This Saturday, July 16, the Nantucket Historical Association will host its annual summer fundraiser, Baskets & Bubbly, to support the island’s iconic craft of Nantucket lightship baskets with a Celebration Under the Whale at the Whaling Museum.
Nantucket History & People
Stories of Island Rum Runners
From 1920 to 1933, the 18th Amendment to our United States Constitution prohibited the manufacture, sale, transport, import, or export of alcoholic beverages: but the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act never barred the consumption of alcohol.
Save Us from the Kids
As we learned last week in Part 1: Island Children Running Rampant, during the mid-1800s, many Nantucket youth were participating in “wicked and lawless conduct.” We continue this week with what efforts were made to deter this behavior and to reform island children…
In the mid-1850s, there is an increase in calls in the newspapers for the town to crack down on the out-of-control youth:
Celebrating Iconic Crafts
The Nantucket Historical Association is welcoming visitors back to the Hadwen House at 96 Main Street. For the 2023 season, the historic property will feature several exhibitions, including one focused on Nantucket Lightship Baskets and exhibits highlighting the NHA’s decorative arts and map collections. Niles Parker, NHA’s Gosnell Executive Director says, “Hadwen House is becoming a great space for the NHA to explore more of the island’s important history in addition to the stories we tell at the Whaling Museum.”
Save Us from the Kids
Part I: Island Children Running Rampant by James Grieder Nantucket has been described as a great place to raise your children, but not a great place to grow up. The arrival of the internet and high-speed ferries has blurred the distinction—now that we have good pizza and can get more […]
Bearing Witness
A young man with a famous last name died recently on island. Sudden deaths have become unfortunate and common in the last few years, not just on Nantucket, but throughout the country. Every death is as unique as a fingerprint. The reasons are opaque: the results caustic. We hear of the death and we pause, then we ask ourselves why and what could we have done? Every answer we find is wrong.
The First Cross-Dressing Performer on Nantucket
“Hello possums!” was how Dame Edna Everage greeted her throngs of admirers for more than 60 years. Barry Humphries, an Australian-born comedian, actor, author, and satirist, who created the character of Dame Edna, passed away in April of this year. Humphries’ one-man shows alternated between satirical monologues and musical numbers, interspersed with improvised moments and audience participation. Dame Edna never performed in the Great Hall of the Nantucket Atheneum, but another cross-dressing performer did so nearly 100 years before Humphries created his iconic character. A man named Marshall S. Pike performed there on multiple occasions in the 1850s, and his career as a musician and performer led him from Nantucket to the bloody battlefields and hellish prisons of the American Civil War before he found his way home again.
