Nantucket's Cabinet of Curiosities: A to Z
Peter Foulger Gallery,
Whaling Museum
May 27, 2011 through the 2012 Season
Inspired by Nantucket’s early museums, especially the original “Fair Street Rooms,” the Nantucket’s Cabinet of Curiosities: A to Z exhibition showcases iconic curios, oddities, and other island treasures from the NHA collections, presenting an encapsulated “A to Z” overview of Nantucket history.
Such curios as the model of the Nantucket Camels; the bell from the railroad engine Dionis; the tiller of the whaleship Lima; the famous wax doll of Louis XVII, Dauphin of France, brought back by a Nantucket captain; and many more items will be taken from storage and placed on display for the first time in years.
Another exciting component of the exhibition are movies from old Nantucket, including footage from the 1930s to 1950s playing on an antique television in a 1950s living room setting. Visitors will have a chance to enter Josiah Freeman’s Photo Studio and have their portrait taken, to smell spermaceti and ambergris, to color a copy of the Tony Sarg Alphabet Book with their children and families; to send a Nantucket postcard to friends; and, most enjoyable, to revisit the model of the Nantucket Railroad first displayed in 2008.
Eastman Johnson
and His Contemporaries
Whitney Gallery,
NHA
Research Library
April 15, 2011 through the 2012 Season
Major nineteenth-century genre painter, portraitist, and chronicler of American life, Eastman Johnson first visited Nantucket in 1869, and soon took up seasonal residence on island, purchasing a home and artist studio on North Road (now Cliff Road) in the area known as The Cliff—on the North Shore facing Nantucket Sound. The artist's island sojourns would inspire some of his most enduring works, including his masterpiece, The Cranberry Harvest, Island of
Nantucket (1880).
With the completion of The Cranberry Harvest, the artist turned his attention to portraiture, taking advantage of the community of grizzled veterans of the sea who haunted Nantucket in the twilight of the nineteenth century. Living on The Cliff surrounded by neighbors who included retired mariners, civic officials, and practicing artists, Johnson used many of his new island acquaintances as the subjects of his paintings.
During the post-whaling era of the 1870s–90s, other prominent American artists were drawn to Nantucket for its antiquated charm and picturesque vistas. Major contemporaries of Johnson's such as George Inness and William Trost Richards visited the island— joining the ranks of Nantucket-descended talents such as W. Ferdinand Macy, as well as Johnson's friend and neighbor John Alexander MacDougall Jr.—in portraying the island's lush natural settings, interesting characters, and alluring seascapes and landscapes.
In the Fields (Study for the Cranberry Pickers) by J. Eastman Johnson
Permanent Exhibitions at the Whaling Museum
Perhaps the most dramatic installation of a whale skeleton ever displayed. Diving from the ceiling-mouth open, teeth menacing-is the skeleton of a forty-six foot male sperm whale. The beauty and wonder of being this close to the skeleton is breathtaking, and many of our visitors have told us just that.
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Displayed on the brick walls of the Candle Factory is a significant collection of ceremonial implements and various weapons, spears, and armor from other South Seas islands. They represent one of the finest collections of early South Seas objects and are part of a permanent display of whalemen's souvenirs. Nantucket whalers were among the first sailors to explore the Pacific Ocean and to discover many of the islands and peoples of the South Pacific. The men brought home exotic artifacts and keepsakes from the South Seas as curiosities and mementos of their travels. As Pacific islanders became more accustomed to passing whalers, they began to supply objects to the visitors based on precontact traditions, but now serving primarily as souvenirs. Some of the featured items from the South Pacific are a rare model of a Maori war canoe; Marquesan Island ceremonial U'u clubs and a staff made with human hair; weapons and tools such as clubs, spears, and adzes; a warrior's sharkskin body armor; a Hawaiian tribal necklace made of whale tooth and hair; and a New Ireland dancing mask made of moss, seaweed, and grass. |
Oil portraiture carried the day in the period before the invention of the photographic process in the mid-nineteenth century. This period corresponded with the heyday of whaling on Nantucket, as well as with a loosening of Quaker strictures against the vanity of images and portraits. Wealthy whaling captains and merchants were eager to have their portraits painted, often by itinerant portrait artists who visited the island and advertised studio time. Many of these artists, such as William Swain and James Hathaway, spent so much time on the island that they managed to capture a large number of the most notable whaling captains of the era, and occasionally their wives and children. A wall in Gosnell Hall displays a large range of portraits of the men and women who went to sea. |
The
scrimshaw in the collection of the Nantucket Historical Association is the result
of over a century and a half of passionate collecting, and is considered one of
the most important collections in the world. Highlights of the collection include
some of the earliest and rarest sperm whale teeth, engraved by the most famous
of all scrimshaw artists, Nantucketers Frederick Myrick and Edward Burdett; outstanding
examples of teeth by the anonymous scrimshaw hands known as the Ceres Artisan,
the Banknote Engraver, the Naval Battle Captain; and dozens of the finest-quality
teeth, many with direct Nantucket provenances. In
addition to the superb collection of teeth, every aspect of the scrimshander's
art is represented in the collection, including dazzling specimens of swifts,
busks, canes, jagging wheels, coconut-shell dippers, ditty boxes, furniture, tools,
Arctic ivory, and plaques. |
Next to the scrimshaw gallery is a display of the some of the finest objects in the NHA's decorative-arts collection. Presented in an airy open space, visitors hardly notice that this is one of the highest quality climate-controlled spaces in the museum. Instead, they enjoy the wonders the NHA's lightship basket collection, framed needlework pieces, and whimsical whirligigs in a room with a meticulously hand-painted floor by island artisan Christina Wiggins.
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An integral component of the museum, the 1847 spermaceti-candle factory has been carefully restored to reveal significant elements of the original factory, including the two-story beam press - the only original beam press still in place in the world - and the foundation of the oil-processing tryworks.
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The
Decorative Arts Gallery is also a perfect place to stop and view the wonders of
the architectural design. From one corner in the gallery, visitors can look through
three windows and catch three unique views encompassing a great expanse of Nantucket
history. First, through the fanlight, people can peer out onto South Water Street
and contemplate the lively hustle and bustle of our island community. Next they
can peek through a round window, reminiscent of a ship's porthole. Through this
small pane of glass they can see the Fresnel lens, which once operated on whale
oil, and beyond it, the Candle Factory. A larger rectangular window, holding the
basket collection, invites viewers to take another look at the Town Clock and
past the central stairway to Gosnell Hall and the spine of the sperm-whale skeleton. 