Historic Nantucket, Spring 2010, Vol. 60, No. 1

Historic Nantucket

A Publication of the Nantucket Historical Association

In Me m o r i a m

Wa l t e r B e i n e c k e J r. ( 1918 – 2 0 0 4 )

Spring 2010 Volume 60, No. 1

Historic Nantucket

NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

A Publication of the Nantucket Historical Association

Board of Trustees

Spring 2010

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Vol. 60, No. 1

Janet L. Sherlund, PRESIDENT Kenneth L. Beaugrand, 1ST VICE PRESIDENT

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Hampton S. Lynch Jr., 2ND VICE PRESIDENT

My Satisfactions in Life WALTER BEINECKE JR .

Thomas J. Anathan, TREASURER Melissa D. Philbrick, CLERK

Robert H. Brust Constance Cigarran William R. Congdon Franci N. Crane

A statement of his personal philosophy PHOTO: JOHN GOODMAN

C. Marshall Beale

Denis H. Gazaille

6 “ Preservation was enlightened self-interest” Walter Beinecke Jr. and the Nantucket Historical Trust

Nancy A. Geschke FRIENDS OF THE NHA REPRESENTATIVE

Whitney A. Gifford Georgia Gosnell, TRUSTEE EMERITA Nina S. Hellman Mary D. Malavase

BETSY TYLER

Sarah B. Newton

A consortium of visionaries

Anne S. Obrecht Elizabeth T. Peek

14 In Memoriam: Walter Beinecke Jr.

Christopher C. Quick David Ross FRIENDS OF THE NHA REPRESENTATIVE

Melanie R. Sabelhaus

JIM LENTOWSKI

L. Dennis Shapiro Bette M. Spriggs William J. Tramposch executive director

Eulogy delivered at Walter Beinecke Jr.’s memorial service

PHOTO: BEVERLY HALL

Nancy M. Soderberg

editorial committee

From the Executive Director WILLIAM J . TRAMPOSCH

Mary H. Beman Richard L. Duncan Peter J. Greenhalgh

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Remembering Walter Beinecke Jr. 16

Amy Jenness Cecil Barron Jensen

BRIDGETTE BEINECKE

Robert F. Mooney

BARBARA AND ROBERT BENNETT

Elizabeth Oldham

JOAN CRAIG

Nathaniel Philbrick

JOE LOPES

Bette M. Spriggs

MARY MALAVASE

James Sulzer

NANCY SEVRENS

Ben Simons

NHA News Notes

Editor

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COVER: Walter Beinecke Jr., by Beverly Hall

Elizabeth Oldham Copy Editor Eileen Powers/Javatime Design Design & Art Direction

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Historic Nantucket welcomes articles on any aspect of Nantucket history. Original research; firsthand accounts; reminiscences of island experiences; historic logs, letters, and photographs are examples of materials of interest to our readers. ©2010 by the Nantucket Historical Association Historic Nantucket (ISSN 0439-2248) is published by the Nantucket Historical Association, 15 Broad Street, Nantucket, Massachusetts. Periodical postage paid at Nantucket, MA, and additional entry offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Historic Nantucket, P.O. Box 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554 –1016(508) 228–1894; fax: (508) 228–5618, info@nha.org For information log on to www.nha.org

Printed in the USA on recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks.

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Cape Air Flight 503 Remembering Mr. Beinecke

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rom above, it is hard to tell where shore ends and water begins at Great Point. Land’s subtle submersion is replaced by a long and gently trailing arc of froth marking the meeting of Atlantic and Nantucket Sound waters. And, soon, even this liquid boundary becomes imperceptible, but not before it invitingly points us in the direction of our famed whaling fleets. From above, the contrast between our fragile island and the endless sea is so clear; from here, crystal vision prevails and it’s easier to imagine our past: one can almost see the legions of ship that have rounded the point; what were those journeys like? What were our young forebears feeling as home faded from view?

Fortunately, we live on an island that is not only rich in history but as rich in vision, for without such vision, how could so many have repeatedly launched out into the vastness? Today, it is our good fortune that we who ask such questions have places where we can find answers, a veritable campus of institutions to which we can go to satisfy our own imaginations and curiosities.

Such legacies did not come our way by default. Thousands with vision preceded us, and they have made it so.

This issue of Historic Nantucket celebrates one of our greatest visionaries, Walter Beinecke Jr. Mr. Beinecke saw beyond the daily, and focused clearly on the core heritage attributes of Nantucket. With clarity he

Fortunately,we live on an island that is not only rich in history but as rich in vision,for without such vision, how could so many have repeatedly launched out into the vastness?

BILL TRAMPOSCH

imagined the island’s “better self,” and he knew that our future identity and economic well-being would depend on the effective stewardship of our significant past. Lately, the legacy of Walter Beinecke Jr. was the topic of one of our Food for Thought gams. This particular session (one of twenty-two free talks offered annually at the NHA) drew more than 185 participants, all coming to listen to Beinecke’s daughters—Ann Oliver, Deborah Beale, and Barbara Spitler—share their reminiscences of their father. Many who came to watch and listen left having spoken at length about the influence of this great man upon them and our island.

We at the Nantucket Historical Association have many reasons to be forever thankful to Mr. Beinecke. Not only did he contribute hundreds of important artifacts and photographs to our collections, he was also instrumental in bringing us the Peter Foulger Museum, the Museum Shop, Leroy True Hall in the old Whaling

Museum, and the Thomas Macy Warehouse. Furthermore, he brought a significant preservation voice here through the formation of the Preservation Institute: Nantucket (PI: N).

From its beginning, this program of the University of Florida has had a significant effect on the preservation ethic here. I do not think our island would be a National Historic Landmark had it not been for Walter Beinecke Jr.; and, without him, I do not believe that PI:N would be focusing next on the potential of our island becoming a World Heritage Site.

“An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man,” said Emerson. Had he met Beinecke, he would have had (like Webster) a picture to go with his definition. We are extremely grateful for the Beinecke family legacy, especially for institutions like ours that are here because of it!

WILLIAM J. TRAMPOSCH

Executive Director Spring 2010

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My Satisfactions in Life

BY WALTER BEINECKE JR.

My satisfactions in life have always come out of being associated with something that was bigger than I am, and usually associated with people who are smarter than I am. But, I have played an influential part in building two hospitals. I have been a trustee of two different colleges. One of them has been a near lifelong, happy interest. The other one was not so happy, but taught me lessons. I have played a meaningful role, in some places, in historic preservation, nationally. I have been active in a lot of things in my hometown, Nantucket. I have never felt that business was the major thing. Part of that was luck.

