Nantucketers developed the island’s first amenities for tourists in the late 1840s. In the late 1860s, they began concerted efforts to advertise Nantucket as an ideal “watering place.” A rush of hotel building and land speculation followed in the 1870s and 1880s, setting in motion an economy based on real estate sales, land development, and construction. Today, nearly all of the island’s economic activity, including house sales, building, landscaping, and hospitality services—even fishing for the bay scallop—is driven by the needs and demands of the summer resort.

Learn more about the island`s resort economy in the NHA`s exhibition Summer on Nantucket: A History of the Island Resort at the Whaling Museum, at 13 Broad Street, open daily, 10am–5pm.

Image Credits:
Waiting at Steamboat Wharf, ca. 1928
Courtesy of Joan Wilson Godeau and Vivian Wilson Richardson, SC642-14-5 ...

It may be the last day of summer, but the season lives on in our featured exhibition, Summer on Nantucket: A History of the Island Resort. See it now through November 1 at the Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street, open daily, 10am–5pm.

Containing more than 200 artifacts from the NHA collection, this exhibition tells the story of Nantucket as a summer destination, from the opening of the first tourist hotels in the 1840s to the multi-billion-dollar real-estate, construction, and rental economy of today.

The exhibit begins with “Impressions of Summer,” a feast of paintings, trade signs, souvenirs, and other items capturing the flavor of Nantucket in high season. “The Resort Economy” traces the island’s transition from a whaling port to a vacation spot. “Must See, Must Do” explores beach and water recreation, entertainment and dining, and changing tourist activities across more than a century. “Where to Stay?” demonstrates how summer-home options have changed as more of the island has been developed. “Who’s Here?” features new acquisitions from the NHA’s costume and textile collections showing island summer fashions.

“It’s Not All Roses” recognizes the hard work seasonal employees and year-round residents put into making summer happen for everyone and explores some of the downsides to the island’s popularity and success: crowding, traffic, housing insecurity, and economic inequality. The exhibit concludes with “Winter,” a look at the continuation of island life after the crowds depart. ...

The baskets pictured here are the work of Rowland Folger (1803–1883), the earliest identified maker of what we now call lightship baskets.

Folger was a shopkeeper and does not appear to have gone to sea. The earliest surviving examples of his work may date from the 1840s—well before crewmen on the South Shoal lightship began weaving baskets at sea. While we do not know if Folger invented the form, his work indicates that it was already highly developed by the time they started being made aboard the lightship.

Check out our Nantucket Lightship Baskets exhibit at Hadwen House to see this basket on display. Open Mon–Sat, at 96 Main Street, 11am–4pm, through October 9.

Image Credit:
Nest of three baskets
Hardwood, cane
Gift of Samuel Shipley, A2012.2.1–.3 ...

On this day in Nantucket history, Rev. Louise Southard Baker died in 1896. Born in 1846, Baker was the only daughter of Arvin and Jerusha Baker. For many years the family lived in the James Easton House on Orange Street. A former teacher, Baker was engaged as the minister of the North Church (First Congregational Church) in 1880. After four years, the church found her ministry and preaching "most acceptable" and voted unanimously to grant her the right to administer the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord`s Supper, to admit members of the Church, and to perform all duties of the ministerial service. After her ordination, she refused several calls from other churches.

Louise Baker had a deep interest in literature. In 1893, she published a volume of her collected poems entitled "By the Sea". The majority of the poems are about Nantucket, and the book was illustrated by Alexander H. Seaverns. She also wrote a book of fiction, Eunice Hussey: A Nantucket Story, which was published, forty years after her death, by The Inquirer and Mirror. In a foreword by I&M editor Harry Turner, he said, "This book is published as a memorial to a woman who filled the pulpit of the First Congregational Church from 1880 to 1888, who contributed much, both in prose and poetry, to Nantucket literature, and who lived and died a woman of wonderful character, who kindly face and loving manner left its impression on all who knew her."

Edit: publication date corrected

Image Credit:
Reverent Louise Baker (portrait), January 1883
Glass plate negative, 4" x 5"
GPN1558 ...