eglinton ledger. Gift of the Nantucket Historical Trust, 69.34.
Left: Peter F. Ewer and Mary Cartwright Ewer, 1828, by William Swain. Gift of the Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association, 1986.30.1 & .2.
behind the development of the Nantucket Marine Camels, a floating drydock built to carry heavily laden vessels over the sandbar at the entrance to Nantucket Harbor.2
A nineteenth-century biography of Ewer describes him as “an ingenious and enterprising man” but “not very sagacious as a financier, and he had the misfortune between 1842 and 1845 to lose nearly all his property, including the ample fortune which had been left to him by his father.” He lost his house in the Great Fire of Nantucket in July 1846. In 1848, he traveled to Valparaiso, Chile, to open a trading company. Soon after, he went to California to take advantage of trading opportunities presented by the gold rush. For a time he served as coroner and sheriff of Sacramento County and directed operations at a mine in Grass Valley. Settling in San Francisco in 1853, he began work on a scheme to raise buildings to match the new grading of the city’s streets but fell ill with cancer. He returned to Nantucket in 1854 and died in early 1855.3
Richard Niven
Richard Niven (1787–1866) was born in the west of Scotland and trained as a calico printer and textile-dying chemist. He started his career in Glasgow and later moved to Manchester, where he partnered in a succession of firms and made innovations in the use of bichromate of potash as a mordant in textile dying and in the use of steam for textile printing. About 1831, having reached a certain level of success, he bought an estate at Lambeg in Lisburn near Belfast in the north of Ireland. He named his house Chrome Hill—not Chrome Hall, as engraved on the tooth and recorded in Ewer’s ledger—after the source of his wealth. He soon became involved in calico printing
2 Memorial Biographies of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, vol. 2, 1853–1855 (Boston, NEHGS, 1881), 319–26; Longworth’s American Almanac, New-York Register, and City Directory (New York: Thomas Longworth, 1835), 243; Benjamin Simons, Island Treasures (Nantucket: NHA, 2011), 8–9.
3 Quote from Memorial Biographies, 325.
at Lambeg, with mixed success, and later cultivated a great interest in agriculture.4
Niven married Hannah May (d. 18375) around 1810, and they eventually had four children, two born in Scotland and two born in England. He had five more children by his second wife, Eliza Boomer (1813–1899), whom he married in 1837.6
Milford Barnett, a visitor to Chrome Hill in the 1840s, later wrote, “How I recall the house, flower-plots, lawns and fields; and the farm-yard and poultry, also the adjacent Bleach Works and grounds . . . . In the house, the cozy dining-room and the large reception room, with many fine oil paintings. Your hearty pious father’s interesting laboratory! The latter so suggestive of the Chrome. It helps me to realize the reality and value of true religion to know of personal piety and witness-bearing such as his was.” James Barlow, the son of one of Niven’s friends, recalled in 1880, “I have often heard my mother tell how Mr. Niven was known
Left: Richard Niven. From John Niven, The Family of Niven
in his native village as ‘Daft Dick’ (because he never wore a hat), and was never known or addressed in any other way.”7
4 John Niven, The Family of Niven with Biographical Sketches (San Francisco: privately printed, 1960), 3–11; Alexander Knox, A History of the County of Down (Dublin: Hodges, Foster & Co., 1875), 512. Family of Niven Richard Niven moved his family to Lisburn in 1835, but this conflicts with John Niven’s testimony (p. 60) that he began his sailing career in 1833 after working for a time in his father’s works at Lisburn.
5 “Died,” Belfast News-Letter, Apr. 4, 1837, 2.
6 Niven, Family of Niven, 3–5.
7 Barnett and Barlow quoted in Niven, Family of Niven, 6, 205–6.
Chrome Hill at Lambeg outside Belfast, Northern Ireland. From John Niven, The Family of Niven
John Niven
Captain John Niven (1817?–1892) was born near Manchester, England, after his parents relocated there from Glasgow. Early apprentice work and employment in his father’s trade bored him, and he resolved to go to sea. His father kept him at home for a time by paying for tuition in navigation, then helped him get an appointment as an apprentice on the ship Princess Victoria, in which he made two voyages. On the first one (1833–35), the Princess Victoria circumnavigated the globe, carrying passengers and cargo from Liverpool to Hobart, Sydney, and Calcutta; on the second (1836), the ship, on passage from Calcutta to Liverpool, burned to the waterline one hundred leagues south-southwest of the island of Bourbon (now Réunion) in the Indian Ocean. Captain James F. Bissett later wrote to an associate in Sydney, “After using every means to save the ship, with difficulty we got out the boats, but not before they were much damaged and then were obliged to keep baling them for three days and three nights as they were in a sinking condition, when we arrived at this place [Bourdon] all safe, but much exhausted.”8
In 1840, Niven sailed as first mate in the ship Ramsay under Captain Thomas Hamlin on a trading voyage to India and Burma. For nearly four months in 1841, the Ramsay carried as passengers the famous American Baptist missionary Adoriram Judson and his family. Shortly after arriving at Maulmain, Burma, in December 1841, Judson baptized Captain Hamlin, Niven, and two of their shipmates into the Baptist church. A year later, bound home, the Ramsey struck a rock bound in to Ascension Island. The crew were stuck at Ascension for two long, boring months before the ship was con-
8 John David Noll, John Niven: Van Camp Packing Company . . . and Family (Tucson: Wheatmark, 2023), n.p.; Niven, Family of Niven, 102–3; “Ship News,” Sydney Morning Herald, June 26, 1837, 3. Niven’s birth date is given as January 6, 1815, in Manchester parish baptismal records (an entry that appears to be his, but could be by someone else); March 16, 1816, on his tombstone; and March 17, 1817, by his own report in numerous personal journals and letters.
demned as unseaworthy. Niven returned to Scotland in the bark Chevalier, arriving in April 1843.9
In 1844, the owners of the Ramsay, Thomas Hamlin and Company of Greenock, Scotland, commissioned a new freighting vessel from the yard of Barr and Shearer at Ardrossan. The company intended John Niven to be the vessel’s first master and sent him to superintend the ship’s completion and fit out. With money from his father, Niven secured a one-eighth ownership share in the vessel, a 520-ton bark. The Earl of Eglinton was launched September 30, 1844, a date said in numerous sources to be the birthday of Archibald Montgomerie, the eponymous 13th earl, but he actually appears to have been born on September 29.10
The Earl of Eglinton sailed for India in late 1844 under Niven’s command. His crew included his younger half-brother Robert and another young friend from Lisburn, both of whom died of cholera at Bombay in July 1845.11
The Wreck
The cargo aboard the bark Earl of Eglinton, December 1845
24 bales of burlap and linen, to Bond, Wyman & Arkley, Boston
50 cases sheet copper to Josiah Bradlee & Co., Boston
150 tons salt in 1,500 bags, to order
150 tons salt, loose, do.
40 tons canal coal, do.
60 tons Liverpool coal, do.
35 cases matts, do.
10 casks damp-collecting powder, for Canton12
9 Niven, Family of Niven, 25–27, 103; Noll, John Niven, n.p.; Edward Judson, The Life of Adoniram Judson (New York: Anson D. F. Randolph & Co., 1883), 435–39, 567.
10 Niven, Family of Niven, 175–83.
11 Niven, Family of Niven, 175–83; “Deaths,” Belfast News-Letter, Sep. 9, 1845, 3.
12 Peter Ewer, Earl of Eglinton ledger, NHA Ms. 15, folder 51, [2].
Captain John Niven. A14-14.
Niven took the Earl of Eglinton out a second time in late December 1845, sailing from Liverpool for Boston with a mixed cargo of salt, coal, sheet copper, and dry goods. The ship encountered bad weather for most of the eleven-week crossing. Arthur W. Morris, the supercargo on the voyage, described the trip overall as “long and severe.”13 On Friday, March 13, 1846, the bark was 159 miles south-southeast of Cape Cod by Niven’s reckoning. The next day, a gale developed with heavy rain and dense fog. Niven reduced sail and ordered continuous soundings, but at 11:00 a.m. the bottom shoaled suddenly, and the vessel struck heavily on what turned out to be Nantucket South Shoal. The crew got the bark off rapidly, but they found breakers and shoal water in every direction they sailed over the next few hours. Niven ordered the anchor out, but the cable parted. According to testimony recorded in Peter Ewer’s ledger,
It was now 4 P.M. and from this time until 11 P.M. we kept hauling East and West, and kept away [by] threading our way to and fro among the shoals, and a frightful sea running the whole time.14
Around 11:00 p.m. a man reported land in sight— though it might have been a fog bank—leading Niven to send up rockets and place blue lights in the rigging. There was no reply. Around 11:30, the ship was completely surrounded by breakers, and Niven, seeing no alternative, sailed the ship into them. Despite “incessant pumping,” water gained in the hold, and the ship began to “strike heavily” in the sea. Morris described the sea “lifting us up and again dashing us down with dreadful force, the masts quivering like reeds and our oaken frame tearing and groaning like a strong man in his agony.”15
For a moment each one held his breath and the hand clutched convulsively to some support but life is dear to the dying man and the orders given to put out the boats gives each of us a gleam of hope; the tackles are already on to the yard arm, soon the long boat’s cover is off, the topgallant bulwarks
13 Arthur Morris diary excerpts, NHA Ms. 316.
14 Peter Ewer, Earl of Eglinton ledger, NHA Ms. 15, folder 51, [3–6].
15 Morris diary excerpts.
disappear before axe and saw of the carpenter—everyone works with a will it is for life. The steward and another hand prepare bags of biscuit and other provisions; the hurried order, the half suppressed exclamation, the calm composure of some, the anxious look of others and the fearful despair of the coward few all tell that it is no light matter which engages their attention, but that life or death hang in the scale.16
Niven ordered the bark’s longboat and pinnace launched, and through a series of circumstances numerous men boarded the boats before they were veered astern.