I had a lucky start, but I have also had lessons along the way, that business is not the most important thing. I am sorry for people who do not get something more out of it. Because just getting money out of it is not enough. I tell the kids they have to get two things out of everything they do: if it is called business, they have to get fun and dividends. I say fun, but that is shorthand for fulfillment, satisfaction; the feeling that you are doing something that is useful. Then you do have to have enough of the worldly goods to take care of yourself and your kids. But that does not have to be the major emphasis of your life; if it is you are on the wrong track. Now, with that describing my philosophy for them, I have to say that is not true of myself anymore. I am not going out to start new things at seventy-three.

Excerpted from a 1990 interview of Walter Beinecke Jr. with Professor Samuel Proctor of the University of Florida’s School of Architecture in the College of Design, Construction, and Planning.

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PHOTO: JOHN GOODMAN

preservation wa s

Enlightened Self-Interest B Y B E TS Y T Y L E R

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WALTER B EINECKE J R . AND N ANTUCKET H ISTORICAL T RUST

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lthough he came from a privileged background, Walter Beinecke Jr. (1918–2004), was essentially a self-made man, engaging in business ventures that ranged from selling cars to raising cattle.

He chose not to complete high school, instead joining the Merchant Marine at the age of fifteen and sailing to China and Japan, and he did not attend college either, but was later awarded four honorary doctoral degrees. He knew how to make a buck, and he felt an obligation to give some of it away. In an oral-history interview conducted by Samuel Proctor of the University of Florida in July 1990, Beinecke explained his choice to avoid what he termed the “social life,” opting instead to spend his free time devoted to projects that interested him, benefited others, and, coincidentally, were profitable. Nantucket was one of those projects.

I could have made a conventional American mistake and been so career or business motivated that I could have spent my whole life like that. But I did learn enough to avoid that. The substitute that I took instead of a social life was the volunteer system.

Through the Nantucket Historical Trust (NHT), a nonprofit organization he helped to establish, Beinecke funded far-sighted efforts to document, preserve, and restore the historic architecture that is perhaps the island’s most significant asset. The Nantucket Historical Trust was established a half-dozen years before Sherburne Associates, the commercial arm of Beinecke’s Nantucket enterprises, and it took over the work begun by the Nantucket Foundation, created in 1940 by Kenneth Taylor, Everett U. Crosby, Austin Strong, and others. Civic matters were of primary importance to the earlier organization, which was particularly interested in town government, funding a detailed comparative survey of the taxes and expenditures of the town and county for a ten-year period, from 1931 to 1940. The foundation also established the Kenneth Taylor Gallery in the Thomas Macy Warehouse on Straight Wharf and began collecting Nantucket art, which led to the development of the Artists Association of

Walter Beinecke Jr. in 1968, by Beverly Hall.

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W Nantucket. Many of the men who were involved with the Nantucket Foundation had died or were no longer active by 1957, when Walter Beinecke Jr., Henry B. Coleman, and George W. Jones founded the Nantucket Historical Trust, whose mission was broad enough to cover just about anything they might wish to do, as Beinecke explained in a 1958 letter to Everett U. Crosby: Its charter is as broad as we could make it simply because we felt that no one is smart enough to really foresee the changes that time may bring to us or our desires, but in spite of the broad liberties provided in the charter, we have narrower and more specific goals. Our intent was and is to provide a financial and business vehicle for protecting the physical appearance and environment of Old Nantucket.

The men agreed that the Nantucket Historical Trust would take over ownership of the Kenneth Taylor Galleries, nominees of the NHT would become “sponsors,” or board members, of the Nantucket Foundation, and eventually, when all the Nantucket Foundation sponsors had died or retired, the NHT would assume the role of that foundation while pursuing its own course.

Fred von Klemperer, Jean Burrell Beinecke, Bud Beinecke, 1930s.

From an album kept by Jean Burrell Beinecke. Gift to the NHA from her daughters—Ann Oliver, Deborah Beale, and Barbara Spitler. A97-40b

• • • Walter Beinecke Jr. first came to Nantucket with his parents, Walter Sr. and Katherine, in 1923, when he was a five-year-old child. He was suffering from mastoiditis, an ear infection, and a serious childhood affliction before antibiotic therapy was available; his doctor had recommended a period of convalescence and fresh air.

New York City neighbors of the Beineckes, Frank and William Jefferson, offered the family the use of their summer cottage in Siasconset, at 10 Sankaty Road. That cottage would be the Beineckes’ summer getaway for fifty years; they rented it each summer after their first visit, and eventually persuaded the Jefferson brothers to sell it to them in 1934. Walter Jr., known as Bud, and his sister, Betsy, developed strong attachments to the island after spending their youthful summers in ’Sconset, and both of them eventually bought their own summer houses on the island.

It was during Walter’s later visits to Nantucket, in the late 1940s, with his first wife, Jean, and their three daughters, that an interest in the architecture and history of the island was awakened. Jean’s parents

10 Sankaty Road, the Beineckes’ summer home in ’Sconset; Mrs. Beinecke’s ever-present gladiola arrangement can be seen in second-floor center window. S9800 

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Old South Wharf, 1930s A97-53a

Old South Wharf, 1968—Sherburne Associates’ Boat Basin P11562

Mrs. Morris’s ice cream shop, favorite stop for ’Sconset’s summer children. A97-61f Windy Cliff, Walter Beinecke’s house in Nantucket Town. A97-67a

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BEINECKE WAS JOINED IN THE TRUST BY TWO MEN WHO WERE LONGTIME LEADERS IN THE NANTUCKET COMMUNITY: HENRY B. COLEMAN, WHO, WITH CHARLES E. CONGDON, FOUNDED CONGDON & COLEMAN REAL ESTATE AND INSURANCE COMPANY IN 1931; AND GEORGE JONES, A

NANTUCKET HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE WITH AN ENGINEERING DEGREE FROM M. I. T.

had a summer home in town, and the young couple rented a cottage near them, rather than in ’Sconset. Walter didn’t enjoy sitting on the beach, and his bad eyesight did not allow for tennis and golf and similar pastimes, but he was not one to be idle. As he walked around Nantucket he saw opportunities. The island was on the verge of change in the mid-twentieth century, as more and more people began to travel and vacation in the summers, in an era of prosperity that was accompanied by widespread ownership of automobiles. He felt certain that Nantucket was going to be inundated with short-term visitors who did not own summer homes, and who would need accommodations and services that the town did not have. According to Beinecke, in a 1990 interview, there were two ways to approach the imminent growth on Nantucket—watch it, or influence it. He chose the latter route, and before he established Sherburne Associates—the well-known business enterprise that cleaned up the harbor front, built the boat basin, and acquired commercial real estate—he established the Nantucket Historical Trust. The trust is less well-known today, but it was the bedrock of his Nantucket plan, funding some of the town’s most important preservation projects, from restoring the Jared Coffin House to supporting the Historic American Buildings Survey of Nantucket, and helping to establish the University of Florida’s Preservation Institute: Nantucket.

