Previous Exhibitions
Spring 2008
In Search of Giant Squid!
A Traveling Exhibition
of the Smithsonian Institution
Peter Foulger Gallery in the Whaling Museum
In February 2008, the NHA will host its first traveling exhibition: In Search of Giant Squid. The giant squid, known as Architeuthis, is one of the ocean’s most elusive, mysterious, and mythologized creatures. It grew to fame as the sperm whale’s greatest rival―and its favorite meal. The NHA will present a Giant Squid Festival on Saturday March 8, 2008, featuring the world’s most renowned squid expert, Dr. Clyde Roper, as well as multiple family and children’s activities. The exhibition is supported, in part, by the Egan Maritime Foundation
and Novation Media.
In Search of Giant Squid has been developed by the National Museum of Natural History and the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES) in partnership with the Discovery Channel. This exhibition is made possible by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Summer 2007
Paintings of Rebecca Coffin
Whitney Gallery, 7 Fair Street
Elizabeth Rebecca Coffin (1850−1930) was born of Nantucket Quaker parentage in Brooklyn, New York. She studied at Vassar College, The Hague Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Students League in New York, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, in addition to traveling extensively in Europe and California. She was a pupil of Thomas Eakins, whose striking portrait of the artist is on display here. Beginning in the 1880s, Coffin began to summer regularly on Nantucket, painting brilliant genre scenes and portraits that capture the quaint and fading way of life of post-whaling Nantucket. After moving to Nantucket permanently in 1900, her artistic output declined, and she began to devote her energies to reviving instruction in handicrafts at the Coffin School. An eighth-generation descendant of original Nantucket settlers Tristram and Dionis Coffin, the artist returned to the island of her ancestors, leaving a legacy of outstanding paintings and devoted public service.
Summer-Fall 2007
Landmarks of Nantucket!
Whaling Museum
Over thirty Nantucket sixth, seventh and eighth graders participated in the NHA’s first student-curated photographic exhibition. Landmarks of Nantucket! showcases what the students consider to be their cherished Nantucket landmarks. This collaborative exhibition was organized by the NHA, Nantucket Preservation Trust and Sustainable Nantucket.
Click here to visit the digital exhibition
Summer-Fall 2007
The Nantucket Art Colony, 1920 – 1945
Peter Foulger Gallery, Whaling Museum
Featured the work of the group of painters and teachers who came to Nantucket and formed the “paradise and dream come true” for artists that became the Nantucket Art Colony. They worked from artists’ studios and gallery spaces created from the relics of Nantucket’s long-vanished whaling past – the cluster of shacks, shanties, boathouses, and old buildings that lay soaking in the sea air along Nantucket’s waterfront.
Click here to see a digital version of this exhibition.
Spring 2007
Recent Acquisitions
Peter Foulger Gallery, Whaling Museum
A selection of new accessions donated to the NHA permanent collection, many of which were received during the 2006 season. Items range from an elegant mahogany tilt-top Nantucket candlestand attributed to Heman Ellis (1770-1816), to four large original watercolor whale murals painted by local artist C. Robert Perrin, to a surfboard from the island’s 1960s hippie era.
The Friends of The Nantucket Historical Association, a nonprofit group of collectors founded in 1986 to help purchase and preserve Nantucket art, artifacts, and manuscripts, have also donated many remarkable items to the NHA collections over the past fifteen years.
Spring 2007
Nantucket Nightmares
Whitney Gallery at 7 Fair Street
Richard C. Maloney was a teacher who retired to Nantucket in 1970, and began creating a series of editorial cartoons that appeared in the Inquirer and Mirror under the signature “Atropos” (one of the three sister Fates in Greek mythology). His cartoons provided satirical social commentary on Nantucket’s burgeoning development issues, from housing, to automobiles, to new buildings, to tourism. Many of his cartoons still have a strong resonance today, with the island still facing the difficulties that were beginning to appear in the early 1970s. The collection of original Maloney drawings and clippings included in the exhibition was generously donated by the artist’s granddaughter Catherine Maloney.
See a digital version of this exhibition.
Autumn 2006
Andrea Doria: 50th Anniversary
Overlook in the Whaling Museum
Commemorating the collision of the Italian luxury liner and the Swedish ship Stockholm, due south of Nantucket, the exhibition included articles from the disaster scene, including a life vest and suitcase. Artifacts from the Gifford family, Nantucket residents who were traveling aboard the Andrea Doria when the collision occurred, were also displayed.
June-December 2006
Susan
Boardman's
Whitney Gallery at 7 Fair Street
Embroidered Narratives of
Notable Nantucket Women
The Nantucket
Historical Association has been proud to host two exhibitions
of artwork by Susan Boardman. The first was on display June-October
2002, and the second was displayed June-December 2006, both in
the Whitney Gallery of the NHA Research Library, 7 Fair Street.
Digital exhibitions based on these displays are available here.
Summer 2006
Signs
of the Times: Nantucket Signs
Peter Foulger Gallery in the Whaling Museum
An
exhibition of nearly one hundred Nantucket
business signs representing an encapsulated
history of life on Nantucket, from the late
nineteenth up to the late twentieth century,
includes some of the most recognizable and
fondly remembered establishments: The old
Downyflake, the North Shore Restaurant, Andy's
Diner, the Gordon Folger Hotel, Tavern on
the Moors, Straight Wharf Theatre, Northeast
Airlines, and numerous others. The collection
was a gift from Mrs. Florence E. Clifford
and her children-Debbi Deeley Culbertson,
Dusty Deeley Ramos, and J. Drew Deeley.
"The nostalgia evoked by 125 years of signage, viewed together in one location, will certainly touch many who recall these great signs and the old businesses they represent," said Niles Parker, Interim Executive Director and Robyn and John Davis Curator. "We are very grateful to Mrs. Clifford and her family for this wonderful contribution to the preservation of Nantucket history."
See a digital version of this exhibition.
