News and Events for Nantucket Island
~ by Frances Ruley Karttunen ~ Nantucket’s Scout camps threatened by developers! Bites to be taken out of Mill Hill Park! Something should be done! And lots has been by the Nantucket Civic League. Recently, the Nantucket Islands Land Bank purchased Camp Taupawshas, the 5.2-acre Nantucket Girl Scout camp south […]
More than three decades ago, well before artisan chocolates were all the rage, Kathy and John West created a Nantucket startup dedicated to offering the best hand-crafted chocolates and sweets to Nantucket residents and visitors. Their shop, Sweet Inspirations, is now an island landmark celebrating it’s 35th Anniversary. Recently they […]
~ by Amy Jenness ~ In 1849 three Folger brothers left Nantucket for the gold fields of northern California. By April of 1850 Edward Folger, age 20, Henry Folger, age 16 and James Folger, age 14, had reached the west coast of Panama after a ship voyage, rafting trip and […]
Commonly asked questions and misunderstandings about antiques… and the odd or end fascinating bit! What are those little brass torpedoes attached to long ropes? They are ship’s logs and were used by sailors to measure their speed under weigh at sea. Ever since sailors first ventured out of sight of […]
by Amy Jenness Despite its reputation as a 19th century antislavery stronghold, Nantucket’s first generations of European settlers owned slaves and the process of integrating the island has at times been a difficult one. In 1659, nine English families purchased large portions of the island and came here to establish […]
Commonly asked questions and misunderstandings about antiques… and the odd or end fascinating bit! One of the most common questions we are asked, almost on a daily basis, is what are these intricate lattice-work devices? When I press them to guess, people most often say a device to hang laundry […]
~ by Amy Jenness ~ Siasconset’s new Marconi Wireless Station received its first signal from the Nantucket lightship on August 12 in 1901. The two crews established a connection and then the ‘Sconset station asked the lightship crew: “How are you all? What’s doing?” The lightship crew responded with the […]
~ by C. Oscar Olson ~ It was a cold night in Boston on December 16. Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, and the rest of The Sons of Liberty crept aboard a British merchant vessel and threw its entire shipment of tea into the ocean. The year was 1773, and this […]
by Amy Jenness Nantucket had access to local telephone service beginning in 1887, but the ability to make long distance calls didn’t occur until 1916 after the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company laid down 550 miles of doublearmored steel—the longest submarine cable in the country—between Wood’s Hole, Martha’s Vineyard […]
Commonly asked questions and misunderstandings about antiques… and the odd or end fascinating bit! Carved wooden cat’s heads are a rather obscure bit of nautical lore. The “cats head” is a wooden beam angling out from either side of a ship’s bow, used to weigh and let go the anchors […]