It is remarkable that Beinecke’s Nantucket interests began as a “hobby.” He was living in New Jersey in the 1950s, and traveling 350,000 miles a year on a grueling schedule—Mondays in Portland, Oregon; Tuesdays in San Francisco; Wednesdays in Los Angeles; Thursdays in Fort Worth; and Fridays in New York—while working for Sperry & Hutchinson, the family business. Later, he was involved in a large-scale ranching operation in Florida, and in a 

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George Jones, 1923 (left); Charles E. Congdon (middle); Priscilla, Carrie, and Henry Coleman, September 1921 (right). P18494, SC48, A88-50b

business called Christmas Club, the familiar bank-savings service, and he had begun his serious volunteer work as trustee of a community hospital in New Jersey, so his time for thinking about Nantucket was limited. The diversity of his interests, and his enthusiasm and involvement in them, is a testament to his seemingly boundless energy and vision. Beinecke was only on Nantucket about two days a week at the beginning of his Nantucket “project,” and, as he stated, I have wondered what would have happened to me or Nantucket; I am not sure that either of us could have stood it if I had had a full-time career here. I would have driven everybody in town crazy if I had been able to last it out myself.

Beinecke’s concern for the future development of Nantucket prompted him to found the Nantucket Historical Trust, a nonprofit organization that would be funded well enough—thanks to an initial donation by his parents and many personal contributions— to acquire historically important residences to protect them from commercial use, and to fund improvements to public buildings.

Beinecke was joined in the trust by two men who were longtime leaders in the Nantucket community: Henry B. Coleman, who, with Charles E. Congdon, founded Congdon & Coleman Real Estate and Insurance Company in 1931; and George Jones, a Nantucket High School graduate with an engineering degree from M. I. T., who owned and operated the South Boat Yard for two decades. The 1957 event that prompted the coalition of these men

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was their awareness of a plan to turn the 1832 mansion at 72 Main Street into an inn and tavern. Beinecke recognized that such a move would threaten the historic residential neighborhood of Main Street, which he considered to be one of the main attractions of the island, and that it would expand a trend, already begun at 1 Liberty Street—the Grey Gull Restaurant, and before that a florist’s shop, operating in an early-eighteenth-century dwelling—to use historic dwellings for nonresidential purposes. He encouraged the Nantucket Historical Association to acquire the property, but with 2,000 members and one yearly business meeting, the NHA’s administration was not prepared to act quickly, even if it had the funds, which it didn’t. So Beinecke established the Nantucket Historical Trust to buy Wallace Hall at 72 Main Street and tackle other preservation issues, hoping all the while that the town would eventually wake up and see that the historic architecture of Nantucket was its primary asset. Beinecke’s philosophy was that commerce and preservation go hand in hand, as he stated in the 1990 interview: In the case of historic preservation, which was kind of the direction my interest in Nantucket took, it meant that you had to find some pattern where you make people support the goals of historic preservation, not just because they were being a nice guy and throwing a little something into your tin cup, but because it was going to be to their advantage. They were going to get something for themselves out of it.

In 1961, a few years after saving 72 Main Street, which is still a private residence long after a twenty-five-year deed restriction expired, the N HT undertook its most impressive challenge when it set out to restore the Ocean House, which was in a state of disrepair. The imposing three-story brick building at the corner of Broad and Centre Streets was originally a private home, built by Jared Coffin in 1845, just a year before the Great Fire consumed all the wooden buildings in the downtown, from Broad Street to Main Street, and from Centre Street down to, and including, the wharves.

Coffin’s grand home was one of the brick sentinels—along with the Pacific Bank, the Pacific Club, and the Folger building at the northwest corner of Orange and Main Streets—that stood in the

Top left: Postcard of the old Ocean House circa 1930s. Scan gift of Emma Ward, SC777-74. Top right: Architect H. Errol Coffin’s rendering of plan for restored Jared Coffin House. Above: H. Marshall Gardiner’s postcard of Wallace Hall, 72 Main Street, PC-Main-General-16. smoldering ruin of the town. Coffin sold his house to the Nantucket Steamboat Company the next year, and it became a “public house.”

The preeminent hotel in town, known as the Ocean House until the restoration, it had gradually declined over the years, and been altered with verandas and other Victorian embellishments in the late nineteenth century. During World War II it was navy barracks, and where the garden is today, on the corner of Gay and Centre Streets, was a wooden barracks building, with another barracks behind the building on Ash Lane. The property after the war was, according to Beinecke, totally decrepit, and a liability to the historic town. The NHT undertook an ambitious plan to restore Coffin’s mansion to its mid-nineteenth-century grandeur and make it a classy year-round facility that would attract a well-heeled clientele.

They would create jobs; boost the local economy; and, in the end, Spring 2010

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Above: PI:N Class of 1981. P22003 Left: “Hank the Bank” Kehlenbeck, president of the Pacific Bank; Edouard Stackpole, director of the Nantucket Historical Association; Bill Klein, director of the Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission; and Blair Reeves, director of the Preservation Institute: Nantucket, circa 1980s.

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make a profitable marriage of preservation and commerce.

Beinecke felt that it was politically important to employ local tradesmen and artisans in the restoration, and to teach local workers some of the skills, like casting plaster moldings, that were necessary in the sensitive remodeling of historic interiors. The NHT also opened a cabinet shop where a master cabinetmaker supervised and taught techniques for refinishing the antique furniture that had been purchased from dealers around New England for use in the newly restored inn. H. Erroll Coffin was the architect of the two-year-long restoration project, and James Hendrix of the William Pahlman interior-design firm, was the consultant.

Beinecke’s second wife, Mary Ann, a weaver, was an important contributor to the interior decoration of the inn; establishing the Nantucket School of Needlery (precursor of Nantucket Looms) grew out of her interest in creating hand-woven and hand-stitched textiles for the inn’s twenty-six guest rooms, its parlor, and reception area.

