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 focus on the evolution of Quaker female education on Nantucket from 1660 to 1860. Dr. Anderson will participate in the intellectual life of the NHA, including delivering a public presentation on her research topic in late October and preparing an article for publication in Historic Nantucket. She will be in residence from October 10 through November 1, 2026.
“The NHA is the principal repository of Nantucket history, with extensive archives, collections of historic properties, and art and artifacts that broadly illustrate Nantucket’s past. We are thankful for such a strong interest in our history and resources. We are excited to welcome Dr. Lynne Anderson to the island and to see her research come to life. This fellowship is a constant reminder of the importance of Nantucket history and why the ongoing preservation of it is so central to our mission,” said Niles Parker, NHA Gosnell Executive Director.
The purpose of Dr. Anderson’s project is to conduct research on the educational opportunities and experiences of girls and young women born into or living with Quaker families on Nantucket from the mid-seventeenth to midnineteenth centuries. The proposed research is part of a larger study of Quaker female education in New England, leading to a book titled Samplers, Social Justice, and the Society of Friends: Quaker Female Education in New England, 1660- 1860. The book explores what Quakers mean when they call for a useful, albeit “guarded,” education, and the impact of an educational philosophy that promotes learning for girls as well as boys, Blacks as well as Whites, and the impoverished as well as the wealthy. It investigates the educational experiences of Quaker girls and young women in early New England and showcases the stories of largely unknown female students, teachers, and schools. To identify and study Quaker schools, teachers, and students, the project will explore diverse forms of data held by the NHA, including primary and secondary print sources, schoolgirl samplers, historic newspapers, portraits and photographs, as well as personal publications such as memoirs, diaries, and letters.
Dr. Lynne Anderson is a former professor of education at the University of Oregon, where her research focused on the use of technology to enhance literacy —reading, writing, and studying—for students struggling in school. Since retiring from academia, Dr. Anderson has pursued a rigorous program of research on early female education and the role of needlework samplers in the schoolgirl curriculum, resulting in publications, exhibitions, and presentations. She is the founder and President of the Sampler Consortium International, a non-profit membership organization for individuals and organizations interested in conducting and promoting scholarship on schoolgirl samplers and related girlhood embroideries. Dr. Anderson is also the Director of the Sampler Archive Project, a nationwide effort to locate, photograph, and document American samplers in public and private collections across the nation, making images and information available to the public in a user-friendly, online, searchable database.
The E. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Thayer Verney Fellowship was established in 1999, and applications remain open to academics, graduate students, and independent scholars. Topics of research for previous Fellows include health aboard whaleships, women at sea, scrimshaw and folk art, the built environment, abolition, the history of Quakerism, and the history of Nantucket’s African-American and Cape Verdean communities. For details on the E. Geoffrey and Elizabeth Thayer Verney Fellowship, contact library@nha.org.
