Guide to the Julie Beinecke Stackpole Collection on Mary Ann Beinecke, 1961-2018

Collection Details

Collection Number:

MS549

Title:

Julie Beinecke Stackpole Collection on Mary Ann Beinecke

Date(s):

1961-2018

Creator:

Stackpole, Julie Beinecke

Repository:

Nantucket Historical Association

Language:

Material is in English.

Information for Users

Restrictions to Access: No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use: No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice: Copyright is retained by the authors of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation: [identification of item], in the Julie Beinecke Stackpole Collection on Mary Ann Beinecke, Nantucket Historical Association.

Acquisitions Information:

Gift of Julie Beinecke Stackpole of Thomaston, Me., in May 2018 (Acc. RL2018.6).

Sensitive Materials Statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual’s private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the Nantucket Historical Association assumes no responsibility.

Related Collections

• MS448 Walter Beinecke Jr. Business Papers, Nantucket Historical Association
• MS539 Nantucket Needlery Collection, Nantucket Historical Association
• MS550 Mary Ann Beinecke Papers, Nantucket Historical Association
• Mary Ann Beinecke Collection of Decorative Art, The Clark Art Institute

Subject Headings

• Personal Name
  • Beinecke, Mary Ann.
  • Beinecke, Walter, Jr., 1918-2004.
  • Stackpole, Julie B. (Julie Beinecke).
• Corporate Name
  • Jared Coffin House (Nantucket, Mass.).
  • Nantucket School of Needlery.
• Topical Term
  • Businesses—Massachusetts—Nantucket—20th century.
  • Needlework.
  • Textile crafts.

Biographical Information

Mary Ann Beinecke (1927-2014) was born in Manitowoc, Wis., to Julius E. and Olive (née Blumenstein) Hamachek. She studied art and botany at both UCLA and Connecticut College, leaving school in 1947 to marry Herbert H. Hinrichs, with whom she had four children, including collection creator Julie Beinecke Stackpole. The couple divorced in 1959, and Mary Ann married Walter Beinecke Jr. in 1960.

Walter’s interest in the restoration of Nantucket architecture—primarily through the Nantucket Historical Trust—soon became Mary Ann’s as well. During the Trust’s restoration of the Jared Coffin House Hotel started in 1961, she sought to support the year-round economy of the island by developing craft businesses of weaving and embroidery. Her efforts gave way to the Nantucket Looms and the Nantucket Needlewomen, both of which created textiles used in the Jared Coffin House.

The Looms continued to grow after the opening of the hotel in 1963, creating custom historic and modern textiles marketed by Thaibok Fabrics in New York. In 1965, silkscreen-printed fabric was added to the Loom’s woven and embroidered textiles and the Cloth Company of Nantucket was created (disbanded in 1968).

Mary Ann Beinecke later founded the Nantucket School of Needlery, originally located on Harbour Square on Straight Wharf and at 2 India Street in 1968. In addition to offering summer courses on Island, taught by the Nantucket Needlewomen, the School hosted international guest experts in many aspects of needlework and design. She developed a line of embroidery yarns and hard-to-find needlework supplies. In addition to teaching summer courses on island, she created a booklet on embroidery stitches, published a book on needlepoint, and collected rare books on textiles (now at the Clark Institute in Williamstown, Mass.). In 1969, the School introduced Beinecke’s Home-Study Extension Course, offering thirty-five lessons critiqued by the Needlewomen that could be completed over approximately three years for a certificate. Beinecke also developed several lines of embroidery yarns and hard-to-find needlework supplies. The School later moved to North Adams, Mass., in 1975, becoming part of Mary Ann’s new business, Textile Studios.

Upon her separation from Walter Beinecke in 1982, Mary Ann Beinecke resided in western Massachusetts and Maine while Walter stayed on Nantucket. She died on November 24, 2014, in Waldoboro, Me.

Julie Ann Hinrichs Beinecke Stackpole was born to Herbert H. Hinrichs and Mary Ann Hinrichs, later Beinecke. She received a bachelor’s degree in medieval and children’s literature from Kirkland College and studied bookbinding in Vermont, Switzerland and England. In 1975, she established an independent bindery on Nantucket, Mass., later moving to Maine in 1985. Stackpole is also a period costume historian, recreator, and writer/illustrator of a book on American costume, 1775-1805. Julie and her husband, Renny Stackpole (former curator of the Nantucket Historical Association), have made many gifts of objects and archival works over the years. The Julie Beinecke Stackpole Collection on Mary Ann Beinecke is the direct result of Julie’s desire to chronicle her mother’s life and role in the craft revival on Nantucket, Mass.