The NHT bought the building at 16 Main Street in 1961 to house Nantucket Looms (the business was sold to Andrew Oates, who was the original designer for the Jared Coffin house textiles, and his partner, William Euler, in 1965), and it moved from its temporary 

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location at 26-28 Main, a building the trust had purchased with the express purpose of removing a year-round bar, the Spa, from Main Street, and securing the liquor license for the Jared Coffin House.

Nantucket Looms produced all the fabric used in the restored house for curtains, bedspreads, canopies, upholstery, and even stair carpet—in all more than 6,300 hundred yards of textiles, all produced locally. The Nantucket School of Needlery did not play as direct a role in refurbishing the historic interior, but it was part of a movement begun by the trust to foster locally produced fine craftwork that would be sold in upscale shops, and would benefit local craftspeople.

The Jared Coffin House opened in May 1963 to rave reviews, and was featured in Interiors magazine and Interior Design in 1964, Historic Preservation in 1966, and in Architectural Digest in 1967. The NHT’s annual report for 1964 stated that the restoration of the JC House was “performed by the trust for the benefit of the historic and cultural atmosphere of Nantucket” at a total cost of $500,000. The business was leased to several short-term managers before Phil Read took over as manager in 1966, becoming the gracious host of the establishment, with his wife, Peggy, working alongside. Their management of the inn was so successful that after five years of leasing the property, Beinecke agreed to sell it to them. The trust did not undertake any other major house restorations, but did purchase private historic dwellings and sell them to people intent upon restoring them and living in them, including 1 Liberty Street, 15 Gardner Street, 21 Union, and 25 Union, the latter a property bequeathed to the trust.

Documenting the historic architecture of the town became a focus of the trust in 1965, when Marie Coffin, former secretary of the Nantucket Foundation, was hired by the NHT to conduct surveys of ten Nantucket buildings for the Historic American Buildings Survey, a federal project begun during the Roosevelt administration, and administered by the National Parks Service, to provide work for scholars and students of architecture. In order for local buildings to be surveyed, which included a written history of the property, technical details of construction, and measured drawings, there had to be a local sponsor. The NHT took on that role for seven summers, housing architects and students from Cornell University, Columbia University, and the University of Florida, all of whom made the drawings and wrote the technical surveys, and keeping Marie Coffin on the payroll as historian. Soon there were more Nantucket HABS. documents in the Library of Congress than there were for any other town in the country, and they are recognized as one of the primary sources for the study of local architecture. (To view HABS reports for Nantucket, see the Library of Congress’s searchable site “Built in America,” at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query) Blair Reeves, a professor of architecture at the University of Florida, arrived to participate in the HABS program in the late sixties. He changed the standard of the survey when he suggested that streetscapes and neighborhoods should be included, not just individual buildings; in other words, it was important to see the forest as well as the trees, a concept that was in concert with

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The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award in 1994 (left); President Reagan presents the President’s Historic Preservation Award to Beinecke in 1988. NHA Collection, gifts of Bridgette Beinecke, 2008.37.1, 8.

Beinecke’s own vision for the town. Reeves proposed that instead of using students just to do the architectural surveys, the work could be part of their formal academic training, earning them college credits as they worked each summer in Nantucket—their architectural laboratory. With the NHT’s support, Preservation Institute: Nantucket (PI:N) was born in 1972, with Reeves as director. What Beinecke said about the program in 1990 still rings true: The Preservation Institute has always had much more recognition outside Nantucket than in Nantucket. The majority of the people here do not know anything about it. It does not make any noise or splash locally, it just does its business. But on a national basis— well, every state has a state historic preservation office they call SHOPS. . .out of the fifty states, seven of them [directors] are graduates of our little program. . . . It is disproportionately important in the preservation movement all over the United States. But locally, nobody knows or pays much attention to it.

PI:N is still going strong. Its permanent space is the second floor of Sherburne Hall at 11 Centre Street, one of the first buildings constructed after the Great Fire of 1846. In 1986, the property was purchased on credit with Beinecke’s help, renovated to the tune of $1,000,000, and divided into seven condominium units; six units were sold to fund the purchase and restoration, and PI: N owns the seventh. PI: N students convene there every summer, and they continue to contribute to the Historic American Buildings Survey, which now includes 159 Nantucket reports.

In 1968, Beinecke discussed with Cornell University a study of the urban planning history of Nantucket that resulted in what Beinecke called a “historical reconnaissance” of the town: An Historical Survey of the Physical Development of Nantucket: A Brief Narrative History and Documentary Source Material, a first effort in the exploration of local urban development, published in 1969. Copies of the study are

rare, but can be read in the Nantucket Historical Association Research Library and at the Atheneum.

In addition to the important preservation work of HABS and PI:N, the Nantucket Historical Trust contributed funds for restoration projects of the Congregational Church on Centre Street and the Unitarian Meeting House on Orange Street, and it bought property on North Water Street that it donated to the Nantucket Historical Association, anticipating the building of the Peter Foulger Museum. The trust made donations of scrimshaw and paintings to the NHA, and it underwrote the publication of books about Nantucket—including Art on Nantucket, by Robert Dicurcio, and Edouard Stackpole’s Whales and Destiny. In 1986, the trust began a program of planting trees in town, offering homeowners the choice of linden, ash, elm, horse chestnut, and gingko trees if they would plant them “where it enhances the public vista.”

When Beinecke sold the Nantucket properties owned by Sherburne Associates in 1987, the Nantucket Historical Trust was liquidated as well, but some of its programs, such as PI: N, continued to receive support from Osceola Foundation, another Beinecke family foundation. In recognition of his contributions to historic preservation, Walter Beinecke Jr. received the President’s Historic Preservation Award in 1988, presented to him by President Ronald Reagan; and in 1994 he earned one of preservation’s highest accolades, the Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. His far-sighted vision for Nantucket, his dedication to the preservation of the town’s built heritage, and his years of hard work were summed up by him with this simple statement: “You have to understand that it was a labor of love.”

Betsy Tyler is an NHA Research Fellow and author of twenty-nine house and public-buildings histories published by the Nantucket Preservation Trust.

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IN MEMORIAM:

Walter Beinecke Jr. B Y J I M L E N TOW S K I

This eulogy was delivered atWalter Beinecke Jr.’s memorial service on August 11, 2004.

PHOTO CREDIT: FABIAN BACHRACH

Good afternoon. We gather to reflect on a person whose name is synonymous with the changes that have occurred on Nantucket during the past half-century. Walter Beinecke’s touch affects each of us in the way we live on or enjoy this island and in the way we now appreciate the island’s unmatched architectural heritage and traditions.

