Current Exhibitions
“Sometimes think of me”:
Notable Nantucket Women through the Centuries
Embroidered Narratives by Susan Boardman with biographies by Betsy Tyler
Peter Foulger Gallery, Whaling Museum, July 2 – November 8, 2010
The major 2010 exhibition in the Peter Foulger Gallery of the Nantucket Whaling Museum will be “Sometimes think of me”: Notable Nantucket Women through the Centuries. The exhibition focuses on the colorful lives and histories of outstanding women from four centuries of Nantucket history. It will be the NHA’s first large-scale exhibition exploring the history of the island’s remarkable women. Such fascinating individuals as Wampanoag maiden Wonoma, whaling wife and journal keeper Eliza Brock, whaling wife and journal illustrator Susan Veeder, scientist Maria Mitchell, abolitionist Eunice Ross, and many contemporary Nantucket women, will be presented in lively detail using the NHA’s rich collections of artifacts, logbooks, and manuscript material. “Sometime think of me,” reminds us to recall and explore Nantucket’s less familiar, but no less remarkable lives—the lives of the island’s representative women.
“Sometimes think of me”: Notable Nantucket Women through the Centuries will feature thirty-two individuals whose lives are the subjects of “embroidered narratives” by Nantucket needlework artist Susan Boardman. In the great tradition of historic Nantucket schoolgirl samplers, as well as the legacy of whaling illustrations in logbooks and journals, Boardman’s embroidered narratives have grown to encompass a history-in-brief of the women of Nantucket from the earliest Native American period to contemporary times. Her work covers the lives of some of the most exemplary Nantucket women, whose spirit of independence, resourcefulness, and ambition, often in the face of their husbands’ long absences at sea, have made them much admired in American history. Astronomer Maria Mitchell said of her island sisters, “There is no town in New England where the whole body of women is so well-educated.”
A major feature of the exhibition will be an accompanying book-length catalog, written by island historian and NHA Research Fellow Betsy Tyler. The catalog will fill a major gap in the Nantucket literature as an accessible, thoroughly-researched history of a broad range of outstanding island women, past and present.
Other features of the exhibition and related programming will include voice-over readings of selected passages from the journals, logs, and letters of the women featured in the exhibition presented with still images on the Foulger projections screen; a lecture by Betsy Tyler presenting the history of the women in the show (summer); the Friends of the NHA lecturer be Sena Jeter Naslund, author of Ahab’s Wife.
Susan Boardman's embroidered narratives can be viewed in exquisite detail on her website at www.susanboardman.com.
Visions of Her: Portrait Photography by Nantucket Youth
May 28 to November 8, 2010, Candle Factory
Visions of Her: Portrait Photography by Nantucket Youth features modern portraits of Nantucket women captured by teens from the Nantucket Boys & Girls Club and Nantucket High School. The photographs showcase the essence of women the young photographers admire, as well as the island itself. Bonus film interviews offer a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creative spirit of the project.
Visit the digital exhibit.
The NHA offers this fresh, contemporary mix as part of its ”Year of the Nantucket Woman” offerings, which include the two seasonal exhibitions: A Passion for People: 40 Years of Nantucket Portrait Photography by Beverly Hall (opens April 22) and “Sometimes think of me”: Notable Nantucket Women through the Centuries (opens July 2).
A Passion for People: 40 Years of Nantucket Portrait Photography by Beverly Hall
Whitney Gallery in the Research Library, April 22 – December 31, 2010
A Passion for People will showcase photographer Beverly Hall’s outstanding eye for portraiture through four decades of Nantucket history. The retrospective will open a window into the remarkable changes that have occurred on Nantucket in the last four decades, and the evolution and resilience of the individuals and families who have lived through those times. To present the full scope of Hall’s work, the exhibition will feature several hundred images on multiple presentation screens in addition to traditionally framed images. Organized by categories, the screens will allow visitors to enjoy individual topics, such as “Characters,” presenting her remarkable images of Madaket Millie and Mr. Rogers, or “Artists,” highlighting the gallery scene on South Wharf in the 1970s and beyond. Hall’s work captures an important chapter in Nantucket’s postwar history, a time which it is increasingly important to record and showcase as part of Nantucket’s modern history. The exhibition will be accompanied by a Brown Bag lecture by Beverly Hall; and a series of gallery talks by the artist.
Visit www.beverlyhallphotography.net to see Beverly's photos and read about her philosophy.
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.
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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.
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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. 
