News and Events for Nantucket Island
On Tuesday, October 6 Nathaniel Philbrick will launch and present his new book, The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World to his hometown audience here on Nantucket and in collaboration with Nantucket Book Partners. This is a free event, but registering at Nantucketbookpartners. […]
I was recently reading a collection of articles called Nantucket Voices by Mary Miles when I came across a passage that made me chuckle. In one essay, an old islander named Bill Broughton, who many will still remember, explains what qualifies somebody as a “real” Nantucketer.
Dylan Thomas knew something about communities. The famous Welsh writer laid out this knowledge in his amazingly epic poem, Under Milk Wood in 1954. This poem is perhaps best remembered as a radio performance with a variety of actors, including Thomas as narrator, giving voice to the eclectic cast of characters. Originally titled The Village of the Mad, the rambling, rhythmic story captured a day in the life of the imaginary Welsh village of Llarggub – “Bugger all” backwards.
Turkey vultures are one of my favorite birds. I generally have a soft spot for the disparaged and underappreciated. However, for turkey vultures, my love for them comes down more to how they are perfectly suited for their actions: structure suits function. These beautiful (yeah, I said “beautiful”) birds are highly specialized. Their “naked” head is free of feathers, causing some to malign these majestic creatures for their wrinkly pink heads (the original skin heads). A head free of feathers allows this bird to feed on carrion without pesky feathers getting in the way or becoming contaminated.
Saturday, September 26 is the last day for Pick- Your-Own farm-grown cherry, beefsteaks, heirloom tomatoes at Bartlett’s Farm (9 am to 2 pm), but it’s not the last day of autumn fun at the farm! Bartlett’s Fall Workshops have just started: every Friday and Saturday through autum from 9 am […]
To enhance the public’s knowledge and understanding of Nantucket’s heritage, the Nantucket Historical Association offers an annual fellowship, with the selected researcher encouraged to further their study with resources from the Research Library collection. The 2026 E. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Thayer Verney Fellow is Dr. Lynne Anderson, whose research will […]
For the first time ever, both 2026 Photo Contest winners are island residents. Congrats to Shanya Stanley, one of our regular entrants, whose photo of Easy Street Basin is this year’s first place winner and to Kat Enter, whose image of the Lynx at Brant Point took second place. You […]
Jesse Cole is a visionary. Wait, you don’t know who Jesse Cole is? I bet you do. Or, at least, I bet you’ve seen him. Jesse is the tall guy in the bright yellow tuxedo and top hat who formed the Savannah Bananas baseball team and subsequently created Banana Ball. Yes, that’s the game that is selling out major league baseball (and football) stadiums across the country. It started because Jesse Cole had a vision that baseball could be so much more than it is. It was a vision that became his passion.
This September, as they have done on the same September weekend for 37 years, a group of women will board the ferry to Nantucket carrying decades of shared history and friendships that have lasted nearly four decades. What began in 1989 as a casual girls’ weekend has developed into an annual pilgrimage for this group of friends who have become sisters.