As a relatively young person, Walter began implementing his vision for the island, a vision that relied on sound business and economic principles, good planning and execution, the preservation and reuse of historically important buildings, open-space preservation, respecting tradition, and having a concern for the needs of the island’s year-round residents.

In business, his approach was to concentrate on strengthening what he considered were the island’s most engaging and marketable elements: its connection to the sea, its town center, its irresistible sense of place, its remarkable architectural consistency, its people, and how each of these factors complemented one another.

When the needs of his business pursuits were unmet by on-island resources, Walter satisfied them in innovative ways. Some of you will remember a nonprofit entity called the Nantucket Historical Trust, which he established to provide an organizational structure under which he could attract to the island the construction and design talents needed to restore his newly acquired properties.

Among the numerous projects that would feel the trust’s refreshing touch were the Jared Coffin House, Zero Main Street, the former Nantucket Looms building, the White Elephant Hotel, and the tumble-down fish shanties in what today is the

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During the busy ’60S and ’70S Walter also generously shared what he always referred to as his “three W’s”— work, wisdom, and wealth.

Nantucket Boat Basin. Recently arrived talented craftsmen and the island residents they trained shared credit with Walter for the rebirth of these important island properties and celebrated their success as profitable businesses.

During the busy ’60s and ’70s Walter also generously shared what he always referred to as his “three W’s”—work, wisdom, and wealth. He actively participated in several entities that included the for-profit Nantucket Electric Company and Pacific National Bank, and the nonprofit Nantucket Cottage Hospital, Nantucket Historical Association, the Department of the Interior’s Historic American Building Survey, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Preservation Institute: Nantucket, which he founded in 1971.

Walter also found time to devote to the preservation of Nantucket’s open spaces—for the benefit of all. In 1963 he was one of nine people, visionaries like his friends Roy Larsen and Ripley Nelson, who incorporated the Nantucket Conservation Foundation.

For more than forty years, Walter’s contributions as incorporator, trustee, officer, land donor, and advisor have benefited the Conservation Foundation and Nantucket.

His personal contributions of valuable waterfront at Cisco and Little Neck; shrubland in Tom Nevers; a mini-forest in Miacomet; moorlands on the Madaket Road; and a partnering with Roy Larsen and Arthur Dean to protect the 1,200 acres that incorporate the Milestone Cranberry Bog provide ample evidence of his commitment.

I was fortunate to connect regularly with Walter— usually via an unexpected, early-morning call from him—benefiting from his counsel, encouragement, and farsightedness. The last such occasion was about a month ago when he traveled to the island and attended an early spring trustees meeting. Mustering all his strength, Walter spoke quietly but with heartfelt passion, praising his twenty-five fellow board members for their vote to move ahead with the $20-million purchase of the Nantucket Field Station. It was, he said, “the gutsiest one that’s ever been done” in all the years that he’d been associated with the foundation. After the meeting, he admitted to me that the enormous physical effort that it took for him to attend the meeting was rewarded by the outcome of the vote.

Walter’s major obsession was undoubtedly saving historically important structures, but running a close second was how he felt about land conservation and good planning. His tenacity, good judgment, well-honed business sense, and passion for Nantucket and its people have left us with an incredible legacy. It will be impossible for anyone to talk about Nantucket’s past fifty years without mentioning him. His ambitious vision for the island lives on and will, in some way, forever touch us and generations of Nantucketers to follow.

Jim Lentowski is the executive director of the Nantucket Conservation Foundation.

Spring 2010

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REMEMBERING

W A LT E R B E I N E C K E J R .

Shared Memories Ocean Park, Siasconset SC612-34

Growing up with Bud B Y J OA N PE N N O C K C R A I G

Longtime friend of Walter Beinecke

There was never a time when I didn’t knowWalter Beinecke Jr., as his mother and mine were best friends, and Bud, as he was called for many years, and his sister Betsy and I, grew up together in ’Sconset in the summers and NewYork in the winters. As a child, Bud was active and very full of mischief, and I recall that this sometimes resulted in some rather severe disciplinary action. As we were growing up we all enjoyed our summer activities together, and Bud was always popular with our group of friends and fun to be with. In the later years, before we all married, I remember that he used to regale us all with tales of his experiences during his time spent with the Merchant Marine, and then later on used to entertain us with his rendition of the tobacco auctioneers chant, which he perfected during his employment with the American Tobacco Company selling Lucky Strike cigarettes.Wherever Bud was, there was always surprise and excitement. He was the best of friends.

From left: Joan’s mother, Christine Pennock; Bud; Joan; Betsy Beinecke, circa 1925. Courtesy of Joan Craig, SC663-6 

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Remembering “Bud” B Y B A R B A R A A N D RO B E RT B E N N E T T

Barbara Bennett was also Mr.B’s longtime personal assistant at Sherburne Associates.

We met Walter “Bud” Beinecke in the summer of 1928. We were living in Boston and had gone to ’Sconset with our mother, who ran an inn at Ocean Park (one year later it became Wade Cottages.) High Porch, the Beinecke residence, was steps away. We were very young and Bud was a long way from teen years. Our brother Bud was about the same age as Walter. (In the twenties, it seemed that boys of a certain age somehow were frequently called Bud—Bud Gifford, Bud Egan, Bud Bennett, Bud Clute, and, of course, Bud Beinecke.) It took a long time altogether for “Mr. B.” to become Walter.

In 1930, at the end of our third summer in ’Sconset, our family moved to Nantucket. Still too young to drive, Bud hitchhiked to town to visit (more often than not he was later picked up by the family chauffeur). When he was old enough to get his driver’s license, he and his sister, Betsy, bought a modest old Model A Ford known as “Fifty-fifty,” which was succeeded by a better car (twenty percent better) called “Sixty-sixty,” and this made for a much easier commute to town.

Along the way, Bud decided it was time for Barbara to learn to drive, but after she drove off the Surfside Road into the bushes he decided it was not such a good idea—and to this day she still does not drive!

Bud and our mother shared mutual respect and affection; she always referred to him as her “third son,” and he always visited with her when in Boston. When a tad older, Bud worked on a freighter that took him to China, and we took the journey vicariously when he returned, laden, of course, with gifts—though a dog he had acquired was stolen en route.

Although known as a rich young kid, he never acted the part, and was always very generous.

At an appropriate age, Bud Beinecke entered St. George’s School in Newport (perhaps not happily). Our older sister, Ann, painted a vivid picture of St. George and the Dragon and sent it off to him at school, along with brownies that we made for him from time to time.

