• by Sarah Teach • One year ago, the Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) unleashed the hounds. A team of island historians intent on proving or disproving the island’s collection of myths that have developed over the centuries put their noses to the ground and also into hand-written books older than […]
Nantucket History & People
Nantucket’s Last Indian?
• by Frances Ruley Karttunen • Entering or leaving the Nantucket Atheneum, visitors come face-to-face with the portrait of an aging man sitting barefoot at a table in his modest house, surrounded by baskets and his household goods. His back is to a window through which there is a view […]
Nantucket Criers
• by Frances Ruley Karttunen – author of Nantucket Places and People series • For three decades Town Crier Curtis Barnes walked up Main Street ringing in Daffodil Weekend, the Fourth of July, the lighting of Christmas trees on Main Street, and Christmas Stroll. His English Air Raid Patrol hand […]
Nantucket Legends: Foggy Facts and Fictions
The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) is pleased to present Nantucket Legends: Foggy Facts and Fictions, the major 2013 exhibition examining some of the most curious stories of Nantucket’s past. Legends such as the first Nantucket Tea Party, R. H. Macy’s red star tattoo, Tony Sarg’s sea serpent hoax, the origin […]
Dr. Richard Koehler Brings Laparoscopic Surgery to Nantucket Cottage Hospital
Dr. Richard Koehler, an experienced laparoscopic surgeon, joined the Nantucket Cottage Hospital staff in 2012 as the first additional surgeon in nearly three decades. Dr. Koehler is a fulltime general surgeon who has 20 years of experience in advanced laparoscopic surgery, the modern technique in which operations in the abdomen […]
Newtown Cemetery
by Frances Karttunen Newtown Cemetery, also known as the Old South Cemetery, faces Sparks Avenue and is bounded on the west and south by school property. When it was designated as a burial ground in the 1700s, however, it was on the extreme south edge of town, surrounded by empty […]
“When America First Met China”
by Amy Roberts There are very few windows into Nantucket’s little known nineteenth century engagement in the China Trade. As small pieces of a vague past, there are portraits of Nantucket captains and their families completed by Chinese artists, intricately painted porcelain platters, personalized creamware jugs, and earthenware figurines brought […]
Nantucket in the Civil War
When the Civil War began in 1861, Nantucketers responded with heroic dedication to the call for volunteers to support Union troops. Even in the face of pacifist island traditions, nearly 400 Nantucket men enlisted in defense of the Union forces, with more than 70 ultimately losing their lives in the […]