At 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, March 15, the ship “violently struck” on what turned out to be Old Man Shoal and laid there for an hour and a half before finally beating over into 10 fathoms water. At daybreak, around 5:00 a.m., the ship leaking heavily, the crew saw Nantucket due north with people gathering on the shore. “Hoping and trusting that some attempt would be made from the shore for their relief,” Niven let go the remaining anchor in 9 1/2 fathoms of water and waited.
But at 6 AM, the leak still gaining fast, and there being no appearance of assistance, and the crew being entirely exhausted, and considering also the nature of the cargo, it was deemed the only possible course for the preservation of life, and as the only possibility of doing anything for the safety of the cargo, to put the ship ashore; and accordingly at 7.15 AM all sail was set upon her, the ship was steered right on to the beach, and at 8 AM she struck on the south side of the Island of Nantucket.17
Morris reported that the boats towing astern were swamped immediately in the heavy surf. Although Niven had ordered the men in the boats to hold onto the ship, “they misunderstood the signs made by the people on shore and having cut the painter the boat was pitched over by a heavy sea.” Six men drowned, and the two who were saved “were only rescued by the exertions of men who, at imminent risk of their own
16 Morris diary excerpts.
17 Earl of Eglinton ledger, [3–6]. Morris reports the foresail, fore topsail, and foretopmast staysail were set.
lives rushed into the surf from the shore.”18 Niven later wrote Thomas Hamlin and Company, “what renders this so unfortunate is that the boats were within ten yards of the shore and hundreds on shore wildly anxious to save them.”19 The remaining eighteen men on board managed to throw an oar into the surf attached to the deep-sea log line. This was caught by the crowd on the beach and a succession of heavier lines were attached and hauled ashore until a hawser connected ship to shore. A running bowline was then cast on and used to send the men one at a time to the shore.20 Captain Niven was the last man to leave the bark, but the line parted and he was flung into the sea. The islanders at once formed a line for holding hands and sprang into the breakers after him, thus bringing him to land. When he heard that his six men were lost he was temporarily deranged and jumped again into the boiling waters. Again they rescued him, and put him into custody. He was badly bruised, and was a long time in recovering.21
Captain Matthew Crosby (1791–1878), the prominent island coasting captain and businessman, and his son Matthew (1827–1904) were present on the beach and were “instrumental in saving the life” of Captain Niven, “and a warm friendship sprang up between” the two older men. Arthur Morris later recognized his friendship with the younger Matthew by naming his sixth child Crosby, while Matthew Crosby Jr. himself named his first son Maurice.22 It is not clear how Captain Niven met Peter Ewer, but they clearly also met that very first day, possibly on the beach as well. Ewer invited Niven
Below:
and Morris to stay at his house on Centre Street, and the two shipwrecked men were later reported to have developed a lasting friendship with Mary Ewer.23
18 Earl of Eglinton ledger, [6].
19 John Niven to Thomas Hamlin and Co., Mar. 17, 1846, in Earl of Eglinton ledger, [19].
20 Morris diary excerpts.
21 “Strange Story of a Sea Captain,” Oregon State Journal, Oct. 9, 1880, 6. This article, which contains many inaccuracies, was picked up in multiple newspapers nationwide.
22 “Personal,” I&M, Aug. 5, 1876, 2; “Roaming Robert,” I&M, July 31, 1880, 2.
The bodies of William Magee, second mate; Thomas Johnson and John Luckham, seamen; and John Lambert, apprentice, were recovered on Monday morning and immediately taken to the vacant store under Peter Ewer’s house.24 They were buried two days later from Nantucket’s Summer Street Baptist Church in a service at which there were far more mourners than pews. “The mournful loss of life which accompanied the wreck of this ship has cast a gloom over the whole community,” the editor of the Nantucket Inquirer wrote. “The bodies were interred in the Unitarian yard, and were followed to their last resting place by an exceedingly numerous procession. Ours is a community of seamen, and all were anxious, though the deceased were strangers, to treat their remains as they would those of brothers; not knowing how soon some of our own people might need, at the hands of strangers, the same kindly offices.”25 The bodies of Henry Dawkins and James Hepburn, seamen, were never found.
23 “A Pearl from Nantucket Sands,” I&M, Jan. 18, 1873, 1.
24 “A Pearl from Nantucket Sands,” I&M, Jan. 18, 1873, 1.
25 Nantucket Inquirer, Mar. 18, 1846.
Summer Street Baptist Church, 1870s, photo by Charles H. Shute. GPN-Shute-20.
Captain Matthew Crosy, ca. 1845, by William Swain. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Carroll Crosby.
Salvage
Ewer’s ledger reveals that Captain Niven immediately recorded sworn testimony of what happened to protect himself and the other owners in their insurance claims. On the very day the ship beached, he appeared before Charles Bunker, a notary public, and briefly described what happened. Three days later, he and five of his men appeared before Bunker again and recorded a more in-depth joint statement which the rest of the surviving crew attested to. This statement declared that the ship began the voyage “staunch, tight and strong and in all respect in good order, properly manned and equipped.”26
the ship every being removed for repairs. . . . The ship lies so far from the shore that there is great difficulty in saving the effects, all of which have to be hauled through the surf, or landed in boats.” The commission recommended salvaging rigging, sails, spars, cargo, and effects as quickly as possible for public auction sale, the hull also to be sold at auction.27
Peter Ewer acted swiftly to secure the cargo and wreck. His timeline in the ledger shows that the bark beached on March 15 and by 2:00 a.m. on March 16 “the ship upset, when the cabin and part of the cargo were washed out of her.” On March 17, he contracted two local men to strip the wreck and salvage the cargo. On nine of the next fourteen days the weather and sea state permitted working on board, with men hired by Ewer “employed strippg rigging, spars, &c.” In all, 26 boxes of copper and 52 bolts of cloth were saved and sold to benefit the original consigners. Auctioneer George G. Folger then auctioned off the hull and the “spars, sails, rigging, chains, pumps, truss, cordage, &c., &c” on the beach on March 31. The bark’s figurehead was sent to Richard Niven and displayed for many years at Chrome Hill.28
On this same day, the day of the disaster, Niven requested a survey be made of the wreck, which was immediately undertaken by shipmaster Thadeus Coffin, Captain Matthew Crosby, and merchant Philip H. Folger. They found it impossible to board the ship due to the waves breaking over the wreck. Visiting the site again on March 19, they found the ship “heeled offshore, that her topmasts and spars, chains and anchors are gone; the upper deck is considerably off, the ship breaking up, and will probably go to pieces in the first storm; that her bottom appears to be broken in on the larboard side; that there is no probability of 26
Captain Niven and his men lost their personal effects in the wreck but were provided with replacement clothing by generous townspeople. In a curious twist, Niven’s baptismal certificate, signed by Adoriram Judson in Burma, and his Masonic membership certificate were both found on the beach and returned to him.
On April 7, as Niven prepared to depart the island, twenty-four ship masters and thirty-two merchants of the town presented him with a letter of commendation, “inspired by that sympathy which we all feel for a fellow being cast upon our shore by the elements.” Vouching for Niven’s decision to run the Earl of Eglinton onto the beach, they wrote, “[I]n the emergency which then existed there was no possibility for saving the lives of the crew, nor any portion of the cargo, except by adopting the measures which you did upon that occasion . . . .”29
27 Earl of Eglinton ledger, [12–15].
28 Earl of Eglinton ledger, [2, 20–21]; Niven, Family of Niven, 206.
29 Earl of Eglinton ledger, [37–38]
Earl of Eglinton ledger, [3–7].
Peter Ewer’s desk, made by Heman Ellis for Ewer’s father, Sylvanus Ewer, in 1808, where the younger Ewer likely worked on the Earl of Eglinton salvage efforts.
“Niven’s Tooth”
John Niven benefited greatly from the openhearted generosity of the people of Nantucket and made lasting connections of mutual respect and friendship from his literal first moments on the beach. “The heart may feel, and the tongue may speak,” he wrote in an open letter to the islanders, “but the pen fails in expressing my gratitude for the more than kind reception that the ship-wrecked strangers had at [local] hands.”30
In this context, the presentation by Ewer to the Nivens of a scrimshaw tooth—a whaling-port–specific sort of gift—marked with the date of the shipwreck makes sense. There is no documentation of why the gift was dedicated to Richard Niven instead of John, but a token of respect to a father commemorating the safe return of a son seems entirely reasonable, particularly if we consider that the business relationship between Ewer and Captain Niven might have made a personal gift between the two men appear inappropriate.
John Niven returned to Scotland after the wreck. He superintended the completion of another new bark for Hamlin and Company, the Anne MacLean (named after his sister), and then took the vessel out on a 28-month voyage from the U.K. to India, China, and Singapore from 1847 to 1850.
Niven recalled to a former Ramsey shipmate in 1877,
My course after the wreck of the Earl of Eglinton was anything but what it should have been, and after lowering myself, and causing my friends much pain, I drifted into the American Merchant service, at which service as Chief Mate, I sailed to the southern ports, the West Indies and across the Atlantic for some two years.31
He finally immigrated to the U.S. in autumn 1852 and worked his way to the environs of Lafayette, Indiana, where he taught and studied medicine and became more active in the Baptist church. In 1857, he met and married Margaret (Baer) Summers, the widow of the deacon of their church, who brought to the union, in
30 Nantucket Inquirer, Apr. 8, 1846.
31 Niven, Family of Niven, 193.
Niven’s words, “160 acres and three children.” Niven farmed for a time, then rented out the farm and set up in medical practice in Darlington, Indiana. He and Margaret had a daughter in 1858 and a son in 1860. About 1863, he purchased 21 acres outside Thorntown, Indiana. His father’s death in 1866 brough him an inheritance of £5,000, with which he gave up medicine and moved permanently to Thorntown in 1867 to be a gentleman farmer. He invested his money and soon bought an interest in the First National Bank, becoming in short order a director and then president. He built a house outside Thorntown in 1870 and named it Chrome Hill.32
Later in life Niven was wont to tell people that “the kind treatment he received from the people who met
him on shore made him an American, and the drenching he received while being hauled in by the hawser, was his baptism into citizenship.”33
32 Niven, Family of Niven, 25–27, 103, 174, 192–4; Noll, John Niven, n.p.; “Dropped Anchor Forever,” Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror, July 23, 1892, 4. Niven is listed in successive federal censuses as a farmer (1860), retired physician (1870), and bank president (1880).
