mariasmemo

[mariasmemo]

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

April 12. {1858} We left Rome at about 8 ½ not with tearful eyes, as everyone told me I must, but with laugh and jest and a vetturino crowded full of trunks and bags and human beings . . .  the regret at leaving places is nothing compared to those of leaving people and Rome has been to me, more a home than any other place in Europe . . . .

Maria had spent her time in Italy with Nathaniel and Sophia Peabody Hawthorne and their children.  She was on her own – Prudence Swift having been called home due to her father’s bankruptcy.  Being with a family group likely opened even more doors to Maria – though they were all thrown open wide for America’s first woman astronomer – including the doors of the Vatican’s Observatory – the first woman to ever gain access (though only during the day!).  But you may agree with her about leaving a place that you have only visited – and the sadness of leaving behind those you have come to know over several months – but even the places that become a part of your daily life and routine while you are there.  I know I feel that way about places I visit.

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Nathaniel Hawthorne #Sophia Peabody Hawthorne #Vatican Observatory #Maria Mitchell in Rome

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Is That A Wrap?

Yes.  Well, almost.  After about a month of working – and some living (staff and or neighbors) – on Vestal Street with all the sewer and water replacement work, the paving happened today (April 17, 2024).  This is the first “layer” – a three-inch binder coat.  In the fall, once time has passed, they will return for the final one inch of the finish layer.  Some of the other things along Vestal Street will also be repaired and updated between now and the final coat – and a bit after that.  But we are very happy, after all these years to have a modern system of piping – and all new drainage we never had before!

While the curator in me loved the old clay pipes, they were riddled with roots from the trees, holes, and in some places, collapsed, and the twelve inches of asphalt had to go.  Vestal Street was only paved in about 1946/1948 – and has not been paved in maybe twenty years so that is a lot of asphalt in about fifty years!  And with climate change and the increase in how much rain we get in these heavy rain events, all that water rushed down Vestal Street with nowhere to go – except our cellars.  I am sure the neighbors are happy too!

A thank you to the Town of Nantucket’s Sewer Department, especially David Gray (who may regret giving me his cellphone number forever), N&M Excavating and Utilities (Dean, we appreciate you being so nice when we had too many questions), Victor-Brandon Corp for paving, and numerous others.  We are looking forward to great flushing, powerful hose lines, and rainwater being whisked away via the new, never-before-had storm drains!

JNLF

And to all the N&M workers who wondered why I was constantly looking down as I walked along Vestal Street, you should see the trove of porcelain shards, glass, old nails, a bottle neck, 19th century spoon, and even possibly a Wampanoag stone tool I found!

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Vestal Street #N&M Excavation #Town of Nantucket Sewer Department #Victor-Brandon Corp

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Vestal Street Updates

Vestal Street has seen a bevy of activity of late.  In January, we began the renovation of the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory’s (MMO) Seminar Room addition – as it has been referred to since it was built in 1987.  When it was created, the point was for it to serve as meeting, lecture, work space on three floors for the Astronomy Department – in particular the National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduate (NSF REU) interns we have each summer, visiting astronomers, and the astronomy staff.  Believe it or not, it was the first time the Observatory had a bathroom!  And, it connected to what we refer to as the Astronomer’s Cottage (ca. 1830 and purchased for the MMA in 1922) so that staff could move between the house and the Observatory without going outside – convenient!  

With a gift from board member and Mitchell family descendant, Richard Wolfe, we have been able to renovate this space, bringing it up to date and adding HVAC, an accessible bathroom and kitchenette, three office spaces, a seminar/meeting area, and space for intern workspaces.  Lighting and interiors are being improved as this is written and we hope to have the space ready by June 1, 2024.  A special thank you goes to John Wise, another Board member, who has been working with the MMA to make sure this renovation happens in a short timeframe.

The work here dovetails nicely with the conservation of the historic observatory to which the Seminar Room is connected.  The historic MMO, built in 1908 with a 1922 addition, has seen exterior conservation work over the last several years with support from the Community Preservation Act and the M. S. Worthington Foundation.  This fall, we will move inside with more grant funding which will allow us to conserve the historic interiors and install a proper HVAC system to protect the historic fabric and historic astronomical equipment and papers.  We will restore the floor in the Astronomical Study from 1922 – it’s hidden under wall-to-wall carpet and 1950s tile but it’s still there – and allow us to conserved the historic plaster and all of the original varnished woodwork.  Stay tuned on this project. 