Our family returned to Boston in the forties. Walter was a lifelong friend, and over the years we met him at preservation meetings, Nantucket Sons and Daughters gatherings in the Boston area, in Williamstown, and, of course, on visits to the island.

When, in 1981, the two of us returned to the island to live we were delighted to be a part of the community’s heartwarming tribute paid to Walter at the Yacht Club in September.

Later that year, we invited Henry Petzel for some holiday cheer, and Henry, a headhunter, asked, “What is Barbara going to do?” to which we responded, “Good question.” The next morning he called to tell us about a position with Mr. B., and the rest is a matter of record.

Citation on the occasion of the Recognition Reception at Nantucket Yacht Club, 1981.

Spring 2010

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remembering

walter

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jr.

The Zero Main Street Fire, 1979

BY NANCY SEVRENS

PHOTO: H. FLINT RANNEY

In the late morning of the Zero Main Street fire (Tuesday, December 18, 1979), it was still smoldering and we were standing around in the street, all of us in shock. Tom Dowling, who had been working late in the office, had discovered the fire and called it in at around 2 A.M. He called Mr. B, who was in Williamstown, and he got here as soon as possible.We were all wondering what to do, and I turned around and saw him standing there with tears running down his cheeks. In his office on the second floor, which was completely destroyed, were artworks from his personal collection—several of them his favorites. I put my hand on his arm and said, “Mr. B, we are all waiting for you to tell us what to do.”Within minutes he seemed to grow a couple of inches, and started barking orders.

Whatever could be salvaged—including file cabinets that were full of soaking-wet papers—was transported to the meeting rooms at the Harbor House, and within two days Sherburne Associates had a functioning office—all of us in makeshift cubicles, drying out and getting ready for the next season. And that is leadership.

PHOTO: BEVERLY HALL

Nancy was the Sherburne Associates Properties Manager.

Nancy Sevrens

Walter and I B Y J O E LO PE S

Joe was the Dockmaster at the Boat Basin.

PHOTO: BEVERLY HALL

One night the weather was getting bad—windy and rainy.

Walter and I were walking around the docks and noticed that a lady whose yacht was parked right below the Anglers Club was having a little trouble, so we offered to help her. She thanked us, and we all went on our way. A little later,Walter and I came back to the dock and she was there, too. She looked like she had had a few and was all dressed up and wearing high heels—imagine high-heeled shoes on the dock and the cobblestones! We helped her get aboard and she offered us a drink, but we said no thanks and went up to the Anglers Club to have one. A few days later she turned up atWalter’s office and asked him who his lawyer was, because she was planning to sue him.WhenWalter asked her what for, she said because the weather was so bad and so were the streets.

Joe Lopes We never heard from her again.

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Historic Nantucket

Mr. B B Y M A RY M A L AVA S E

Mary was the longtime reservations manager for the lodging properties owned by Sherburne Associates.

My first summer job on Nantucket was in 1973, in the reservations office at theWhite Elephant, and I remember his visiting the property and being extremely gracious to a newcomer.

After I had worked there for about ten years, Mr. B asked me to take on the job of merging the sales offices for theWhite Elephant, Harbor House, andWharf Cottages, each of which had its own reservations operation with individual phone numbers. Computers would be involved, and I had to tell him that I didn’t have the skills needed to perform such a job. He persisted, however, and told me he would engage experts to create the software, but that my experience would be invaluable because I knew what the end result should be. I countered that the work would be done in the off-season and if there were snow days I would have to be with my children, and he said not to worry, that it never snows in August and that’s when he really needed me.

When Sherburne Associates was sold in December of 1986, Mr. B wrote a letter to each member of the staff. The salutation was “Dear Sherburne Associate” (he always told us that we were part of the company, not just employees). In the letter, this is how he answered a question people had often asked: What is Sherburne? Are we a commercial real estate operator, or in the hotel business, or the restaurant business, or the marina business? My answer has been that Sherburne has been a promotional spirit in which we earn our livings pleasing the resort public while we are mindful of our obligations to the special community in which we live.

Mary Malavase

“Touched by his presence”

BY BRIDGETTE BEINECKE

I had the great pleasure of loving Walter for eleven years and the deep pain of losing him. With our age difference, we always knew that unless I was run over by a truck that he would predecease me. During his final illness Walter often sat in a chair next to a small display case where he kept what he told my sons were his “treasures.” One was a one-inch-diameter metal button. These were popular in the 1960s to protest something. This button displayed the logo of the company with which Walter’s family was associated and it was surrounded by a red circle with a hash mark through it. They were sold in some of the gift shops to protest Sherburne Associates and its influence on the island’s development.

In that same case is one of the napkin rings that were given as favors at a dinner party twenty-two years later. The occasion was a fall dinner attended by Nantucket folks to honor this efforts. On top of this cabinet Walter kept pictures of all his children and grandchildren. What he really treasured were the people he loved and who loved him in return.

Everyone whoever met Walter has a story to tell about him. He was a great storyteller himself. As a selfdescribed “peddler,” he also followed Mark Twain’s advice about embellishing a good story. The people who have shared his life know the real stories. I am grateful that I am among those who were touched by his presence.

Bridgette and Walter Beinecke in San Antonio, April 1999

Walter frequently quoted Sir Winston Churchill’s admonition to “Never give in. . . Never NEVER NEVER!”

Spring 2010

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News Notes & Highlights

2010

2010 Exhibition Highlights

E X H I B I T I O N DAT E S

MARCH 27–JUNE 13

Gift of theWhale:The Iñupiat Bowhead Hunt—A Sacred Tradition PETER FOULGER GALLERY WHALING MUSEUM 13 BROAD STREET APRIL 22–DECEMBER 31

A Passion for People: 40Years of Nantucket Portrait Photography by Beverly Hall WHITNEY GALLERY IN THE NHA RESEARCH LIBRARY 7 FAIR STREET • Opening Reception, April 22, 4 P.M.

MARCH 27 – JUNE 13

MAY 28–NOVEMBER 8

Gift of theWhale:The Iñupiat Bowhead Hunt— A SacredTradition

Visions of Her: Portrait Photography

by NantucketYouth HADWEN & BARNEY CANDLE FACTORY WHALING MUSEUM, 13 BROAD STREET. • Members Opening Reception, May 28.

JULY 2–NOVEMBER 8

“Sometimes think of me”: Notable NantucketWomen through the Centuries PETER FOULGER GALLERY, WHALING MUSEUM, 13 BROAD STREET. • Members Opening Reception, July 1.

JUNE 4

Greater Light: A Look Ahead A preview of the 2011 opening of Greater Light with a glimpse at the restoration in progress. For details, call (508) 228–1894, ext. 0.