Scope and Content

The Julie Beinecke Stackpole Collection on Mary Ann Beinecke includes articles, documents, news clippings and photographs about Mary Ann Beinecke, the Nantucket Looms, and the Nantucket School of Needlery. There are also materials on Walter Beinecke, Jr. and on Nantucket, Mass., in general. Also contains Julie Beinecke Stackpole’s manuscript on Mary Ann Beinecke’s textile work on the island.

Julie Beinecke Stackpole’s original folder titles have been retained in their original order.

Additional Descriptive Resources: Donor has provided item level list of collection materials.

Contents

• Box 1 Folder 1 Mary Ann Beinecke, 1961-2016
  Contains articles on Mary Ann Beinecke, her resume, and letter from John Wulp to Julie Stackpole.
• OP-549/1 Mary Ann Beinecke, July 1968
• Box 1 Folder 2 Mary Ann Beinecke: Development of yarns, circa 1990, undated
• Box 1 Folder 3-4 Nantucket, hotels, people: Nantucket, 1964-2016, undated
• OP-549/2 Nantucket, hotels, people: Nantucket, 1965-2016
• Box 1 Folder 5 Nantucket, hotels, people: Jared Coffin House, 1961-1967
• OP-549/3 Nantucket, hotels, people: Jared Coffin House, January 1964
• Box 1 Folder 6 Nantucket, hotels, people: White Elephant and Harbor
  House, 1963-1964, undated
• Box 1 Folder 7 Nantucket, hotels, people: Obituaries, 2004-2014
  Contains obituaries for Walter Beinecke, Jr., Mary Anne Beinecke and Clarence “Bud” Gifford.
• OP-549/4 Nantucket, hotels, people: Obituaries, 2004-2014
• Box 1 Folder 8 Nantucket, hotels, people: Walter Beinecke, Jr., 1968-2016
• OP-549/5 Nantucket, hotels, people: Walter Beinecke, Jr., 1968, 1986
• OP-549/6 Nantucket, hotels, people: LIFE Magazine photographs, 6 September 1968
  Original black and white photographs from LIFE Magazine photoshoot.
• Box 1 Folder 9 Nantucket, hotels, people: Nantucket Historical Trust, 1961-2004
• Box 1 Folder 10 Looms, Cloth Company: Photographs 1964-1968, undated
• Box 1 Folder 11 Looms, Cloth Company: Nantucket Looms, 1963-1971
• Box 1 Folder 12 Looms, Cloth Company: “Handweaving is Back”, April 1965
  Contains clippings of “Handweaving is Back” articles.
• Box 1 Folder 13 Looms, Cloth Company: The Cloth Company of Nantucket, 1966-1968
• Box 1 Folder 14 Looms, Cloth Company: Home Furnishings Daily, 25 August 1967
• OP-549/7 Looms, Cloth Company: Home Furnishings Daily (original), 25 August 1967
• Box 1 Folder 15 Looms, Cloth Company: Store in New York, 1967
• Box 1 Folder 16 Looms, Cloth Company: Andy Oates, Margareta Grandin Nettles, Hans Krondahl, Tilletts, et al., 1968-2012, undated
• Box 2 Folder 17 Needlery: Nantucket Needlewomen and Nantucket Needlery, 1961-1969
• Box 2 Folder 18 Needlery: Nantucket Needlewomen and Nantucket Needlery, 1961-1969
• Box 2 Folder 19 Needlery: Preliminary report on potential for Nantucket Needlery project, 10 May 1966
• Box 2 Folder 20 Needlery: Photographs of Nantucket Needlewomen and Nantucket Needlery, 1965, undated
• Box 2 Folder 21 School of Needlery: Mary Ann Beinecke’s folder of miscellaneous things regarding School of Needlery, undated
  Contains brochures, notes, letters, pamphlets and photographs.
• Box 2 Folder 22 School of Needlery, 1968, undated
  Contains articles from display about Needlery on Nantucket.
• Box 2 Folder 23 School of Needlery: Photographs, 1968, undated
• Box 2 Folder 24 North Adams, etc.: Textile studios, 1975-1989, undated
  Contains articles, legal documents, letters and loan agreements.
• Box 2 Folder 25North Adams, etc.: Hoosuk, Massachussetts commissions, 1978, undated
• Box 2 Folder 26 North Adams, etc.: North Adams, Williamstown and Maine, 1973-1993
• Box 2 Folder 27 Cape Cod Life, Issue No. 2, Summer 1984
  Features image on Mary Ann Beinecke on cover.
• Box 2 Folder 28 Mary Ann Beinecke’s Nantucket Textile Renaissance, a History and a Memoir, by her daughter, 2018
  Contains copy of Julie Beinecke Stackpole’s manuscript and USB flash drive.
• OP-549/8 Photograph taken on Salem Street, 23 October 1966

Items Separated

• Oversize Paper Items (OP-549/1-8)

Processing Information

Processed by Sarah Lerner, September 2018.

Finding aid by Sarah Lerner and Amelia Holmes, October 2018.