News and Events for Nantucket Island
On Tuesday, May 15 at 6 pm, Nantucket native, author, and historian Matthew Stackpole will give an illustrated talk on the Charles W. Morgan, the last of an American whaling fleet that once numbered more than 2,700 vessels. Built and launched in 1841, the Morgan is now America’s oldest commercial […]
~ by Amy Jenness ~ In 1778 Captain James Cook and his crew were the first westerners to visit the islands of Hawaii, and they found there a rich Polynesian culture built over many centuries. But things did not go well for Cook, who was killed by the locals after […]
~ by Amy Jenness, author of On This Day In Nantucket History ~ The sun will be an economically viable source of electricity within a decade, and solar panels have the potential to surpass fossil fuel, wind, and nuclear power production by 2050. That is the opinion of the International […]
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 […]
The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) is pleased to present “Pacific Parallels: Marquesas Islands and the Essex Crew,” a special lecture by anthropologist Emily Donaldson, this Monday, June 15 at 6 pm at the Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street. From the Essex crewmen’s near brush with French Polynesia’s Marquesas Islands, to […]
by Amy Jenness author of On This Day in Nantucket History On June 1, 1796, the British brig Swallow received a “Letter of Marque,” which gave it the authority to capture French ships. The Letter of Marque and Reprisal is a government license authorizing privateers to attack enemy vessels (Britain […]
On August 14, 1819, the whaleship Essex sailed out of Nantucket Harbor— Captain George Pollard, one of the youngest ever to command a whaling ship, anticipated a successful two-and-a-half year voyage; its crew of twenty hoped for greasy luck. Their experience was anything but lucky. Fifteen months after the start […]
by Amy Roberts There are very few windows into Nantucket’s little known nineteenth century engagement in the China Trade. As small pieces of a vague past, there are portraits of Nantucket captains and their families completed by Chinese artists, intricately painted porcelain platters, personalized creamware jugs, and earthenware figurines brought […]
Nantucket Carving & Folk Art Perched on the hill at 167 Orange Street you’ll find Nantucket Carving & Folk Art, where hundreds of quarterboards, dozens of signs, and carved mantles, whales, eagles, and other decorative pieces are drawn, carved, painted, and gilded. Downtown Nantucket is a portfolio of the work […]
