News and Events for Nantucket Island
~ by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner ~ In the spring of 1841 Nantucket banker William C. Coffin traveled to New Bedford to attend an anti-slavery meeting. There he met a 23 year old runway slave named Frederick Douglass who […]
August 1 marks the 197th birthday of Maria Mitchell, who was born at 1 Vestal Street in 1818. To celebrate her life and legacy, the Maria Mitchell Association invites the public to an afternoon full of free activities and refreshments on Friday, July 31. The MMA campus on Vestal Street […]
~ by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner ~ On August 1, 1818, Maria Mitchell was born into the Nantucket Quaker family of William and Lydia Mitchell whose family lines went back to the island’s original white settlers in 1659 and […]
~ by Richard Trust ~ The lure of Nantucket, right down to the smell of the ocean in Siasconset, was too much for Tom Meehan to resist. So one of the first things he did after reaping the benefits of writing the script for the original Broadway production of Annie […]
~ by Abigail Terres ~ The small village of Siasconset, about eight miles from downtown Nantucket along the southeastern shore of our island, has long been a haven for the arts. The ‘Sconset Actors Colony dates back to the late 1800s, when there was no air conditioning on Broadway. When […]
~ 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 […]
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 […]
~ 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 […]
~ 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 […]