33 “Thorntown’s Interesting Gentleman,” Thorntown Times, Oct. 16, 1947 (quoting an article from 1892), quoted in Niven, Family of Niven, 28.
Chrome Hill at Thorntown, Indiana. From John Niven, The Family of Niven
John Niven returned to Nantucket in August 1875, prompted by and accompanied by his former shipmate Arthur Morris, now a wealthy merchant of Dunedin, New Zealand.34 Niven visited the island seven more times up to 1890, at least twice staying with Matthew Crosby in ’Sconset. He routinely stopped in at the newspaper office to say hello. “It is six years since Capt. Niven has been here,” the editor wrote in 1886, “but we fail to see that he has lost either in avoirdupois, good looks, or good humor.”35
Niven recorded a few details of these visits in his diary:
July 23, 1888: Saw Robert Coffin and Captain Aldridge who carried the dead bodies of my unfortunate men from the beach at the shipwreck of ‘The Earl.’
July 26, 1888: After dinner went with Charles Crosby buggy riding to the scene of the wreck, which we placed West of Humane House on or about Tom Never’s Head.
July 18, 1889: With a party of eight chartered a beach wagon and went to the scene of my shipwreck and thought of old times. Went to Sconset, took dinner at Ocean House, which was superb.36
Niven was friends with the Baptist minister, poet, and humorist Robert J. Burdette of Burlington, Iowa, who also summered on Nantucket. They were on island together at least once, where they engaged in the island pastimes of sailing and sharking. Burdette wrote a laudatory poem about Niven in 1881, based on their holiday times, which was picked up by various newspapers across the country including the Inquirer and Mirror on Nantucket.37
Captain John Niven and I
We are two sons of the blue salt sea, Captain John Niven and I; Fo’castle comrades and shipmates we, Old Captain John and I.
What tales we can tell of the restless deep, Of storms that blow and calms that sleep, Of ships that go down and hearts that weep, Under the angry sky.
See! this is the way we’ve sailed together, Brave Captain John and I; He in the face of wind and weather Hearing the storm king’s cry.
Lifting his voice in the tempest’s roar, While the hissing clouds their torrents pour, And the breakers whiten the gloomy shore, And the lightnings rend the sky.
And I? I have sailed with this brave old man Over the sunniest seas;
When the gentle motion of May’s white fan Lent our good ship its breeze.
With wife and sister and boy in sight; When the old man’s home with love was bright, And jest and story shortened the night For the children about his knees.
And over our ship no tempest broke; There was never a sail to furl; While around our heads the Havana’s smoke Would fragrantly twine and curl.
And noiseless miles and hours speed on, Till our watch and the night together are gone, And we go below with the paling dawn, At peace with the whole wide world.
I’ve sailed so far with this shipmate of mine, Holding his good, strong hand!
And somehow the weather was always fine
When we stood away from the land.
34 Inquirer and Mirror, Aug. 28, 1875, 2.
35 “Personal mention,” Inquirer and Mirror, July 24, 1886.
36 Niven, Family of Niven, 233, 238.
37 “Poetry,” Inquirer and Mirror, Mar. 5, 1881, 1.
“Blow fair, blow foul,” but we’ll hold our way, Till the pilot will come in the twilight gray, And we will sail quietly into the bay, I and my captain grand.
Robert J. Burdette38
38 Transcribed from “Current Reading,” Boston Evening Transcript, Feb. 18, 1881, 6.
Top: Scrimshaw tooth associated with Peter M. Coffin (1796–1883), master of two voyages in the whaling bark Equator (1833–36 and 1836–39). This side has the sperm whaling scene, meticulously inscribed “Equator” and “P. N. [sic] Coffin.” Charles H. Voorhees Collection, 1984.48.77,. Photo by Jeffrey Allen.
Center: One edge of the scrimshaw tooth has a broadside portrait of a sperm whale and shows the two inscriptions from the two sides (Figs. 1 and 3).
Photo by Jeffrey Allen.
Bottom: Verso side of the scrimshaw tooth attributed to Peter M. Coffin, inscribed “Abbey of Fitzmartin.” Photo by Jeffrey Allen.
CAPTAIN COFFIN
AND THE ABBEY OF FITZ-MARTIN
By Stuart M. Frank
Stuart M. Frank, Ph.D., a Research Fellow of the Nantucket Historical Association, is the editor of the triannual journal Scrimshaw Observer. He is the founder and director of the Scrimshaw Forensics Laboratory, executive director emeritus of the Kendall Whaling Museum, senior curator emeritus of the New Bedford Whaling Museum, and author of the books Ingenious Contrivances, Curiously Carved: Scrimshaw in the New Bedford Whaling Museum (2012), Scrimshaw on Nantucket (2019), and the Biographical Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artists (2025).
One of the most intriguing sperm-whale teeth in the scrimshaw collection of the Nantucket Historical Association is associated with the bark Equator of New Bedford. Alongside the tooth’s intrinsic artistic interest as a bona fide original creation by a gifted whaleman at sea, it exemplifies the outstanding quality possible when eyewitnesses engraved whaling scenes onto scrimshaw. A curious picture on the other side of the tooth testifies to the eclectic reading interests of whalemen and the surprisingly diverse sources of images for their scrimshaw.
The scrimshaw is clearly engraved “Equator” and “P. N. Coffin” in elegant letters. There is no P. N. Coffin associated with any voyage of the Equator, but the bark’s master on two voyages from 1833 to 1836 and 1836 to 1839 was Peter M. Coffin (1796–1833) of Martha’s Vineyard. He was the son of Captain Peter Coffin (1765–1835), who commanded ten whaling voyages in Nantucket vessels. The younger Coffin commanded four whaling voyages in his own right, the last two being in the Equator. Peter M. has been said to be the artist who created this scrimshaw, but, as it seems unlikely that the artist would have so very carefully misspelled his own name, the engraving may be the work of another,, as-yet unidentified, hand.1
1 Stuart Frank, Biographical Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artists (Scrimshaw Forensics, 2025). There are no men named P. N. Coffin listed in the vital records of Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, New Bedford, or anywhere else in the whaling community; there are also no men surnamed Coffin associated with any voyage of the Equator other than Captain Peter M. Coffin. See the crew lists in the American Offshore Whaling Voyages database at https://whalinghistory.org/av/crew/.
One side of the tooth has an authoritative view of whaling: a conventional but well-wrought whaleship portrait, with three whaleboats lowered in pursuit, and three sperm whales breaching [fig. 1]. The edge features a compelling broadside portrait of a sperm whale [fig. 2]. From the standpoints of naval architecture, sails and rigging, reefpoints and grommets, deployment of whaleboats, positioning of oars, accurate sperm-whale anatomy, and over-all draftsmanship, it is a masterpiece of firsthand observation and recording, brilliantly realized in polychrome.
But it is on the other side of the tooth that an intriguing picture appears, which could only have emerged from the artist’s browsing. It depicts a sloop under sail, passing through a placid channel between a rocky outcrop to larboard and a promontory to starboard, the latter surmounted by a crenelated castle or fortress, labeled “Abbey of Fitzmartin.”2 [fig. 3] The schooner and the outcrop were the artist’s adaptations, but the crenelated building derives from the frontispiece
2 The scrimshaw is clearly labeled “Abbey of Fitzmartin,” which is the way of most citations; however, the title page and most library citations give the name accurately as “Fitz-Martin.”
Frontispiece and title page of the first edition of the anonymous anthology Romances and Gothic Tales, published in London in 1801 by Ann Lemoine, “England’s first female chapbook publisher.” Below the image, an early work of John Sharpe, is the inscription, “Castle on the Beach / Aspasia [a character] attempting to escape from the flames.” The scrimshaw artist took it as his model for the Abbey of Fitzmartin. Subsequent editions may have had different pictures of the castle.
“
FROM THE STANDPOINTS OF NAVAL ARCHITECTURE, SAILS AND RIGGING, REEFPOINTS AND GROMMETS, DEPLOYMENT OF WHALEBOATS, POSITIONING OF OARS, ACCURATE SPERM-WHALE ANATOMY, AND OVER-ALL DRAFTSMANSHIP, IT IS A MASTERPIECE
OF FIRSTHAND OBSERVATION AND RECORDING, BRILLIANTLY REALIZED IN POLYCHROME”
of an anonymous anthology titled Romances and Gothic Tales, published in London in 1801.3 An inscription below the picture indicates that it was actually intended as an illustration for “The Castle on the Beach,” the third of six included anonymous stories, showing two people alarmed by lightning and a fire in the tower, with a sloop under sail in the distant background [fig. 4]. There is no illustration for “The Ruins of the Abbey of Fitz-Martin” or any of the five other sto-
3 Romances and Gothic Tales was published in London in 1801 by Ann Lemoine (fl. 1795–1820). See Sara Penn, “Ann Lemoine: England’s First Female Chapbook Publisher,” The Women’s Print History Project, 16 April 2020; summarized in https://womensprinthistoryproject.com/ media/pdf/153/view and Roy Bearden-White, How the Wind Sits: The History of Henry and Ann Lemoine, Chapbook Writers and Publishers of the Late Eighteenth Century, (London: Lulu, 2017).
Enlargement of the crenelated tower on the scrimshaw.
