Mindful History
Museum-based experience focusing on connecting participants with exhibits.
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The NHA has recently acquired a log book from the ship Henry Astor. The Henry Astor was built as a merchant ship in New York in 1820. It made two whaling voyages to the Pacific from Hudson, New York, under Captain Charles Rawson between 1831 and 1839 before undertaking two more from Nantucket between 1840 and 1848 under captains Seth Pinkham and Thomas M. Coffin.
The ship then carried the members of the Henry Astor Mining Company and the Sherburne Mining Company from Nantucket to the California gold fields in 1849. It was subsequently sold to Panamanian owners. The current logbook documents the 1831–35 voyage from Hudson and was written by first mate Reuben F. Starbuck of Nantucket. This voyage was particularly successful, harvesting 2,200 barrels of sperm oil; the log contains many drawings of whales and whale tails, indicating successful and failed hunts. By coincidence, the NHA already holds a scrimshaw whale tooth bearing a portrait of the Henry Astor that was engraved by the very same Reuben Starbuck during this voyage.
The logbook is a gift of Peggy Coyle; an ancestor of hers purchased the book for $1.00 on a summer visit to Nantucket in 1889.
Henry Astor Ship Log. MS220 Log 424. (Acc. RL2022.31).
Scrimshaw tooth, Gift of the H.L. Brown Jr. Family Foundation in memory of Lucy Fowlkes Breed and her love for Nantucket, 2019.1.1.
Celebrating Women’s History Month, today we highlight one of the island’s notable female artists. Emily Hoffmeier (1888-1952) spent summers on Nantucket, painting in the waterfront studios—first Harborview No. 3 and later moving to the Red Anchor Studio on Washington Street. She exhibited in the Easy Street Gallery, the Candle House Studio, and later at the Kenneth Taylor Galleries.
After the death of Maud Stumm in 1935, Hoffmeier took over the direction of the annual Sidewalk Art Show, which she ran for the next eighteen years “with untiring cheerfulness and unflagging interest.” She was one of the founding members of the Artists Association of Nantucket and served on its first executive committee.
A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Hoffmeier taught art classes at the college for several years. From 1917 to 1951 she was a teacher at West Chester High School in Pennsylvania, where she headed the mathematics department. In addition to enrolling in the plein air classes of Frank Swift Chase on Nantucket, Hoffmeier studied off-island some summers with Henry B. Snell in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and Hugh Breckenridge in Gloucester, Massachusetts. She also exhibited in her home state of Maryland and in Pennsylvania.
Her fine Nantucket landscapes, wharf scenes, and views of historic buildings make up the body of her island work. She lived with her sister, Helen Hoffmeier, on Washington Street and off-season in Hagerstown, Maryland.
Painting: The Whaling Museum, Emily Hoffmeier, 1938. NHA Purchase, 1987.170.1.
We are excited to announce we will open a new featured exhibition, Summer on Nantucket: A History of the Island Resort, at the Whaling Museum this season! Containing more than 200 artifacts from the NHA’s collection, the exhibit 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.
Visitors will be invited to explore iconic impressions of Nantucket summer through paintings, trade signs, souvenirs, and more. As well as exploring the most important questions a resort town faces, “what to do, where to eat, and where to stay.” The exhibit will then dive into how “It’s Not All Roses” by recognizing the hard work of seasonal employees and year-round residents throughout the history of the island’s transformation, with many downsides to its popularity from one hundred years ago still existing today.
Summer on Nantucket: A History of the Island Resort will open at the Whaling Museum for a special member preview on Thursday, May 25, and to the public on Friday, May 26. The exhibition will run through November 2023.
Photo: Steamship rounding Brant Point, August 1949. Gift of Elizabeth Caldwell, P17928.
Celebrating Women’s History Month!
Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford (1829-1921) was a Nantucket-born Quaker, minister, author, poet, writer, abolitionist, temperance reformer, and champion of women’s rights.
She was also an active member of a variety of women’s social reform, literary, philosophical, and scientific organizations. This collection of pins belonged to Hanaford and includes examples from the Women Suffrage Association, the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, the New York Women’s Press Club, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Phalo Club, Philit Scipoma, the Political Study Club, the New Century Study Circle, the New York Society of the Daughters of 1812, and the Woman’s Congress at the 1896 Cuban-American Fair.
Top (L to R): Pin of Society of Political Study, Philit Scipoma Pin, New York Women’s Press Club Pin.
Middle (L to R): Phalo Club Pin, American Association of Advancement of Science Pin, Women’s Congress for Industry and Patriotism Pin.
Bottom: Women’s Suffrage Association Pin, White Ribbon – Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, General Federation of Women’s Club Pin.
Photo 2: Phebe Hanaford, circa 1867, CDV15556.
Aerial view of Brant Point, showing the lighthouse, observation tower, Coast Guard Station, and neighboring houses in 1949.
Photo SC587-10.
It’s time for another Mindful History-inspired share today to help guide us all to see, think, connect, and uncover!
▫️What do you see?
▫️What does the visual suggest to you?
▫️What catches your eye?
Join us & discover your personal connection to art & history through a variety of Museum-based experiences, including participant-based conversation and reflection using the Whaling Museum collections, yoga and meditation, and free-flow Decorative Arts. Sessions this week include:
▫️Saturday, March 25, from 9-10 am, Connecting Through Art at the Whaling Museum (FREE)
▫️Saturday, March 25, from 10:30-11:30 am, Yoga with Chip Davis at Greater Light ($20 fee)
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
Painting: Portrait of Charles Myrick, 1879. Eastman Johnson (1824-1906). Gift of Mr. F.S. Church, 1895.14.1.
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