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Vestal Street #historic observatory #Vestal Street Observatory #Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory #Community Preservation Act

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Tumbledown Fence

To me, Nantucket was always tumbledown fences.  Covered in lichens, worn with wind and salt spray – grooved even – and a deep grey.  Pieces broken, swinging in the wind as this broken one was with the fifty mph gusts.  Held together by vines – ivy or rambling climber vines, or honeysuckle. 

You do not see as many nowadays. This one is in town along a lane – possibly older than the house it wraps around as there was once a much older house there in the 1950s/1960s.  Taken down to make room for this one – in a not so kosher manner – but that’s a story for another day.

The lichens and mosses that grow on them, the vines that cover them, provide food and shade and coverage for a myriad of life – from the tiniest insects to small birds hiding from red-tailed hawks or even people and cats. 

Architecturally they speak of our past.  While this one is very simple and not as old as others, it hearkens to a time in which cars were fewer, the island was quieter, and life was simpler.  A fix was one picket not a whole fence.  And some of the much. much older fences make me think of Maria Mitchell and her day when there were a lot of fences too – but not to keep people out or to create a “privacy screen.”  They were there to keep animals in the yard – and more often to keep wandering animals OUT of the yard.

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #fences #historic fences #picket fences #wood fence

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Liking the Lichen

I have a thing for lichens and mosses.  For a curator, of a historic house museum and one who also does stone monument conservation, probably not something you would think but.  They are little microcosms of life full or all sorts of tiny things – and a small feast for birds looking for what they hold (insects).

I am not here to identify this for you.  I am here to have you appreciate its beauty.  This large and lovely piece I found at the Coffin School on Winter Street laying on the brick path just before the front portico.  To better appreciate it in a photograph, I put it up (temporarily) on one of the marble footings of the Coffin School’s columns.  It is a stunner.

Maria Mitchell took daily nature walks and was a naturalist as well.  Her father, William, led daily nature walks for his students.  It highlights the importance of observing things that you also might think do not matter, like this lichen.  Next time you are our and about, try and look closely at how beautiful it is and how many chickadees might be clinging to the lichen and moss on a fence or the side of a house as they mine it for goodies!

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Coffin School #William Mitchell #Winter Street Nantucket

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Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

March 21. {1855} I have held to tears just behind my eyelids for a month, not being able to cry because of the danger of affecting mother and being ready to do so, at every moment.  I felt when this year came in, a sinking of the heart, as if it had more duties for me, than I could well go through with.  I did not think of the many trials to which in less than three months I must be subjected.

Maria started off 1855 with heartache and fear.  Several of her close friends died – two of them within four days of one another.  Her mother’ Lydia, in failing health went through a very serious bout which caused Maria “great anxiety” as she served as her nurse and caregiver.  Happily, Lydia made it through though her health continued to decline over many years.  I assume she may have had some form of dementia or possibly even Parkinson’s Disease or perhaps a stroke to start that then kept her in a state of deterioration as years went on.  But those things were not as defined, or in some cases, well known or understood then.  Lydia would die in 1861, so her family’s care of her, especially Maria’s, must have been some help in keeping her with them. 

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Lydia Coleman Mitchell

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Women’s Suffrage and Lady Gaga

I have posted this during Women’s History Month before but because it is March and again Women’s History Month, I think it’s worth repeating.  It’s clever and helps to tell an important story in women’s history while giving it a bit of a 21st century twist.  It comes via the National Women’s History Project.

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Lady Gaga #women's suffrage #National Women's History Project

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Corn Niblets

I wrote this several years ago but this year, I have had a “flood” of juncos all winter at my feeder and I decided to post this again.

We all know I am not an ornithologist.  I would liken myself to a very amateur birder.  While I worked a great deal with my friend and mentor, Edith Andrews, over the years, particularly on her book, I still am TERRIBLE at shorebirds and warblers.  Even harriers and hawks.

I grew up watching birds – my parents are birders.  My Dad had a primo seat at the bird venue in his study – close to the feeders and the hummingbird feeder right outside the shop keeper’s style window of his study.

But (as I tend to do), I digress. 