“The South-West View of St. Dogmaels-Priory of Pembroke.” Showing the state of the ruins circa 1740. Engraving by the brothers Samuel and Nathaniel Buck, London, 1740, from their series Buck’s Antiquities, depicting ancient castles and monasteries.
ries, but the scrimshaw artist clearly took the frontispiece as the model for his rendering of the abbey: the image reverses the depiction of the tower, greatly enlarges the role of the schooner, leaves out the staffing, and inserts the rocky outcrop. [Fig. 5]
It is unequivocal from the nomenclature that the idea of the purely fictional Abbey of Fitz-Martin is derived from the actual ruins of St. Dogmael’s Abbey, founded by Robert Fitz Martin sometime between 1113 and 1118 on the River Teifi in Pembrokeshire, Wales [figs. 6]—only thirty-three miles from the sometime whaling port of Milford Haven, where Nantucket expatriates were much involved with the local whale fishery from the 1780s to around 1813. But the castle tower on the frontispiece scarcely resembles any of the views of the actual ruins of St. Dogmael’s; like the stories, it is pure fiction.
Peter Martin Coffin [Fig. 7] was born in Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, the son of Captain Peter Coffin and Lois (Pease) Coffin. He was a career whaleman from early youth. In 1826 he married Margaret Mayhew (1800–1837); they eventually had a son and a daughter. In 1826 he also headed out in command of the ship Pindus of Fairhaven (1826–29), followed by a stint as first mate
Captain Peter Martin Coffin (1796–1883), who went whaling out of Edgartown, Fairhaven, and New Bedford and was later a merchant sea captain out of Brooklyn, New York. Image courtesy of Aaron Furtado Baldwin.
in the ship Loan of Edgartown (circa 1829–30) and three voyages as captain of the New Bedford brig Pocahontas (1832–33) and bark Equator (1833–36 and 1836–39). Margaret died while Peter was at sea in the Pocahontas. When he returned from his second voyage in the Equator in 1839, he retired from whaling, married Susan Norton (1802–1877), the widow of Jonathan Fisher, and moved the family to Brooklyn, New York. There, he resumed seafaring as a sea captain in the merchant service out of New York. The Brooklyn City Directory lists him as a master mariner through the 1870s, but after Susan’s death he moved in with his widowed daughter Magdalena Bombay, her two children, and an international array of ten boarders and two domestic servants. By 1880 he was living at Sailors’ Snug Harbor on Staten Island, where he died at age eighty-seven.4
4 Frank, Biographical Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artists
Meet the Team Behind the NHA’s New Podcast
In 2025, the NHA launched its first podcast, The Nantucket Gam, sharing research, stories and interviews that explore topics from the island's past and ties them to modern-day Nantucket. In this interview, the podcast team’s three members give readers a behindthe-scenes look at their process.
First, how did you all come up with the name of the podcast?
Thomas Perich: The name “Gam” comes from an old whaling term for a social gathering of whalers exchanging stories. That is what we wanted this podcast to be. We wanted it to feel like the listener was tuning into a casual conversation between friends talking about the fascinating history of this island. It of course takes hours of research, but once we figured out that we didn't want it to be scripted, The Nantucket Gam felt like the perfect name.
How do you pick an episode topic?
Annalie Gilbert-Keith: As a group, the three of us compile a long list of subjects we'd love to learn more about. It's far easier to think of those topics than it is to choose between them! Sometimes these topics are inspired by a fact we learn in passing, or by someone we talk with that would be fun to interview. Once we have that longer list, we meet with NHA curator Michael Harrison who talks through each idea with us and guides us in choosing topics that lend themselves well to this style of storytelling or that work in concert with other NHA content. From here, we schedule a few months of episodes at a time so we can start working on the episode in the months leading up to its release.
The podcast team recording a new episode.
NHA'S NEW PODCAST
How long does it take to research an episode?
Thomas: It varies. Some episodes we are able to pull from previous research; some episodes we rely almost exclusively on primary sources from our archive. Sometimes we pick topics thinking there is a lot of material, only to discover there is very little! To be ready for this we try to start each episode months before recording--by the time we sit down in the studio, we have been in the weeds of the topic for quite a while!
Once you have your research, how do you narrow down the storyline for the episode?
Thomas: The research starts with a wide net for any given topic. As we filter through the manuscripts, books, journals or letters, we look for patterns, contradictions, timelines and moving stories from the past. As we find those, we start to fit the pieces of the puzzle together to create a narrative arc that truthfully represents the past in an interesting and engaging way. The goal is to create a storyline with a narrative arc that has a beginning, middle, and end while also giving us space to showcase a critical lens and dicuss why these moments in the past continue to define Nantucket today.
How did you learn how to produce an episode, and how many people are involved?
Adam Delogu: My first experience with producing a podcast was a class I took in college – “Digital Storytelling: Podcasting History,” which focused on how to create digital public history through the medium of podcasting. The lessons learned in that class, plus plenty of hours watching online tutorials for our various hardware and software, laid the foundation for production of The Nantucket Gam. We knew from the beginning that the three of us couldn’t create this podcast alone. We needed a professional editor who could lend their skills
to create a professional product, and those skills take time and dedication to develop. Over the course of the first six episodes, we’ve had the pleasure to work with two incredibly skilled audio editors – Justine Paradis and Hannah McCarthy, who both have years of experience working for New Hampshire Public Radio. Their talents have been instrumental in bringing our listeners the crisp sound and cleanly edited episodes that so many have fallen in love with!
How did you develop the roles of the podcast and how has that changed among your group?
Annalie: I would say our roles developed based on other podcasts with "host" and "researcher" roles who can guide the story forward. We have had a lot of fun including a "first-time listener" role. This role has really helped us find a more conversational tone, and they ask questions that the researcher and host roles might not think to ask themselves. As we are growing more comfortable with the process of creating an episode, we are starting to share these roles a bit more and each of us are getting a taste of all of those voices which is both fun and challenging!
Have you all had experience with storytelling? How comfortable were you being the voices of this new, exciting project for the NHA?
Annalie: All of us have had experience storytelling in the museum as guides giving presentations and tours through the NHA. That being said, giving presentations and tours through the NHA is a very different experience of storytelling than this project has been. The podcast requires skills that are newer, like storytelling through conversation and interviews, rather than sharing information that we receive training for as museum guides. Yes, we are absolutely able to draw on
The podcast team conducting episode research at the NHA Research Library.
From left to right: Adam Delogu, Annalie Gilbert-Keith, and Thomas Perich.
NHA'S NEW PODCAST
our experience as guides, and that gave us more confidence moving into these roles, but I would also say that it's been a bit nerve-wracking to jump in as voices of a new project! We are six episodes in, and I still get nervous going in to record. Luckily, we have a lot of fun too and great support from the NHA.
The music has been so wonderful; can you explain how it was created and how it impacts the cadence of the episode?
Adam: Music, or even simple sounds, can be incredibly impactful to the listener’s experience of a podcast episode. We often use music as a device to lead the listeners to a certain ambience; we set the scene for what’s happening or what’s about to happen in the episode. For example, if Thomas is about to describe something coming out of the fog, we might choose to add some creaking or spooky sounds to set the scene for the listener. Many of those sounds and music bits come from Blue Dot Sessions, a producer that creates acoustic arrangements for podcasts and other media. Other music, like the energetic and exciting theme music of The Nantucket Gam, was written and performed by islander and NHA team member Isaiah Williams. Still other sounds and sound effects are being captured by us or pulled from the NHA’s collection. It takes all kinds of different noises to create the soundscape our listeners experience during an episode.
Are you surprised by the nationwide and even global reach it has had?
Adam: Definitely surprised! We anticipated some interest of course, but the positive response from so many people, both local and international, has been overwhelming. Nationally, we’ve had listeners from 47 states and the District of Columbia. Internationally, we’ve had listeners from 27 different countries. We love to hear feedback from listeners as well, so if any of our local, national, or international podcast fans are reading this—drop us a comment on your favorite episode or send us an email at podcast@nha.org. It means a lot that we’ve been able to produce a public history podcast that has such a reach so that folks who might not be able to make it to the island can still engage with it’s amazing history. It all goes to show that the popularity of Nantucket history truly knows no boundaries.
What has been your favorite episode to make so far?
Thomas: Without a doubt my favorite one was Episode 2, the 1977 Secession Movement. It was an episode that was constructed almost completely from primary sources, so I really felt like I knew the most vocal leaders personally. The
storyline for that one also came relatively easily because I was reading the notes and letters from the Secession Committee, and you could see their ideas developing and evolving at each step of the way.
Annalie: The Maria Mitchell episode was my favorite so far. I loved how the conversation started to feel quite personal as we talked more about her life, and I felt like we had a lot of fun with that aspect of the conversation. I also think that was an episode where we all started to sound a little more comfortable and relaxed while recording, which was really rewarding to notice. That being said, I am really excited for our next few episodes, and I think they will give the Maria Mitchell episode some competition as my favorite.
Adam: My personal favorite episode so far was “When the Fog Comes Drifting In”, the episode on Tuckernuck Island with Susie Robinson. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Tuckernuck’s beaches a number of times over the years, but I finally had a chance to experience the small island’s interior more recently as a guest of Susie, and it struck me as a uniquely untouched and somewhat mysterious place. Learning more about its history for that episode was really enjoyable, and being able to host Susie Robinson as our interview guest was a treat—her knowledge and experience of Tuckernuck is perhaps unmatched and it was wonderful to hear her recount some of the stories of her life on Tuckernuck island. Plus—who doesn’t love the tale of the elusive Tuckernuck Yoho!
Any teasers you can give us for what’s to come in 2026?
Thomas: I hope you like things that go! Because Nantucket will be on the move in many of the 2026 episodes!
The podcast team conducting episode research at the NHA Research Library.
INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE ON SUSTAINABLE BUILT HERITAGE
Recap and Overview
For the second year, the Nantucket Historical Association welcomed a group of working professionals from around the world for a four-week program on Sustainable Built Heritage Conservation and Management. The program once again aimed to incorporate key components into many of the resiliency efforts already underway on Nantucket and add to the NHA’s efforts to safeguard its historic properties.
