News and Events for Nantucket Island
The Nantucket Atheneum has a long history of bringing distinguished people to Nantucket Island to speak. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Horace Greeley, Lucretia Mott, and Frederick Douglass are among those who lectured in the Great Hall of the Atheneum during years long past. Around the turn of this […]
Formed in 1834 as a private, membership organization, the Nantucket Atheneum has had nine librarians in its storied history, beginning with famous astronomer Maria Mitchell. Nantucket’s Great Fire of 1846 destroyed the former building and virtually all of the library’s collections. The Atheneum was rebuilt on the same site in […]
I’ve been working at the Nantucket Atheneum as a research associate for a little over a year, and in that time, I’ve fallen down more than one historical rabbit hole, learning about interesting and some downright odd moments in Nantucket’s history. From time to time, my explorations bring me face-to-face with members of my own family.
As writers use words to articulate the human condition, dancers uses movement to express human emotion. Both artistic endeavors require dedication and imagination, hard work and passion, giving into rhythm and continuing with intention. Whether you use an interplay of words or an interplay of motion, both writing and dance communicate. As author Lene Fogelberg wrote: “Dancing is like poetry written by our bodies: our outstretched arms our words of longing.”
Staff of the Nantucket Atheneum are very eager to get books back in yourhands, and starting June 8, this will begin to happen.
During Phase 1 of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ opening schedule,the Atheneum has been completing some necessary maintenance and preparingthe front entrance for curbside service.
• by Julianne Adams • What began as a one-off evening of dance quickly became the multi-day event brimming with world-class talent known as the Nantucket Atheneum Dance Festival. In 2008, the Atheneum sponsored a performance from Stiefel and Stars, an intensive summer program that was run on Martha’s Vineyard […]
• by Robert P. Barsanti • He has stopped in the crosswalk by the Hub at nine o’clock at night. His phone and my headlights put him in a spotlight; however, because his earphones are in, he cannot hear my car. Instead, he hits himself in the thigh, then begins […]