What are corn niblets and birds doing in the same blog you wonder?  Well, that’s what I think of when I see Dark-eyed Juncos.  Their beaks remind me of a piece of a corn kernel – and thus the niblets term.  Believe it or not, I had never really seen – or maybe noticed – a Junco until I was in my early 20s and my husband and I were living outside Washington, DC where he was an officer stationed with the US Coast Guard.  We had a large second story deck and I was feeding the birds.  It was November or December and all these little birds with white-greyish breasts and black backs with little beaks showed up.  I called my Mom who said, “That’s’ a Junco!’  And probably also then thought, “Duh.”

If you haven’t seen a Junco, they’re absolutely adorable and a harbinger of cold weather around these parts.  Last year, I never seemed to glimpse one at all.  We seem to have waves from year to year where we have a lot or they are few and far between.  But in any case, I was rather excited to see one under my feeder the other day.  I went back to look in my bird list and realized I never saw one in 2020 nor in 2021!

Now, identification books state they have a pink-ish beak but I always see them more as a yellowy color – maybe it’s my eyes – but it’s really the size that reminds me of a kernel of corn!  But take a look and let me know what you think.

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Dark-eyed Junco #junco #birding #bird watching #Wild Birds Unlimited #Edith Andrews

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Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

1873. Feb.  I found in Indianapolis a gushing hospitality which was very pleasant to receive if you did not accept all its offers.  I was asked to spend a week in several different families.  Then I found an interest in science and was amazed to find that they readily paid me $100 and asked me for another Lecture at the same price.

Maria would travel to Indianapolis, making what was likely a long and cold journey by train.  She took one of her Vassar College students, Helen Marshall.  While there, Maria would be able to visit with her brother, Francis and his wife, Ellen, who came from Chicago to spend a few days with her.  Not as much is known about Frank as he was called.  We have one image of him in the collection – likely from a fair given the background – or cutout – he is mugging for the camera in.  Given the distance, I am sure many of the siblings did not see Frank as he lived the furthest from everyone.  He may have been the connection for Maria to meet and become the chaperone for a young Prudence Swift whom Maria would travel with throughout the southern United States and for a time, in Europe, until Prudie, as she was known, was called home and Maria continued on in Europe.  Prudie’s family lived in Chicago.

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Indianapolis #Vassar College #Helen Marshall #Prudence Swift #Chicago #Francis “Frank” Mitchell

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Don’t Take Your Computer For Granted

As I zip around on my computer, downloading attachments from emails, copying them into document folders, cutting and pasting documents from one folder to another, I am constantly amazed.  I mean, look how far we have come.  When I was in elementary school, there was ONE student computer for the entire public school I attended.  Mr. G – the sixth grade teacher who must have had some sort of tape worm as he was always walking around with HUGE sub sandwiches in his hand – was in charge of it.  He wheeled it around on a giant cart and my class maybe used it a few times a year.  We were allowed to go out in the hall in groups and, basically, we sort of just touched it – I kid you not – especially because it’s hard to share a computer with 6 children gathered around.  My Dad, when he was first in the US Air force during Vietnam, was in charge of a massive computer at the air base before he was sent overseas.  What I am doing on my computer now, my little work laptop, was done on a computer that filled a HUGE room.  I imagine it was something like a UNIVAC1050 or some such thing and he would often be called in late at night when it was having issues.

Funnily – or ironically – enough, Maria Mitchell was a computer herself.  It was her official title as she calculated the ephemeris of Venus for the US Nautical Almanac.  What she did was mathematical computations – computations that took quite a bit of time and that today would take less than a second for a computer.  Her work for the Nautical Almanac also made her one of the first women to work for the US federal government.

So the next time you are zipping about your computer whether it be crunching numbers, dealing with equations, moving documents around, writing . . .  remember what it was like in Maria’s day before such a thing existed – or when computers first came into more public use and took up a huge room – or many huge rooms!  And give thanks for this modern marvel we all take for granted whether it be on our desk of an iPhone in hand.  (Can you imagine Maria Mitchell and an iPhone?)