“We were thrilled to host this program for its second year and continue this critical work that has been three years in the making since we hosted our first symposium with the National Park Service back in 2022, and had our first eight-week program to evaluate the conditions of each of the NHA’s properties with students and working professionals in the summer of 2023.” Said Niles Parker, NHA Gosnell Executive Director. “This program is possible because of the relationships we have established with our expert partners from the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM) and Integrated Conservation Resources, Inc. (ICR), and we look forward to continuing this partnership for years to come.”
For this past October’s course, eleven working professionals were chosen from various countries around the globe, including Antigua, Bangladesh, India, Italy,
Jamaica, Kenya, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, and the US.
The primary objectives of the course included assessing risks to built heritage, developing appropriate monitoring and adaptation strategies, and building an international network of skilled professionals. The course included lectures from both international and local experts, hands-on workshops, and site visits to the NHA’s restoration projects. The course concluded with presentations from all individuals that were open to the public to drop in at the Whaling Museum and were recorded to be posted to the NHA’s YouTube channel.
As the NHA continues its push to preserve its historic buildings through well-researched and expert-supported rehabilitation, it looks forward to sharing more about current restoration projects alongside this International Training Course, and the vital partnerships that make the projects possible. The NHA generously thanks ReMain Nantucket for its continued support of this critical program.
Building Global Connections
As the second year of this vital program concludes, it has been tremendously gratifying to see how both our participants from 2024 and 2025 have connected to share information to further sustainable built heritage. A primary goal of this program was to help build the capacities of professionals from around the world to protect and manage built heritage from ever-changing climate environments. The collaboration between the NHA, ICR-ICC, and ICCROM has created a vast network of conservation experts that can rely on one another to gather and share institutional knowledge to further this work. We would like to share these Q&A updates from two of our 2024 participants, as they continue to work in the field and apply their time on Nantucket to sustainable built heritage in their home countries.
JOSÉ LUIS MONTEIRO PORTUGAL
Archaeologist at the Ministry of Culture, Portugal
1. The program, as well as your professional work, addresses the intersection of heritage preservation and climate science. Why study these two disciplines together?
Heritage preservation and climate science must be studied together, because climate change poses serious risks to cultural heritage. Rising temperatures, extreme weather, and sea-level rise threaten historic sites and traditions. By combining climate data with conservation strategies, we can better protect heritage assets, promote sustainable development, and foster collaboration across disciplines.
2. What climate issues affect your home region, and what risks do they pose for local built heritage? Do any parallel situations you encountered on Nantucket? Did any of your experiences on island change the way you considered interventions at home? Or the other way around?
Lisbon faces increasing climate risks, particularly heatwaves, coastal erosion, and intense rainfall, which threaten its historic buildings. These events accelerate material degradation and challenge traditional conservation methods. On Nantucket, I observed similar vulnerabilities — especially the impact of rising sea levels on wooden structures and historic districts. The island’s proactive adaptation strategies, such as elevating buildings and community-led planning, inspired me to rethink interventions at home. Also, the Land Bank’s approach — acquiring and managing sensitive land to protect natural and cultural resources — offered a compelling model of territorial stewardship. It inspired me to consider how land-use planning could be more effectively integrated into heritage protection strategies back home.
Conversely, Lisbon’s integration of seismic risk into heritage planning offered insights that could benefit Nantucket’s resilience efforts. This exchange of approaches deepened my understanding of how local context shapes effective preservation. Moreover, it underscored the value of international collaboration in addressing shared challenges, revealing how adaptive strategies developed in one region can inspire innovative solutions elsewhere. Lisbon’s ongoing efforts to mitigate flood risk—particularly through the Lisbon General Drainage Plan Plano Geral de Drenagem de Lisboa (PGDL), a comprehensive drainage plan that includes the construction of underground conduits—further exemplify how urban infrastructure can be aligned with heritage protection, reinforcing the city’s commitment to safeguarding its cultural assets against multiple environmental threats.
BIO
José Luis Monteiro is an archaeologist & environmental impact accessor at the Ministry of Culture of Portugal. He lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal.
3. The course strongly emphasized collaboration, international and interdisciplinary, both in the makeup of the cohort and in the selection of speakers. What were the benefits of this approach? How did it enhance the course material?
The course’s emphasis on international and interdisciplinary collaboration was one of its greatest strengths. Engaging with professionals from diverse cultural and academic backgrounds enriched the discussions and brought multiple perspectives to shared challenges. The variety of speakers — from climate scientists to heritage managers — helped bridge theory and practice, making the course material more dynamic and applicable. This approach fostered mutual learning, encouraged innovative thinking, and highlighted the value of collective action in addressing complex issues like climate resilience and heritage preservation.
4. What has been the most significant take away from the 2024 ITC program?
The most significant takeaway from the 2024 ITC program was the power of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing complex challenges at the intersection of climate resilience and cultural heritage. Working alongside professionals from different countries and fields — from archaeology to climate science — broadened my perspective and deepened my understanding of how integrated approaches can lead to more effective and sustainable interventions. It reinforced the idea that protecting heritage in a changing climate requires not just technical expertise, but shared knowledge, dialogue, and collective action.
5. Why is preservation important to you? What do you think we can learn and gain from heritage sites and their study, and why should we work to ensure that they are prepared for the future?
Preservation matters to me because heritage sites embody the memory, identity, and creativity of communities across time. They connect us to our shared past and offer valuable lessons about resilience, adaptation, and coexistence. Through their study, we gain insights into historical technologies, cultural exchanges, and environmental knowledge that remain relevant today. Ensuring these sites are prepared for the future means safeguarding not only physical structures, but also the stories and values they represent — so that future generations can learn from and be inspired by them.
MONA AHMED J. ALZAHRANI SAUDI ARABIA
Stakeholders Management Team Lead at Heritage Commission, Saudi Arabia
1. The program brought together eleven mid-career heritage professionals from a number of countries around the world. What was the value of living and working alongside this group? What did you learn from the rest of the 2024 cohort?
Living and working with ten other mid-career professionals was like having a rotating panel of mentors. We compared desert, coastal, island, and urban contexts daily, stress-testing each other’s methods. I gained:
a) Practical tools (rapid climate risk screening, value mapping, adaptation “pathways” with trigger points);
b) Peer-tested engagement tactics (participatory mapping with community, simple risk visuals for decision-makers); and
c) Material and maintenance insights, from masonry salt management in maritime climates to low-tech monitoring that fits source-constrained sites.
2. The course curriculum focused on interventions at a variety of different scales, from the macro/international to the micro/local. What is the benefit of looking at both heritage preservation and climate changes questions across these many levels? How did this approach enhance your learning experience and inform your professional approach?
Seeing heritage and climate across scales links policy ambition to site reality:
a) Macro/international: align with NDCs, Sendai-style risk reduction, UNESCO reporting so our site actions earn institutional backing and funding.
b) Meso/site/landscape: lets us plan corridors, hydrology, and viewsheds, not just individual buildings, critical for heritage settings that function as systems.
c) Micro/building: translates strategy into details, ventilation, mortars, salts, moisture, shading.
This lens sharpened my workflows at home: start with a hazards-values matrix, set pathway options, define “trigger points,” then specify building-level measures and maintenance cycles. It has made our project briefs clearer for decision-makers.
BIO
Mona Ahmed J. Alzahrani serves as Stakeholder Management Team Lead and works with Heritage Protection Conventions of the UNESCO at the Saudi Heritage Commission. She lives and works in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
3. You live and work in Saudi Arabia. What climate issues do you grapple with most in your home region? How did your time on Nantucket affect the interventions you considered? And vice versa?
In Saudi Arabia we grapple most with heat stress and aridity; flash-flood events in wadis; dust/ sand abrasion; and saline/humidity impacts in coastal heritage sites like Historic Jeddah, alongside groundwater stress in oases like in Al-Ahsa.
On Nantucket, sea-level rise, storm surge, and salt-laden winds dominate. That shifted my interventions to:
a) Treat landscapes as buffers (dunes, wetlands, drainage paths) before building fixes.
b) Plan phased elevation/flood-proofing and emergency access for priority assets.
c) Adopt maintenance-heavy, “no-regrets” measures (salt management, sacrificial layers, joinery details) that buy time.
Conversely, our arid-region know-how, water harvesting, shaded microclimates, passive cooling, and long-interval maintenance planning proved relevant to island drought periods and to designing lower-energy preservation routines.
4. What aspect of the course has been most influential to your continuing work?
Plenty! But the most influential element is introducing risk-based decision-making with adaptation pathways. Pairing significance and vulnerability to prioritize limited resources then pre-agreeing trigger points for scaling action.
5. Why is ITC’s central question, regarding preservation in the face of climate change, important to you? What initially drew you to a heritage profession? What can we learn from heritage sites and why should we work to ensure their future security?
It matters to me because heritage is a living social capital: it anchors identity, livelihoods and memory. I entered the field to connect human value with rigorous management, so our decisions today don't close options tomorrow. Heritage sites teach us endurance, frugality with resources, and community stewardship. Safeguarding them is not nostalgia, it’s investing in resilience and shared meaning for the next generation.
RECENT ACQUISITIONS TO THE COLLECTION
Collection of Lightship Baskets
The NHA has recently received the generous donation of a collection of fifty-two lightship baskets from Jeanne and Harvey DeMovick. There are many treasures in this collection of this this oval basket is a highlight. It is attributed to Andrew J. Sandsbury (1830–1902) and was woven aboard the South Shoal lightship around 1880. In 1930, it was modified through the addition of the gift inscription that now decorates the base plate inside the basket. The inscription records the presentation of the basket by James H. Wood of Nantucket to Mary Bowditch Forbes of Milton, Mass. James H. Wood (1846–1943) was a Nantucket sailor, fisherman, and livery owner. He served in the Union Army and Union Navy during the Civil War and was later the island’s last surviving Civil War veteran. Mary Bowditch Forbes (1878–1962) was a wealthy heiress and occasional Nantucket summer visitor who collected Civil War memorabilia and Lincolniana. She had a reproduction of Abraham Lincoln’s birthplace built on the grounds of her house in 1923, which she invited the public to visit every year on Lincoln’s birthday.
