New transcription projects are now available on the NHA’s From the Page Account! Among the collections recently added are the Marshall-Pinkham-Farrier Family Papers.

The Marshall family of Nantucket, Mass., included teacher Helen Marshall (1851–1939); her father, whaling captain Joseph Marshall (1811–1879); and his second wife and Helen’s mother, Malvina Pinkham Marshall (1820–1885). The Pinkham family of Nantucket, Mass., included whaling captain Seth Pinkham (1786–1844), his wife Mary Brown (1791–1874), and their seven children including Malvina Pinkham Marshall. Helen Locke, a granddaughter of Seth and Mary Brown Pinkham, married Robert Edward Farrier of New Rochelle, N.Y., in April 1892 and they had six children.

This collection contains correspondence between various members of the Marshall, Pinkham, Locke, and Farrier families. Subjects include detailed accounts of daily occurrences, events, and Nantucket gossip. Some letters also contain detailed descriptions of home furnishings, including the furniture, carpets, fabrics used, and room arrangements.

Grab your tablet or laptop and join us at the Whaling Museum on Saturday, March 11 from 9 to 11 am for the first NHA Transcribe-a-thon! You’ll learn how to join the NHA Volunteer Transcription Program, get tips and guidelines for interpreting historic handwriting, and have the opportunity to practice transcribing with others. We will also have family-friendly calligraphy activities, as well as a show and tell of a number of projects with our Research Library team for visitors to view in person. This program will be FREE for all. ...

It’s time for another Mindful History-inspired share today to help guide us all to see, think, and connect!

* What do you see?

* What do you think it feels like to be in this room?

Join us & discover your personal connection to art & history through a variety of Museum-based experiences starting this February. Experiences will include participant-based conversation and reflection using the Whaling Museum collections, yoga and meditation, and free-flow Decorative Arts.

The Visitor Operations team is excited to launch this new program, which invites interpersonal connection through art. Participants are guided through a multi-step process to See, Think, Connect, and Uncover their relationships to various pieces in our collection. It is an exciting way to explore Nantucket’s history, and our museum guides are eager to share this new museum experience.

Learn more and register for one of our Mindful History programs, now available for registration on NHA.org!

The Tupancy-Harris Foundation generously supports this program.

The program is in partnership with @fairwindsnantucket

Portrait: Judith Folger Gardner Macy (1729-1819) by W. Ferdinand Macy, 1878. Macy painted this likeness of his great-great-grandmother in 1878, copying an original by his grandmother, Hannah (Mitchell) Macy, which was dated December 15, 1818. Bequest of Susan Wilson Folger, 1905.28.1. ...

Exciting news! We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of the painting Cranberry Pickers by Eastman Johnson.

Cranberry Pickers depicts a woman and man harvesting cranberries on Nantucket’s north shore. Painted around 1877, it is one of approximately twenty works Johnson created in preparation for his masterpiece Cranberry Harvest, Island of Nantucket (1880), which is now in the collection of the Timken Museum in San Diego.

Eastman Johnson (1824–1906) is the primary artist of national importance associated with Nantucket in the late nineteenth century. He and his wife began summering on the island in 1870 and returned annually through 1890, residing from 1871 onward at a property he purchased on what is now Cliff Road. The artist’s island sojourns inspired some of his most enduring works as a major genre painter, portraitist, and chronicler of American life.

This painting of cranberry pickers is extremely unusual because it is both a study and a stand-alone work that, in its specificity and beauty, surpasses all the other images Johnson produced related to his final Cranberry Harvest painting. Last exhibited publicly over thirty years ago, the painting was feared lost until recently. With most of Johnson’s best works already in museum collections, this rediscovered painting presented a rare chance for the NHA to secure one of Johnson’s finest depictions of Nantucket for the people of Nantucket. The painting will go on view this summer at the Whaling Museum and will be featured in an exhibition of Eastman Johnson and Winslow Homer paintings of women coming to the NHA in 2025.

This acquisition was made possible thanks to an outpouring of generous support from numerous private donors, NHA board members, and the Friends of the NHA. ...

Sometimes its just a grey Nantucket day!

Pictured here is a small boathouse on Washington Street, circa 1930s. In the distance in the left corner, you can see Brant Point Lighthouse.

Gift of Mr. & Mrs. Donald Harris, PH47-2-10. ...

New transcription projects are now available- link in our story to explore!

Among the collections recently added are the journals and letter books of Obed Macy (1762–1844). Macy was a Nantucket Quaker merchant and writer whose long and varied career included work as a whaleman, shoemaker, blacksmith, and farmer. He and his brother Silvanus manufactured soap and spermaceti candles, and served as shipping agents and ship owners. In 1835, he published "The History of Nantucket," a book Herman Melville later used as a guide while writing "Moby Dick".

An inveterate and eclectic observer, he wrote six volumes of personal journals between 1799 and 1855. These capture daily details of island life, as well personal opinions on national and international events. The NHA also holds Macy's letterbooks, containing business correspondence with merchants in Boston, Providence, New York, and Philadelphia, as well as personal letters regarding “The History of Nantucket,” antislavery sentiments, and political opinions.

NEW PROGRAM ALERT! 💻📝Grab your tablet or laptop and join us at the Whaling Museum on Saturday, March 11 from 9 to 11 a.m. for a Transcribe-a-thon!

You’ll learn how to join the NHA Volunteer Transcription Program, get tips and guidelines for interpreting historic handwriting, and have the opportunity to practice transcribing with others. Stay tuned for more details and projects to come! ...