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #computer #US Nautical Almanac #UNIVAC1050

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In Memoriam - Anne Parks Strain

Anne Strain was a longtime member of the Maria Mitchell Association’s Honorary Board and served on the MMA’s Board of Directors for many years.  Anne passed away on January 15, 2024.  An avid birder and a garden and plant enthusiast, Anne was a quiet and lovely woman who brought her long knowledge of Nantucket to the MMA.  Nantucket was a part of her life from a young age and in later life she owned a wonderful house that overlooked Prospect Hill cemetery called “High Spirits.”  While I did not know Anne well, we shared a commonality besides gardening, birding and our love of the MMA and Nantucket, we are both women’s college graduates – Anne having graduated from Vassar College and myself, from Mount Holyoke College.  During a small event for the MMA, I spent much of it on the deck on a bench speaking with her and I enjoyed getting to know her better and watching the events unfold from our perch in the shade.  It was in that conversation that we had that it became less of a board member and staff member and more of a sister of a shared experience.  Even if different schools, we shared a similar college “upbringing” having attended women’s colleges – and each one us at one of the Seven Sisters. 

What I did not know about Anne was her accomplishment as a fly fisherwoman – but I could see that – she had a quiet patience about her.  I am sure she was a tremendous fly fisherwoman – just wish I had the chance to learn from her!

JNLF

The step, however small, which is in advance of the world, shows the greatness of the person, whether that step be taken with brain, with heart, or with hands.  – Maria Mitchell

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Anne Parks Strain #Vassar College #Mount Holyoke College #Seven Sisters #women's colleges

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A Walk Among the Dead

I love to walk in the cemetery.  The stones are quite beautiful, as is the landscape.  Is it sad? Yes, but its not creepy or scary.  Many of these people have been forgotten.  Though at the time of their death, their family did not think they would be – nor did those people before they died.  I find it sad to come across fallen or broken stones, stones that have been overgrown with weeds or a well-intended shrub that has now taken over the space after 100 years or so, or stones covered so heavily in lichens that you cannot read the name of the person buried there.  The young children (as the pictured stone is for), infants, teenagers, and young adults – that is all the more painful – as they were short-changed on life.  But the old people – those who lived a full and very long life – they got all the time.  This time of year when it’s cold and raw – and it was COLD for my walk – makes the loneliness feel stronger.

I have talk about cemeteries before.  I have noted that I clean stone monuments (gravestones) and run a workshop once a year to teach people how to properly clean stones.  There is a bit of a movement afoot – especially with Instagram and TikTok – where people record themselves cleaning stones and showing people how to do it.  Please be careful – some people are not trained and are doing it the wrong way.  The sound of a metal scraper sets my teeth on edge – that is NOT how you clean historic gravestone.  So, until you have some in-person training by someone who is qualified, do not do it! 

JNLF

This year’s stone cleaning workshop will be Saturday, June 15 from 10-Noon.  You will be able to register online for the class in the early spring.  There is a small fee – it covers the cost of the supplies.

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Prospect Hill Cemetery Nantucket #conserving stone monuments #conserving gravestones #historic cemeteries

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Awash in Music

I am sitting and listening to my son’s piano lesson.  Other children and teenagers are taking lessons in separate rooms.  I am awash in a myriad of musical notes, scales and compositions, all flowing from different rooms.  It’s pleasing and relaxing albeit a cacophony of different sounds.

It’s lovely but also, it makes me feel sad for I begin to think of how much Quaker’s missed because music was forbidden by the meeting for so long. 

It also makes me realize why William Mitchell loved it.  As I have noted before, Maria Mitchell’s father was a bit of a wayward Quaker.  He loved bright colors, music, singing – everything that was frowned upon by Quakers (well, he did not smoke or drink – or at least I have not seen anything about that!).  And, because of this, he found himself in trouble quite a bit.  A very intelligent and clever man, he did manage to find his way out of this dilemma – he was very good at talking his way out of trouble.  Another check mark for his intelligence.  But for the rest of the people deprived, just think of what music does for you – it calms you, makes you happy or sad, energizes you, brings joy.  For the most part, they missed that.  Yes, they could hear it coming from other churches and spaces, but they could not sit and enjoy it themselves – or play an instrument.