Gift of Jeanne and Harvey DeMovick, 2025.31.1.
Handline and Drail
Before reliable rods and reels became commonly available, surf fishing was done using handlines and drails, hooks embedded in lead bodies that were tossed into the surf and retrieved hand-over-hand to elicit strikes. In addition to drail examples in the NHA collection, the association holds this wonderful photograph from September 1931 of Connie Greene showing off her catch.
Gift of Nancy Anne Newhouse, 2023.19.8.
Golden Plover
This Golden Plover decoy was made on Nantucket by an unknown hand in the mid-19th century and was once part of a rig used to hunt birds along the shore. It is remarkable for its delicate wings, which were made as separate pieces from the body. The wear on the object reflects its use as a working decoy.
Later in its existing, the decoy come into the possession of Franklin Folger Webster. Webster was four years old when his father died and he and his mother and sister relocated to Nantuckeet to live with his grandfather, Franklin Folger. Although the decoy and its rig belonged to Webster, it is not known if he used them. If he did, it would have been for only a short time during his early twenties, since the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 banned market hunting of most migratory birds. His grandfather, however, would have been an active participant in previous decades in the widespread shooting of shorebirds on island, opening the possibility the decoy could have belonged to him.
Gift of the Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association, 2025.42.1.
Connie Greene holding a bluefish on the beach at Tom Nevers, SC669-16.
up. sea voyages, Caribbean, and lived and rights and rights.”
The Adventures of NANCY GARDNER PRINCE
WRITTEN BY HERSELF
The Adventures of NANCY
GARDNER PRINCE
WRITTEN BY HERSELF
“I don’t belong to anyone. I am the daughter of Thomas Gardner of Nantucket.”
“ The NHA was thrilled to partner with Fran and John to create an illustrated version of this important Nantucket story. Nancy’s incredible life story was something we wanted to bring to life with original illustrations that will allow us to share her story with a new audience, particularly young adults in our community and beyond.”
In 1850, Nancy Gardner Prince self-published her life story, which proved so popular it went through three editions. Adapted from that autobiography, this book takes her own words, selected and edited by Frances Karttunen, and sets them to original illustrations by John Walsh.
—Niles Parker, NHA Gosnell Executive Director
Adapted by Frances Karttunen Illustrated by John Walsh
This book tells the authentic story of Nancy Gardner Prince, a Black descendant of Nantucket who traveled the world in the 1800s. She had a hard upbringing in Massachusetts. Following her marriage to Nero Prince, she lived for several years in St. Petersburg, Russia. She later worked with abolitionists in Boston and made two missionary trips to post-emancipation Jamaica. In her travels, she was threatened by pirates, sailed through a hurricane, and landed in New Orleans, where she witnessed firsthand the evils of the trade in enslaved people.
Left: Front cover from The Adventures of Nancy Gardner Prince.
Below: Selected Spread from inside The Adventures of Nancy Gardner Prince.
New Publication Released this Fall
The NHA released a new illustrated publication this fall: The Adventures of Nancy Gardner Prince, Written by Herself, with adaptation by Frances Karttunen and illustrations by John Walsh. This book, based on an original autobiography from the Nantucket Atheneum collection, tells the authentic story of Nancy Gardner Prince, a Black Nantucket descendant who traveled the world in the 1800s.
In 1850, Nancy Prince self-published her life story, which proved so popular that it went through three editions. Her autobiography explores her hard upbringing in Massachusetts. Following her marriage to Nero Prince, she lived for several years in St. Petersburg, Russia. She later worked with abolitionists in Boston and made two missionary trips to post-emancipation Jamaica. In her travels, she was threatened by pirates, sailed through a hurricane, and landed in New Orleans, where she witnessed firsthand the evils of trade in enslaved people.
The book provides a full account of Mrs. Prince’s adventurous life and her many connections to civil rights and anti-slavery efforts in the nineteenth century. A “Biographies” section at the end of the book explains the people she encountered, beginning with her father, Nantucket mariner Thomas Gardner, and running through to famous Bostonians and abolitionists, including the Rev. Thomas Paul, William Lloyd Garrison, and Lucretia Coffin Mott.
Publication of the book was generously underwritten by Julie Jensen and Robert Bryan, Wendy and Eric E. Schmidt, the Estate of Alfred W. Crosby, and thirty-two additional patrons and subscribers.
Purchase a Copy!
Available in softcover at the Museum Shop and online at www.nantucketmuseumshop.org
Coming in 2026
In spring 2026 the NHA will publish Nantucket’s California Adventure: An Island Community Goes to the Gold Rush, 1848–1860 by Malcolm J. Rohrbough. In 1849, six hundred Nantucketers set out for California to join the rush for gold. Most of them traveled by sea, and many voyaged around Cape Horn in repurposed whaling ships. This book will examine what propelled them to go west in such numbers, what they experienced when they got there, and how their prolonged absence affected the families and community they left behind.
The author, Malcolm J. Rohrbough, Ph.D., is emeritus professor of history at the University of Iowa and a specialist in American western expansion and the California gold rush. The book will be heavily illustrated with artifacts, images, and documents from the Nantucket Historical Association’s collections.
“ There seems to be quite an emigration from our little isle, it seems so lonesome to have so many of our good citizens leaving us. They all go with great hope of prosperity and success. I hope it may be realized; it certainly is a great undertaking particularly those with little families.”
—Susan
Gardner, Nantucket, 1853
NEWS, NOTES & HIGHLIGHTS
Learning, Experience and Engagement
To reach and engage audiences with a consistent tone aligned with the NHA’s mission and interpretive plan, the Learning, Engagement and Experience (LEE) department unifies the departments of Youth/Adult Education, Decorative Arts, Community Engagement and Visitor Experience. This new structure will help streamline the NHA’s public–facing work, allow the team to work and plan efficiently across the organization with other NHA departments, align each person’s role with the NHA’s strategic plan and allow the LEE team to create a holistic calendar of programs and events.
NHA on the Road
As part of the NHA’s commitment to opening access to the collection, exhibits, and programs, and reaching broader audiences on and off the island, NHA on the Road Overseas program, where NHA Museum Guides bring NHA signature presentations to Senior Centers on Cape Cod, relaunched this September for its fourth season. Museum Guides traveled to Senior Centers in Eastham, Provincetown, Sandwich, Chatham, Brewster and Harwich presenting programs on the history of the Great Fire complemented with artifacts from the collection and telling the story of the Whaleship Essex. Participants were able to engage and interact with staff, allowing for a lively discussion. Visitor reflections include: “we love the storytelling and getting to see real artifacts.” This October, Museum Guides will visit Barnstable, Truro, Falmouth and Bourne Senior Centers. NHA on the Road Nantucket, will partner with the Nantucket Preservation Trust on Nantucket’s Architectural Heritage and visit five Elders Services groups and residences. In November, Museum Guides will share a presentation on the History of Tuckernuck. Since the Spring of 2024, the NHA on the Road Overseas program has reached over 450 Seniors on Cape Cod. Since the program launch in 2021, NHA on the Road has reached over 1200 Senior residents on Nantucket.
Fall Program Highlights
Fall Festival
On Saturday, September 27, the NHA hosted a Fall Festival at the Oldest House, celebrating textiles on Nantucket. Welcoming over 300 visitors, Museum Guides gave tours of the historic home and garden. The community quilt was on display and visitors participated in hands on weaving on the community loom which debuted at Community Day in August. Other activities included designing your own sweater craft and an interactive sensory experience on how raw materials are used to make textiles. Neil Foley from Conservation Foundation shared educational facts about sheep raising on Nantucket and the NHA Collections staff brought objects relating to textiles. Families were able to play lawn games, dress up in historic garb and attend a concert by Ty Fleischut, Lucy VanArsdale and Bobby Maguire.
Island Voices: An Evening of Maritime Music & Poetry
The NHA partnered with Egan Maritime Institute for the third summer to host a program celebrating Nantucket’s maritime traditions with an evening of sea-inspired music, and poetry by local artists on Children’s Beach. Performers included Shanty Singers, Celtic Flow, Ripe for the Pickin’, Susan and Ray, Harvey Young, Nathaniel Philbrick, Mary Ann Bartlett, Pete Sendelbach, Chuck Gifford and more. This community program drew over 100 people around the bandstand.
Face at the NHA
Lucy McGowan Education Manager
Lucy McGowan is a Nantucketer who studied History and Education at Grinnell College. She is a former Chicago Public Schools teacher with a passion for place-based, experiential, and interdisciplinary curriculum design. As a graduate of the Nantucket Public Schools, she is delighted to have the opportunity to foster meaningful and memorable learning opportunities for island youth, and to collaborate with educators to create lessons and experiences that will ignite curiosity about Nantucket's rich history. In her spare time, Lucy enjoys riding her bike, quilting, writing poetry, and watching her daughter explore the abundant open spaces the island has to offer.
New
NEWS, NOTES & HIGHLIGHTS
“Going on the Whale”
The beloved mural on the front of the Whaling Museum and the iconic whale jawbones that frame it have been refreshed thanks to the skilled work of Sue Riddle and ACK Painting, who carefully restored each to its former brilliance. In addition, the front wall received much-needed attention; Barber and Sons collaborated with ACK Painting to address areas of wear and maintain the structure’s appearance.
