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 […]
Nantucket History & People
Music of the High Seas & Storied Past
by Amy Roberts Celebrate the folk music tradition with two distinct and original concerts featuring San Francisco folk prodigies, The Barbary Ghosts, on August 20 and island favorite, Bill Schustik, on August 23, presented by the Nantucket Historical Association in the Nantucket Whaling Museum on Broad Street. Armed with a […]
“America’s Privateer” Arrives on Nantucket
by Sarah Teach During the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, privateers sailed around Nantucket’s coastline. This Thursday, August 16 at 3 pm, the weatherly, fast, and heavily armed Clipper Schooner Lynx will be sailing into Nantucket Harbor. The 122-foot square top sail schooner Lynx will fire a […]
Guiding Lights – National Lighthouse Day
During the golden whaling era in the early-to-mid-1800s, hundreds of ships passed by Nantucket each day. The area saw more than 700 shipwrecks, bringing it the nickname “graveyard of the Atlantic.” Before rescue became an organized effort, most shipwrecked sailors were doomed to die; so it is no surprise that […]
Lost on a Reef-The Whaleship Two Brothers
The Nantucket Historical Association announces the world premiere of Lost on a Reef: an exhibition of artifacts retrieved from the 1823 Nantucket whaleship, Two Brothers, in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). This exhibition is in the NHA’s Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street and may be viewed […]
Painters Who Changed Nantucket
We live in a society that tends to peg businesspersons as the most influential in our world, often forgetting the impact that artists can plant among us. On Friday, June 29, the Artists Association of Nantucket (AAN) presents its 2012 exhibition, The Waterfront Artists: Painters Who Changed Nantucket. A compilation […]
Gimme Shelter – Asylum on Nantucket
by Frances Karttunen On the left side of Orange Street as one proceeds outbound toward the edge of town stands the Landmark House. Now housing an assisted living community, it was previously Our Island Home. Before the prominent old building was Our Island Home, it had been Nantucket’s Town and […]
Madaket Ditch, Hither Creek, and Millie
by Frances Karttunen The erosion currently ravaging the west end of Nantucket is no new thing. A long spit of land with Smith’s Point at the very tip once extended right past the island of Tuckernuck and approached Muskeget. Nobody remembers who Smith was, but the Wampanoag name for the […]