~ by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner ~ The Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria collided with the MS Stockholm in heavy fog off the coast of Nantucket on July 25, 1956 at 11:10 pm. Bound for New York City, the […]
Nantucket History & People
Sunday is Family Adventure Day
This Sunday, July 12, from 10 am to 12 noon, families can journey into Nantucket’s past through an interactive exploration of the Oldest House at 16 Sunset Hill with staff of the Nantucket Historical Association. Visitors will learn about colonial lifestyles by making aromatic herb sachets, button buzzer whirligigs, and […]
Ocean Bathing for Health & Recreation
~ by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner ~ A floating bathing house opened off South Wharf the second week of July in 1827. The house was supported on two pontoons and had eight 5 x 7 foot rooms and one […]
Meeting the Captain – Herman Melville
~ by Amy Jenness ~ author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner. A year after publishing his novel Moby-Dick, Herman Melville visited Nantucket for the first, and only, time on July 6, 1852. Melville travelled with his father-in-law Massachusetts Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw. During […]
NAC Honors Reggie Levine
Nantucket Arts Council presents its Merit Award for 2015 to Reggie Levine, one of Nantucket’s most passionate and longtime leaders in the arts, on Wednesday, July 1, from 5:30 to 8 pm, in Nantucket Dreamland’s Harbor View Room and Studio Theater. Given occasionally by Nantucket Arts Council, the award honors […]
Summer Skating
-by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner– On July 1, 1880 two hundred excited guests filed into Atlantic Hall at 74 Main Street to witness the dedication of the island’s new roller skating rink. Roller skating was a popular mainland past […]
The Poetry of Youth, An Interview with Beck Fee Barsanti
by Len Germinara Beck Fee Barsanti is a student at the Nantucket Lighthouse School. He’s written his first book of poetry Watching Life Unfold. I’ve had the pleasure of being one of the first people that he’s shared it with. It’s full of insight and wonder and will be available […]
First Island Phone
by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner On June 22, 1929 the telephone company “cut over” from an outdated magnetic telephone system at its Fair Street building to a battery system housed in a new building on Union Street. The new […]
NHA Special Lecture: Marquesas Islands
The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) is pleased to present “Pacific Parallels: Marquesas Islands and the Essex Crew,” a special lecture by anthropologist Emily Donaldson, this Monday, June 15 at 6 pm at the Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street. From the Essex crewmen’s near brush with French Polynesia’s Marquesas Islands, to […]
Miracle of the Bipede Bicycles in Nantucket History
• This Week in Nantucket History – by Amy Jenness – author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner • In an Inquirer & Mirror article on bicycling, Max Wagner wrote on June 13, 1896, “The miracle that the bipede has wrought all over the […]