8 HOWARD STREET

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Peter Foulger Gallery, Whaling Museum The Iñupiat Eskimos have lived and hunted in the Arctic region of Alaska for over five thousand years. Central to their lifestyle and survival is the bowhead whale, a primary source not only of food, building materials, and barter goods, but also of art, legends, and cultural identity. The Iñupiat communities continue to pursue the bowhead in their annual hunts, which occur in the spring and fall. They manage the hunt in a cooperative agreement with the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and the federal government through NOAA. The International Whaling Commission has allotted the Iñupiat a block quota of 255 bowhead whales between 2008 and 2012.

They may strike between sixty and eighty whales in their annual season. The average annual number of whales landed has been forty-one over the past ten years, out of a population estimated at over ten thousand whales, which is steadily growing.

The exhibition features the photography of Bill Hess, who documented the bowhead hunt in his book Gift of the Whale: The Iñupiat Bowhead Hunt—A Sacred Tradition. With patience and openness, Hess earned the trust of the Iñupiat community, and was invited to document the hunt. His photographs share a startling and deeply moving portrait of a community fully engaged in the pursuit of the bowhead whale. The exhibition provides a glimpse into a contemporary society that owes its survival to the hunting of whales.

In addition to photographs, the exhibition features the documentary film The Eskimo and the Whale; Arctic carvings in ivory from the NHA collections; the building of a traditional Umiak by wooden-boat builder Corey Freedman; Iñupiat music; speakers/presenters Bill Hess, Robert Hellman, Bill Tramposch, Ben Simons, and an Iñupiat whaling captain.

JULY 1 – NOVEMBER 8

“Sometimes think of me”: Notable Nantucket Women through the Centuries Peter Foulger Gallery

Madaket Millie, by Beverly Hall

APRIL 22– DECEMBER 31

A Passion for People: 40Years of Nantucket Portrait Photography by Beverly Hall Whitney Gallery in the NHA Research Library, 7 Fair St. Exhibition is open during Library hours.

A Passion for People will showcase photographer Beverly Hall’s outstanding eye for portraiture through four decades of Nantucket history. The retrospective will open a window into the remarkable changes that have occurred on Nantucket in the last four decades, and the evolution and resilience of the individuals and families who have lived through those times. To present the full scope of Hall’s work, the exhibition will feature several hundred images on multiple presentation screens in addition to traditionally framed images.

Organized by categories, the screens will allow visitors to enjoy individual topics, such as “Characters,” presenting her remarkable images of Russell Baker and of Madaket Millie with Mr. Rogers; or “Artists,” highlighting the gallery scene on SouthWharf in the 1970s and beyond. Hall’s work captures an important chapter in Nantucket’s postwar history, a time that is increasingly important to record and showcase as part of Nantucket’s modern history. The exhibition will be highlighted in a Brown Bag lecture by Beverly Hall and a series of gallery talks by the artist.

MAY 28 – NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Visions of Her: Portrait Photography

by NantucketYouth Hadwen & Barney Candle Factory Visions of Her: Portrait Photography by Nantucket Youth features modern portraits of Nantucket women captured by teens from the Nantucket Boys & Girls Club and Nantucket High School. The photographs showcase the essence of women the young photographers admire, as well as the island itself. Bonus film interviews offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creative spirit of the project.

The major 2010 exhibition in the Peter Foulger Gallery of the Nantucket Whaling Museum will be “Sometimes think of me”: Notable Nantucket Women through the Centuries. The exhibition focuses on the colorful lives and histories of outstanding women from four centuries of Nantucket history. It will be the NHA’s first large-scale exhibition exploring the history of the island’s remarkable women. Such Portrait of Susan Veeder fascinating individuals as Wampanoag by an unidentified Chinese maiden Wonoma, whaling wife and journal artist, circa 1850s. keeper Eliza Brock, whaling wife and Gift of Barbara Johnson, journal illustrator Susan Veeder, 1994.28.1 scientist Maria Mitchell, abolitionist Mary Ellen Pleasant, and many contemporary Nantucket women will be presented in lively detail using the NHA’s rich collections of artifacts, logbooks, and manuscript material.

“Sometimes think of me” reminds us to recall and explore the lives of Nantucket’s less familiar, but no less remarkable, inhabitants—the island’s representative women.

“Sometimes think of me” will feature thirty-two individuals whose lives are the subjects of “embroidered narratives” by Susan Boardman’s first embroidered Nantucket needlework artist narrative Susan Boardman. In the great tradition of historic Nantucket schoolgirl samplers, as well as the legacy of whaling illustrations in logbooks and journals, Boardman’s embroidered narratives have grown to encompass a history-in-brief of the women of Nantucket from the earliest Native American period to contemporary times.

A major feature of the exhibition will be an accompanying booklength catalog, written by island historian and NHA Research Fellow Betsy Tyler. The catalog will fill a major gap in the Nantucket literature as an accessible, thoroughly researched history of a broad range of outstanding island women, past and present.

Other features of the exhibition and related programming will include voice-over readings of selected passages from the journals, logs, and letters of the women featured in the exhibition, presented with still images on the Foulger projection screen; a lecture by Betsy Tyler, presenting the history of the women in the show (summer); and the Friends of the NHA lecturer at the beginning of August Antiques Show week, Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife.

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News Notes & Highlights NHA and the NantucketWine Festival The Nantucket Wine Festival Wine Auction Dinner—which benefits the NHA—will be held on Saturday, May 22, 2010, at the White Elephant.

According to Denis Toner, NWF president and founder, “The Wine Auction Dinner is one of our signature festival events, and the Nantucket Historical Association is the festival’s charity partner and beneficiary for the Wine Auction.

Wine Festival artwork by Kerry Hallam Just as history and tradition are essential to understanding wine, the NHA is central to preserving the history and traditions of Nantucket. Proceeds from the Wine Auction support the NHA’s expanding schedule of educational programs for children.” The auction dinner will be sensational this year, with the culinary talents of BrookeVosika, executive chef at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston, and wines provided by Jorge Ordóñez, president and founder of Fine Estates from Spain.”

A limited number of tickets is still available; if you would like to purchase tickets to the Wine Auction Dinner directly from the NHA,please call Stacey Stuart at (508) 228–1894, ext.130.For or any other festival events,go to online at www.nantucketwinefestival.com.

