News and Events for Nantucket Island
by Catherine Macallister The world of learning is so broad, and the human soul is so limited in power! We reach forth and strain every nerve, but we seize only a bit of the curtain that hides the infinite from us.” Maria Mitchell Vestal Street transforms every year on August […]
by Carl Oscar Olson The night sky above Nantucket is not like most places. Celestial bodies seem to shine differently here, thirty miles out to sea and surrounded by the dark waters of the Atlantic. We are far enough away from big city light pollution, and the air is clearer. […]
~ by Katherine Brooks with MMA Curator & Deputy Director Jascin Leonardo Finger ~ Heads: the King of Denmark. Tails: the goddess Urania. “A blazing and fiery comet flashes upon us… it is not strange that a slight shudder comes to even an intelligent observer. For how much do we […]
by Amy Jenness Maria Mitchell spent the first 11 years of her adulthood living a quiet life on Nantucket, first as a teacher and then as librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum. But that changed on a clear October night in 1847 when she saw a comet through her telescope and […]
~ by Jascin N. Leonardo Finger, MMA Deputy Director and Curator of the Mitchell House, Archives & Special Collections ~ In 1848, Nantucket-born and raised Maria Mitchell (1818-1889) was invited to become the first female member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS) located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This […]
August 1 marks the 197th birthday of Maria Mitchell, who was born at 1 Vestal Street in 1818. To celebrate her life and legacy, the Maria Mitchell Association invites the public to an afternoon full of free activities and refreshments on Friday, July 31. The MMA campus on Vestal Street […]
~ by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day in Nantucket History, available at Mitchell’s Book Corner ~ On August 1, 1818, Maria Mitchell was born into the Nantucket Quaker family of William and Lydia Mitchell whose family lines went back to the island’s original white settlers in 1659 and […]
• by Dr. Sarah Oktay, Director, University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station • This week’s column is designed to get you outdoors to work with visiting scientists and learn more about Nantucket’s diverse and fascinating plants and animals. For the first time, the Nantucket Biodiversity Initiative is sponsoring a Citizen […]
• by Sarah Teach • This weekend, the second annual Nantucket Book Festival will welcome an eclectic group of writers and the readers who love them. New York-based author Amy Brill will be present with her debut novel, The Movement of Stars, a story based on the life of pioneering […]
