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In This Issue
Collections & Library News
Food for Thought Brown Bags
Summer Internship in Education
Explorations Alaska!
Quick Links
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Still Shopping for Gifts?
 
1800 House Classes
sailors valentine
For those who enjoy early American arts and crafts, consider giving a gift certificate in any amount that can be applied to the recipient's choice of a hands-on class during the 2010 season at the NHA's 1800 House. Please call 508-228-1894, ext. 128, or 508-228-7785 for additional information. Click here to view some of the work produced by students
 
Museum Shop
 
The NHA Museum Shop is closed for the season, but purchases can still be made online.
 
Membership in the NHA
 
A one-year membership is the perfect holiday, birthday, hostess, or anniversary gift that will provide unlimited admission to the Whaling Museum, Old Mill, Quaker Meeting House, Oldest House, and Hadwen House; free use of the NHA Research Library; subscription to Historic Nantucket; 10% discount at the Museum Shop; and invitations to special events, concerts, and lectures. Please call Beth Moyer at 508-228-1894, ext. 116, for additional membership information, or go to our Web site.
 
 
Hours & Information
The Whaling Museum will be closed January 5 - February 12, and then will reopen February 13 - April 18, Saturday and Sunday, 11 A.M. - 4 P.M. 
 
NHA Historic Sites 
Hadwen House, Oldest House, Old Mill, Old Gaol
Closed for season
 
Quaker Meeting House
Open During Research Library Hours 
 
 
NHA Research Library
7 Fair Street 
Open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. Closed Wednesdays, and weekends
 

It's NOT too early to begin planning your 2010 party in the Whaling Museum
Celebrate amidst the festively decorated trees and Nantucket treasures placed throughout the Whaling Museum, a wonderful location for holiday parties, weddings, cocktail parties, and corporate events. 
 
Surround your guests with elegant art and important objects that bring the story of Nantucket's past to life at our world-class museum. 
 
Call Susan Beaumont for details at 508-228-1894, ext. 131, or visit our Web site for more information 
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NHA E-Newsletter  January 2010
A Message from the Executive Director
bill tramposchFor those of you away from our faraway shores, our year ended with the most brilliant blizzard: swirling snow, bracing winds from the Northeast, and some ice thrown in to memorialize and laminate it for the next week.  The morning after, Main Street was busy with local shoppers, but it appeared that they were shopping for something money could never buy: a view of our historic road coated with a heavy pre-winter snow - this place seemed entirely different than it did the day before!  Who needs to travel?
So, winter has now officially begun, and we at the Nantucket Historical Association are finishing our year - very thankful for the legacy that has been handed down to us by those who more than 115 years ago believed that there was a lot here worth preserving, researching, and telling the world about.  We are thankful, too, for all of you who follow our progress, who support our work, and who share the ethic of the founders of the NHA.
 
In their words, from 1894: 
It is most desirable to secure all possible material relating to old Nantucket, and members are earnestly requested not only to give donations of money, but to make an active search for all sorts of relics, particularly manuscripts, before it is too late and these valuable mementoes are carried away from the island as trophies, or [their words!] by progressive housewives 'cast as rubbish to the void'. 
 
We wish you all the best for the New Year! 
 
Bill Tramposch
Collections & Library News
Upcoming Exhibitions
Our 2010 exhibition schedule is lining up to be very exciting. Planned for this year:
 
Gift of the Whale: The Inupiat Bowhead Hunt, A Sacred Tradition
Peter Foulger Gallery in the Whaling Museum, March 27 - June 10, 2010

A Passion for People: 40 Years of Nantucket Portrait Photography by Beverly Hall
Whitney Gallery in the Research Library, April 22 - December 31, 2010   

"Sometime think of me": Notable Nantucket Women through the Centuries
Embroidered Narratives by Susan Boardman with biographies by Betsy Tyler
Peter Foulger Gallery, Whaling Museum,
July 1 - November 8, 2010
 
 
Digital Exhibitions, Databases, Historical Articles & Oral Histories Available Online
Although the Whaling Museum and the Historic Sites are currently closed, remember we have an increasing amount of material available on our Web site, year-round, free of charge.
 
Our digital exhibitions provide a record of our physical exhibitions and also feature spotlights of materials in our collections.
 
Our databases allow searching of our photograph, artifact, and manuscript collections.
 
Articles from published issues of Historic Nantucket and its predecessor, Proceedings of the Nantucket Historical Association, are increasingly being made available online.
Food for Thought Brown Bag Lunch Series
Resumes February 4
Because the Museum will be closed during the month of January, this popular program will resume in February with a theme of Transportation (Planes, Trains, and Whaleships).
 
The February 4th Brown Bag will feature Matthew Stackpole, who is directing Mystic Seaport's restoration of the Charles W. Morgan, the only surviving American whaling vessel.
 
The Food for Thought programs are supported by a grant from the M. S. Worthington Foundation.  Each talk begins at noon and is free to the public. For additional information about the series, please call 508-228-1894, ext. 0, or visit www.nha.org to view the full schedule.
Summer Internship in Education
Applications Welcome
The Nantucket Historical Association is seeking museum education interns to facilitate its wide array of summer programming, both in the museum's Discovery Room and at its historic sites. The Education Interns work in a team based, collaborative environment, reporting to the NHA education department. In past years, projects have included the creation of new activities for the Whaling Museum's Discovery Room, research projects, and improvements to the children's library. To learn more about the program, click here.
 
Explorations Alaska!
Gold Rush Inside Passage Cruise
May 27 - June 6, 2010
Explore one of the world's most spectacular destinations imaginable with Cruise West, a small family-owned, small-ship cruise line voted among the world's top lines by readers of Cond� Nast Traveler, and consistent award winner for Best Small Ship and Expedition Cruising.  The 138-guest Spirit of Yorktown, staffed by exploration leaders with many years of experience as naturalists and educators, will be your home for this exciting 11-day, 10-night adventure.
 

 
Trip includes:
  • Seattle
  • San Juan Islands
  • Friday Harbor
  • Strait of Georgia
  • Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
  • Frederick Sound
  • Tracy Arm Fjord and Sawyer Glacier
  • Sitka
  • Petersburg
  • Skagway
  • White Pass and Yukon Railroad 
 
Nina and Bob Hellman of Nantucket will be your hosts on this adventure, throughout which you will enjoy the services of the cruise line's accommodating staff and Exploration Leaders as well as Park Service Rangers and Native Cultural Interpreters.  Believing that smaller is better, and making connections up-close and casual, Cruise West passengers are the recipients of friendly, personal attention. Each day offers the opportunity for a shore excursion at no additional cost.  Bob Hellman will offer a special on-board lecture about the relationship between Alaska and the Far North and Nantucket and New England, during the era of American whaling. 
 
Don't miss your chance to experience Alaska. Small-ship cruises book quickly, so save your place soon.