The Old Mill
Work continues on the major restoration of the Old Mill. The NHA continues to partner with Husk Preservation on planning for the restoration of the mill’s timber frame and mechanism. In addition, the NHA has brought on board Integrated Conservation Resource (ICR), a firm that specializes in historic-building conservation, to carry out a timber-by-timber survey of the mill’s structural components. This process looks at which pieces of the mill date from what time periods and identifies deterioration, previous repairs, and any other problems that need to be addressed as part of overall project. Following this assessment, the NHA is making plans for removing the tailpole and lifting the top off the mill to all access to the mechanism.
In preparation for this work, the NHA contracted ScanSure, a 3D modeling firm based in Braintree, Mass., to LiDAR scan the structure and produce both a digital model and a set of detailed measured drawings. In addition to documenting the current conditions of the building, these documents will serve as a substrate on which to plan all future interventions and repairs. Our thanks to the Community Preservation Committee for their support of this project.
Sue Riddle working on "Going on the Whale" in September.
Scansure in progress at the Old Mill to get 3D images of the structure.
Greater Light Restoration
This fall, the NHA began some necessary work at Greater Light. The former summer residence of Hanna and Gertrude Monaghan is an assemblage of found objects, collected from salvage yards and estate sales, mostly in and around Philadelphia. While this characteristic provides the property with its distinctive charm, it also poses maintenance challenges, as each unique door, window, and railing requires its own specialized treatment strategy.
The last holistic restoration of the building was completed in 2011, when the house was reimagined following an almost twenty-year closure. Fourteen years later, wear has begun to reappear, especially around the irregular apertures and across the antique ironwork. The NHA is grateful to be able to provide the necessary restoration attention to this unique property with the generous support of the Community Preservation Committee (CPC).
Work began at the end of August with the removal of the iconic “gates” and wood pergola that lead from the patio into the garden. The intricate ironwork panels, last restored in the fall of 2000, were beginning to exhibit signs of rust and required preservation. Following their deinstallation, they were transported to New Bedford, where they will be wet blasted, treated by a metal conservator, and powder coated before returning to the island. The pergola has remained on site and undergone a series of extensive repairs in preparation for reinstallation.
Inside, work has simultaneously progressed on the large panel of church windows in the Great Room. Facing north into harsh wind and weather, these windows have exhibited signs of deterioration for a number of years and are now in need of replacement. In mid-September, local preservation carpenter Ben Moore removed the originals in order to replicate their delicate wood tracery with new material. Many elements, including their subtle curves and fine details, require precise hand chiseling. Once Moore has fabricated the new frames, he will transfer the original glass into them and reinstall them in their signature three-by-three grid pattern.
In the building’s small sitting room, Moore is also working on the distinctive bow window and door that look onto Howard Street. The glass itself and its leaded grilles remain in good condition following a restoration by Shards Etched & Stained Glass in 1989. The casings and sills, however, have significant water damage and need to be entirely rebuilt. These two openings, along the south side of the building, will remain boarded up as Moore works offsite.
Similar repairs have already been completed on a few other windows by Barber & Sons, as has a comprehensive painting project by ACK Colors Painting INC addressing weathered trim, exterior finishings, and ironwork across the property.
Nantucket Energy updated second-floor bathroom fixtures. The NHA looks forward to welcoming visitors in the spring to enjoy the revitalized spaces of this historic Nantucket house.
1800 House
The front deck and fence of the 1800 House were recently repaired and restored by Karl Phillips of Driftwood construction. This like-kind replacement ensures that all work completed matches the property’s original design and materials, preserving the historic character of the site.
Iron gates being removed for restoration at Greater Light this past October.
NEWS, NOTES & HIGHLIGHTS
Decorative Arts
Exploration Trip: Windsor Chairs
This past May, a group of 1800 House students enjoyed a week-long Decorative Arts Exploration trip to West Sussex, England, to build their very own Windsor Chairs.
This chair-making course required no previous experience and provided all the necessary woodworking guidance and assistance to complete a classic window chair. Each participant's chair parts were then carefully packed and shipped back to Nantucket, where each student could reassemble and paint or stain their chair to their liking.
In September, part of the group gathered for a finished product moment in the Whaling Museum ARIE L. KOPELMAN GALLERY, where stunning examples of Windsor chairs from the NHA collection are on display. The NHA thanks The Windsor Workshop for teaching our group and hosting us. Learn more about future Decorative Arts Exploration trips by contacting DecArts@NHA.org.
The Windsor chair originated in Windsor, England, around 1710, and made its way to the American colonies by the 1730s. It is characterized as being crafted from wooden material, with back and sides consisting of multiple spindles attached to a sculpted seat featuring straight legs that point outward and a slight recline to its back. The Nantucket Windsor chair form evolved from familiar Philadelphia Windsor chair designs, examples of which were commonly imported to the island throughout the second half of the eighteenth century. Chairs made by two Nantucket chairmakers, Frederick Slade and Charles Chase (1731–1815), are considered the most impressive and representative specimens of their type, which can be found in the NHA collection.
1894 Society
$100,000 and Up
Janet and Sam† Bailey
Connie and Tom Cigarran
Amanda Cross
Annabelle and Gregory Fowlkes
Melinda and Paul Sullivan
$50,000 - $99,999
Anonymous
$25,000 - $49,999
Nancy and Douglas Abbey
Elizabeth and Lee Ainslie
Mary-Randolph Ballinger
Susan Blount and Richard Bard
Ann and Stephen Bartram
Maureen and Edward Bousa
Anne Marie and Doug Bratton
Margot Bush
Gina and Colby Crenshaw
Rachel and Jim Dunlap
Shelley and Graham Goldsmith
Mark Gottwald
Rena and Josh Kopelman
Carla and Jack McDonald
Ella Prichard
Mary and MacGregor Read
Gary McBournie and Bill Richards
Wendy and Eric Schmidt
Helen and Chuck Schwab
Janet and Rick Sherlund
Patricia Hambrick and Harry Wilcox
$10,000 - $24,999
Sara and Seth Alvord
Carole and Gary Beller
Stacey and Robert Bewkes
Patricia Nilles and C. Hunter Boll
Jeanine and Alastair Borthwick
Patricia and Barrett Burns
John DeCiccio
Deborah and Bruce Duncan
Tracy and John Flannery
Ola and Randall Fojtasek
Connie Anne and Jeremiah Harris
Ann and John Johnson
Cecelia Joyce Johnson
Diane Pitt and Mitch Karlin
Polly Hallowell and Steve Langer
Suzanne Lingeman
Isabelle and Ian Loring
Debra and Vincent Maffeo
Bonnie and Peter McCausland
Ronay and Richard Menschel
Ashley Gosnell Mody and Darshan Mody
Ann and Craig Muhlhauser
Franci Neely
Laura and Bob Reynolds
Linda Saligman
Denise and Andrew Saul
Christine and Stephen Schwarzman
Georgia Snell
Kathleen and Robert Stansky
Katherine and Peter Sutters
Kate Lubin and Glendon Sutton
Wendy and Colin Sykes
Kathryn Wagner
$5,000 - $9,999
Susan Akers
Patricia and Tom Anathan
Georgeann and Roger Ballou
Eileen Gebrian and Timothy Barberich
Liz and Ben Barnes
Ritchie Battle
Kim Bepler
Jody and Brian Berger
Kay and Peter Bernon
Pam and Max Berry
Anne and Toby Broadus
Olivia and Felix Charney
Beth and Andy Corry
Christina Craighead
Lisa and Nathan Cressman
Ann and Stephen Davis
Kate and Jim Denny
Heidi and Rob Diemar
Elizabeth Miller and James Dinan
Gavin Ford
Kelly Williams and Andrew Forsyth
Cece and Mack Fowler
Regina Gannon
Nan Geschke
Nancy Gewirz
Recognizing donors of $1,000 or more yearly to the NHA Annual Fund.