33rd August Antiques Show Show begins August 6th at Bartlett’s Farm The 33rd annual August Antiques Show is scheduled to begin on August 6 and run through August 8. The show and preview party will once again be held under a grand white tent at Bartlett’s Farm, 33 Bartlett Farm Road. We are pleased to acknowledge that the prestigious Antiques Council—an organization dedicated to ensuring the quality of antiques and historical works of art—will continue to manage the August Antiques Show.

The major fund-raising event for the NHA’s preservation and education programs, this year’s show is being chaired

by Barbara Hathaway.

The Antiques Show week will kick off on Tuesday, August 3, at 6 P.M., with a lecture by Sena Jeter Naslund, author of the best-selling book, Ahab’s Wife. The evening is Barbara Hathaway, 2010 sponsored by the Friends of the Nantucket Historical August Antiques Show Chair Association, and the lecture will be held at the Whaling Museum with a reception immediately following.

For the seventh consecutive year, the August Antiques Show Preview Party is sponsored

by Eaton Vance Investment Counsel, and will be held Thursday, August 5, 6–9 P.M. The August Antiques Show hours are Friday and Saturday,10 A.M.– 5 P.M. and Sunday, 10 A.M.–4 P. M.,Bartlett’s Farm,33 Bartlett Farm Rd.To learn more about the 33rd August Antiques Show or to reserve tickets,please call Stacey Stuart at the Nantucket Historical Association at (508) 228–1894,ext.130,or visit www.nha.org. 

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Historic Nantucket

NHA Offers FREE Programs for Children of Elementary-school Age For the first time, the NHA’s education department is offering free winter programming for Nantucket’s school-age children and their families. Held every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons in the Discovery Room of the Whaling Museum, from 2 to 4:30 P. M., the programs begun on February 16 will run through April 29 and will resume in the fall.

Each week, children have the opportunity to explore Nantucket history through Nantucket Narratives—an afternoon of stories and activities inspired by Nantucket—and can investigate artifacts from the NHA collection, enjoy educational crafts and games, try on colonial clothing, examine old Nantucket photographs, or read books about Nantucket history.

The programs are made possible by a grant from the Nantucket Golf Club Foundation.

Special Tours of the NHA Gosnold Center What do six hundred pieces of period furniture, twenty-five hundred whaling tools and implements, eight hundred paintings, antique scrimshaw, exotic South Seas artifacts, Nantucket silver, ivory pie crimpers and walking sticks have in common? They are some of the more than thirty thousand pieces in the NHA’s collection preserved in the Gosnold Center.

For those interested in participating in a guided tour of the Gosnold Center, they will be offered in May, July, August, and October. These interpretive tours provide a wonderful glimpse into the material culture of Nantucket’s historic past.

Prepayment and registration are required.

Discounts are available for NHA members.

For more information about the tour,please call (508) 228–1894,ext.0

Membership Reminder

ART INSPIRED BY HISTORY:

Early-American Arts and Crafts Classes at 1800 House This year, 2010, marks the sixth season of educational programs at the 1800 House. Dedicated to celebrating and reviving Nantucket’s Chair Caning and Fiber Rush class at the 1800 House. rich tradition in historic decorative arts and crafts, classes will begin on June 22 and run through mid-October. This year many an attempt has been made to add to the diversity of class offerings, including eleven classes geared to the interests of men. Also new for 2010, some classes will be offered for the youth in our community; three of the instructors will give lectures in the Whaling Museum; and specific one-day workshops designed to accommodate busy local residents will be offered in the fall.

The classes include, but are not limited to, Half-Hull Catboat Models, Chair Caning and Fiber Rush, Sailors Valentines, Folk-Art Game Boards, Découpaged Wooden Trays, and a Nest of Shaker Boxes. A number of one-day and holiday workshops will also be offered.

The NHA receives no operating funds from state, local, or federal sources, but relies on membership and gifts from individuals— in addition to annual contributions— to provide the vital core support for our curatorial, research, preservation, and educational activities. If you know of someone interested in becoming a member, or need additional information for your own membership, please call (508) 228–1894, ext.

116, and ask for Beth Moyer. Important benefits at every level are: unlimited admission to our Whaling Museum and historic properties, a subscription to this publication, our yearly calendar of events, discounts at the Museum Shop, and the use of the NHA Research Library.

Class size is limited in some instances.Fee includes all materials.Reservations and prepayment are required,NHA member discounts available.Please go to www.nha.org/1800house for full course listing and registration information.

New NHA Staff Members In January, Rebecca Miller began in the newly created position of Assistant to the Executive Director. An island resident for the past eleven years, Miller attended the University of Pittsburg and Albright College; she has a strong background in customer service and multitasking within an office environment. “I am extremely pleased to announce the appointment Rebecca Miller and Marjan Shirzad of Rebecca Miller,” said NHA executive director Bill Tramposch. “Her interpersonal skills and her numerous and successful years as an administrative assistant at the executive-search firm of Witt/Kieffer make her a real asset to the organization.”

Also hired in January—to fill the second newly created position of History Educator— Marjan Shirzad will focus on Nantucket’s youth, to work at imparting to them a deeper understanding and appreciation of the island’s rich history and international significance, and imbuing them with pride of place. The History Educator position is being underwritten by the generosity of an anonymous donor. Shirzad has an M.A. degree in Visual Anthropology from Goldsmiths College, University of London, and a B.A. from the University of Virginia. She has vast experience in the development and implementation of youth programs utilizing new media applications.

Exceptional events begin with unforgettable venues…

Celebrate your historic milestone events surrounded by Nantucket treasures. The Nantucket Historical Association properties are wonderful locations for weddings, welcome parties, rehearsal dinners, receptions, cocktail parties, and corporate events. Surround your guests with elegant art and important objects that bring the story of Nantucket’ past to life at our world-class museum. Located in the heart of town, the museum accommodates both small and large gatherings—a perfect mix of state-of-the-art and old-world design. Your guests will also enjoy breathtaking views of Nantucket harbor from the private rooftop observation deck.

Please call Susan Beaumont at (508) 228–1894,ext.131,for details about hosting a memorable party in theWhaling Museum or other NHA properties.

Spring 2010

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THE HERITAGE SOCIETY Planning today for the NHA’s Tomorrow

T

he Nantucket Historical Association invites you to join forwardlooking donors who have included the Association in their wills. Your gift will help build financial stability to continue the NHA’s mission for future generations.

For further information, consult your financial professional or contact Cristin Merck.

508 228 1894, ext. 114 email: cmerck@nha.org

Historic Nantucket P.O. Box 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554-1016

www.nha.org

Periodical POSTAGE PAID at Nantucket, MA and Additional Entry Offices