News and Events for Nantucket Island
~ by Amy Jenness ~ In the days following the Confederate Army’s attack and capture of North Carolina’s Fort Sumter in 1861, island residents worried that the South would also target Nantucket. In April a voluntary group of men called the “Island Guards” met at Mill Hill each day to […]
~ by Amy Jenness ~ When 200 women and 100 men gathered in upstate New York in 1848 for America’s first women’s-rights convention, they unanimously agreed that women should be given the same freedoms as men: the right to speak publicly, pursue an education, get a job, practice a religion […]
~ by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day In Nantucket History ~ Isolated out to sea and staunchly Quaker, and therefore pacifist, Nantucketers nonetheless got pulled into British conflict long before the American Revolution. Island whaleships had to contend with European privateers capturing their ships as early as 1744. […]
by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner Built in 1818 in Middletown, CT, the 340 ton Nantucket whaleship Planter left Nantucket on its first voyage on September 25 of that same year. Launched at a time when Nantucket whaleship owners were […]
~ by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner ~ The US government installed new experimental technologies on the lightships Nantucket and Cape May in 1934. A new type of short-range radio beacon was installed on the Nantucket to enable the lightship […]
~ by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner ~ A September 11, 1915 article in the Inquirer & Mirror announced that cranberries harvested from island bogs would now be shipped in barrels labelled “Island Brand.” The new labels would also include […]
by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner Published by the island newspaper Mirror on September 3, 1849, Jethro C. Brock’s list of Nantucket people who went to California was printed as a broadside called A Correct List of Persons Belonging to […]
~ by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner ~ On September 1, 1963 President John F. Kennedy and his family went for a cruise on the yacht Honey Fitz and briefly visited Nantucket for a short time. The president and Jacqueline […]
~ 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 […]