1894 Society Benefits:
• Guest passes for unlimited entry
• Recognition on the 1894 Society webpage
• Invitations to exclusive programs
• Custom benefits designed to meet your specific interests
Learn more by contacting 1894society@nha.org
Betsey and Charlie Gifford
Jenny and Justin Green
Claire and Bob Greenspon
Lauren and Paul Gudonis
Gordon Gund
Karli and James Hagedorn
Barbara and Ed Hajim
Kaaren and Charles Hale
Cassandra Henderson
Linda Pizzuti Henry and John Henry
Catherine and Richard Herbst
Barbara and Amos Hostetter
Wendy and Randy Hudson
Susanne and Zenas Hutcheson
Mary Ann and Paul† Judy
Thomas Kligerman
Anne and Todd Knutson
Coco and Arie† Kopelman
Jean Doyen de Montaillou and Michael Kovner
Greeley Sachs and Seth Levine
Diane and David Lilly
Paula and Bruce Lilly
Helen and Will Little
George Korn and Thomas Livingston
Laura and Brian Millham
Peyton and Art Muldoon
Carter and Chris Norton
Lorena and Graham O'Brien
Ross Padluck
Tamara and Albert Rabil
Karen Rainwater
Andrew Law and David Rattner
Elizabeth Reilly
Susan and Ken Richardson
Maria and George Roach
Sharon and Frank Robinson
Robin and Mark Rubenstein
Catherine Ebert and Karl Saberg
Laura Brill and Christopher Sands
Burwell and Chip Schorr
Donna Cooper and Karl Schulz†
Gretchen Effgen and Anthony Schweizer
Mary and Don Shockey
Leslee Shupe
Deidre and Joseph Smialowski
Christopher Drake and Will Steele
Ann and Peter Taylor
Garrett Thornburg
Lara Trafelet
Liz and Geoff Verney
Dorothy and Richard Verney
Roselee and Jim Wayman
Mary and John West
Alisa and Alastair Wood
$3,000 - $4,999
Lindsey and Merrick Axel
Lucinda Ballard
Susan and Bill Boardman
Anne DeLaney and Chip Carver
Beth Clyne
Prudence Crozier
Lisa Dawson
Karyn Frist
Elizabeth Georgantas
Page and Arthur Gosnell
Sara Schwartz and Will Hannum
Amy and Brett Harsch
Wendy Hubbell
Lisa and Roger Krakoff
Alice and J. Thomas Macy
Toni and Martin McKerrow
Annalise and Thomas Nelson
Valerie Paley
Kristin and Scott Paton
Candace Platt
Nancy and Bob Puff
Janet Robinson
Margaret and John Ruttenberg
Sally Horchow and John Seitz
Susan Shapiro
Laura and Greg Spivy
Peter Steingraber
Robin Terres
Laura Rosene and Scott Toop
Maureen Wolff
$1,000 - $2,999
Mareta Hamre and Mark Abbott
Carrie and Leigh Abramson
Elizabeth Anthony
Eleanor and Chris Armstrong
Ayesha Khan and Nate Barber
Deborah and Mark Beale
Veronica and Jamie Beard
Jane Beasley
Dennie Doran and Allan Bell
Martha Berlin
Kelly and David Berry
Jodie and Jim Bishop
Karen and Jim Bloomfield
Amanda and James Boening
Gail and Bill Bogle
Veronica and Michael Bonnet
Carol and James Bowditch
Jennifer and Robert Bowman
Katie Potter and Joe Bracken
Diane and David Bradt
Margaret and William Brenizer
Lissy Bryan
Julie Jensen Bryan and Robert Bryan
Brooke and Bill Buppert
Philippa and James Burke
Patricia and Christopher Burns
Mary Fontaine and James Burruss
Christy and William Camp
Patty amd Joe Carrolo
Laurie and Robert Champion
Dorene and Richard Chan
Pamela and James Chapman
Kay Krill and Alan Chapple
Dianna and Richard Chesley
Meredith and Gene Clapp
Catherine and Anthony Clifton
Brenda Williams and Robert Coffin
Ana and Paul Collins
Jenny and Wylie Collins
Janice Compton
Suellen Ward and John Copenhaver
Courtney Cotter and Pepper Frazier
Susan and Christopher Cowie
Cynthia Cross
Maureen and Jeff Crowley
Danielle Rollins and Tom D'Agostino
Katherine and Kell Damsgaard
Janie and Jerry Dauterive
Robyn and John Davis
Benjamin Deaton
Amy Hauk and Scott Dehm
Nancy and Joseph Delogu
Dorinda Dodge
Jennifer and Stephen Dolente
Beth English and Mark Donato
Erica† and Jeffrey Drazen
Helen and Ray DuBois
Lori and Brenton Durham
Liz and Dean Durling
Barbara and Michael Eisenson
Ana and Michael Ericksen
Elizabeth and Nelson Erickson
Bob Felch
Tina and Stuart Fietz
Lynn and Mark Filipskio
Laura and David Finley
Jacquelyn and Michael Finn
Marcia Weber and James Flaws
Tanya and Tom Forman
Jane and Charles Forman
Lauren Fornes
Esther Fox
Tammy and Keith Frankel
Kim and Robert Frisbie
Karen and Chris Gagnier
Cam Gammill
Ann and Jeff Gardner
Blewett S. Gardner
Vera and Richard Gierke
Laurie Gilmour
Carol and Edward Glassmeyer
Elizabeth Graziolo
Stacey Stuart and Peter Greenhalgh
Tamara Greenman
Susan and Timothy Grell
Sabine and Richard Griffin
Joan and Philip Gulley
Ellen Hallock Hakes
Linda and Joe Hale
Kathleen and Robert Hay
Diana Hayden
Maureen and Phillip Heasley
Jacqueline and Robert Higgins
Schuyler and Charles Hinnant
Donna and Christian Hoffman
Barbara and Richard Holt
Sharon Horne
Maureen Phillips and Douglas Horst
Joseph Ingram
Holly James
Mary Ellen and Jeffrey Jay
Carl Jelleme
Ann and Charles Johnson
Robin Gillen and Harvey Jones Jr.
Elizabeth and Stephen Joseph
Caitlin Kah
Kathryn Karol
Amanda Keenan
Diane and Art Kelly
Kathleen Cannon and Brian Kelly
Ellen Lehman and Charles Kennel
Jane and Doug Kern
Teresa Heinz and John Kerry
Kathryn Ketelsen
Etsuko Yashiro and Ken Kimura
Jonathan King
Mary Beth and Adam Kirsch
Nancy Dubuc and Michael Kizilbash
Martha Dippell and Daniel Korengold
Kimberly and Dennis Kozlowski
Jackie† and Bill Kupper
Lisa Todd and Robert Kurtz
Kristyn Vandegrift and Joseph La Barge
Robert Lahey
Karen and Tony LaRocco
Chris Larsen
Katherine and David Lashway
Samuel Lehrman
Jill Lentowski
Kathryn Lieb
Deborah and Ronald Lilly
Thomas Lloyd
Sandy Murphy and Charles Loeb
Christa and Mark Lopez
Sharon and Frank Lorenzo
Richard Lowry
Helen Lynch
Nicole and William Lynch
Mary and Jeffrey Lynch
Carolyn MacKenzie
Holly and Mark Maisto
Kathleen and Chris Matthews
Susan McCollum
Mary McDonald
Molly and David McGrath
Michael McGraw
Lisa and Eric McKechnie
Darina and Allan McKelvie
Abigail Johnson and Christopher
McKown
Katherine and William McNabb
Pat White and Jim Meehan
Susan and Paul Meister
Bunny and Duff Meyercord
Betsy Michel
Tina and Robert Miklos
Miriam and Herbert Mittenthal
Siobhán O'Mahony Moore and William Moore
Jean and Paul Moran
Joyce and James Morgan
Winnie and Chris Mortenson
Jacqueline Moss
Susan and Christopher Mundy
Una and William Murphy
Sally Nash
Laurie B. Newhouse
Jeff Newton
Darcy and Richard Nopper
Sharon and David Northrup
Mary and Al Novissimo
Ann and Hardy† Oliver
Vallorie Oliver
Susan O'Malley
Kathy and Angelo Orciuoli
Maureen Orth
Sandie Owen
Laura and Bill Paulsen
Liz and Jeff Peek
Suellen and Andre Perold
Ellen and Samuel Phelan
Patricia and Joseph Phelan
Melissa and Nat Philbrick
Martha and Charley Polachi
Julia and Larry Pollock
Gene† and Robert Pratter
Lloyd Princeton
Ann and Chris Quick
Suzanne Rand
Katherine and Craig Raphaelson
Hillary Hedges and Jeffrey Rayport
Susan and Harry Rein
Susan Renzulli
Crystal and Rich Richardson
West Riggs
Gretchen and Jay Riley
Danielle and Bob Rizika
Reed and Bradley Roberts
Cindy and Michael Roberts
David Roche
Ken Roman
Marion Rosenthal
Ellen and David Ross
Michele Kolb and Philip Ross
Bonnie Sacerdote
Lisa Gustavson and Chris Sales
Sandi Holland and Alfie Sanford
Gayle Bridgman-Santucci and Joseph Santucci
Brian Sawyer
Pamela Schofield
Amy and Frederic Schroeder
Hana Schuster
Denise and Robert Schwed
Michele Seass
Heidi Cox and George Seyfert
Teckie and Don Shackelford
Sharon and Charles Shaver
Rhonda and Bruce Shear
Sandra and Edward Sheehy
Dorothy Slover
Ami Sokol
Carol and Stephen Spinelli
Sarah Barrett and Kenneth Stanley
Janet Steinmayer
Athalyn and Michael Sweeney
John Sylvia
Merrielou Symes
Lisa and Peter Theoharidis
Judith and William Thompson
Karen Butler and John Thompson
Rachael and Michael Thomson
Jessica Torre
Susan and William Untereker
Kellie and David Urban
Elinor and James Vaughter
Mollie and Kent Wallace
Gail and Robert Ward
Elizabeth Watt
Deborah and Daniel Wayland
Susan W. Weatherley
Denise and William Welsh
Calista West
Bridget and Mark Wiatrowski
Janice Wiesen
Will Willauer
Pamela and Charles Williams
Stephanie and Jay Wilson
Linda Wisnewski
Denise and Peter Wittich
Mary and David Wolff
Margot Young
Ana and Christopher Young
Carolyn Paris and Robert Young
Carolyn Grant Zarrella and Ronald Zarrella
Alison and Scott Zoellner
C.L.W. French Society
C.L.W. French Society
The NHA circle of leadership support
The Nantucket Historical Association established the C.L.W. French Society to recognize individuals who contribute to the NHA at the highest levels.
Named after Miss Caroline L.W. French of Boston, one of the earliest major donors to the NHA. Miss French was one of the benefactors of the NHA’s purchase of the Quaker Meeting House in 1894, under the condition that the Association raise a reserve to purchase the Old Mill should it come on the market. By helping to secure two of the NHA’s most iconic properties, Miss French’s support is felt more than a century later.
Through this prominent giving society, the board of trustees acknowledges the generous total annual giving by our top individual donors to the NHA’s operations.
C.L.W. French Society members contribute $5,000 or more annually to the annual fund, membership, fundraising events, as well as for exhibitions, educational programs, and other special initiatives.
For more information about the C.L.W. French Society, please contact the Development Department at (508) 228-1894 or giving@nha.org.
Qualifying donors are entitled to the following benefits:
$5,000 – $9,999
• A family-level membership
• Unlimited guest passes
• Invitations to exclusive C.L.W. French events
• VIP early entry to Exhibition Openings
• Recognition on C.L.W. French Society donor board
• C.L.W. French Society merchandise
$10,000 – $24,999
• All above benefits
• Invitation to an intimate coffee and conversation with NHA directors
$25,000 – $49,999
• All above benefits
• Private tour or Decorative Arts workshop for up to 6 people, tailored to your interests
$50,000 – $99,999
• All above benefits
• 10% off an NHA event rental
$100,000 and Above
• All above benefits
• Call ahead parking spot for general admission, programs, and special events