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #William Mitchell #Quaker #Nantucket Quaker #music lessons

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Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory – Seminar Room Updates

In 1987, the MMA added what was referred to as the Seminar Room Addition.  It attaches to the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO) on the west side of the MMO and abuts what we have referred to as the Astronomer’s Cottage since we acquired the ca. 1830 structure in about 1922.  Since 1987, the Seminar Room – so named as it provides lecture and work spaces for our astronomy interns and astronomy staff and others – has seen really no updates or changes.  That is about thirty-six years – and it’s in need.  We did add new work areas but it was minor changes.  Now, with a gift from a descendant of Maria Mitchell’s younger brother, William Forester Mitchell, we are embarking on some updates to bring the Seminar Room into the 21st century – as we work to conserve the historic MMO.

On January 2, 2024, we began the demolition work (I hate the word demolition but this is a 1987 building so I feel a bit more comfortable.)  We will be making some much needed office spaces, expanding the meeting and study space for the astronomy interns, making climate updates, improving the lighting and flooring, and making a small astronomy library space.  Reminder that this is just to the 1987 space and only its interior – the historic observatory is having its own conservation focused work completed and we hope to begin to work on the interior of that portion next fall now that the exterior work was all completed this past spring.  But what you are seeing in this image is the backside of the plaster and lath that makes the backside of the wall of the Astronomer’s Cottage – and the sill and other supporting timbers – pretty fun to see.  It was first exposed when they added the Seminar Room addition in 1987 and removed the shingles and sheathing at that time – not something that was done this time and I wish they could have saved the sheathing boards and put the insulation between sheathing and the lathe!

Stay tuned!

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Maria Mitchell Observatory #Vestal Street Observatory #Maria MItchell Vestal Street Observatory #William Forester Mitchell #historic observatory

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Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

1856, Jan. 9  When I left the Atheneum at 9, I was startled at the height of the wind and the blinding clouds of snow which went past me. . . It stormed all night.  I heard the gates blow to, the bricks fall from chimneys, and at length something went from the observatory which I hoped was only a chair.  It was a night too noisy for sleep and the morning bro’t no relief in that respect.

It turned out it was not a chair but the door to the observatory on the roof of the Pacific Bank where the Mitchells were living (from 1826-1861).  In the morning, William Mitchell would find not only the door blown open but everything inside covered in snow.  While Maria feared for the loss of her notes, she found them buried under a snowdrift that she shoveled away to gain access to their little observatory.  She was delighted in the fact that her notes were fine – perhaps just cleaned from a wash in the snow!

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Nantucket Atheneum #Nantucket Pacific Bank #William Mitchell #Nantucket snowfall #Nantucket storm

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PEACE

As Walt Whitman once wrote, “Peace is always beautiful.” 

Peace can mean many different things.  I have used this Whitman quote above before – my Father loved Whitman.  And when I quote Whitman, it makes me feel like my Father is here.  Maria and her father, William, were close.  In fact, even with a large family of twelve people, the Mitchells were all close.  My family is close as well, though we have our moments as most, if not all, families do.

As we bring to a close another difficult year in which the world and its people continue to struggle, take a moment to be thankful and to find and give peace.  May you always find peace in yourself and peace with others.  May our world become more peaceful and may we all learn that this small space we inhabit is shared and meant for everyone.  In the echoes of one of my favorite Maria Mitchell quotes, your small step, your small gesture to another or towards helping something happen, can make a difference – more than you think.

I’ll end with another quote – and a poem I have used the last few years – that is fitting and that also reminds me of another Whitman poem.

JNLF

In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells]

Alfred, Lord Tennyson - 1809-1892

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,    The flying cloud, the frosty light:    The year is dying in the night; Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,    Ring, happy bells, across the snow:    The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind    For those that here we see no more;    Ring out the feud of rich and poor, Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,    And ancient forms of party strife;    Ring in the nobler modes of life, With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,    The faithless coldness of the times;    Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,    The civic slander and the spite;    Ring in the love of truth and right, Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;    Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;    Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,    The larger heart, the kindlier hand;    Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be.

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Walt Whitman #Alfred Lord Tennyson #In Memoriam Ring Out Wild Bells

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Score!

We are an organization founded not too long after our namesake died.  Just thirteen years after she died, Maria Mitchell’s family members, her friends, colleagues, and former students came together to create the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association in 1902.  In 1903, we were formally incorporated.  That is pretty remarkable – and shows you the affect Maria Mitchell had on  people – her teaching, her friendship, her mentorship, her ability to inspire.

Everything began in the Mitchell House at 1 Vestal Street – all the departments – until we were given or acquired the buildings and sites that make up the MMA today.  The first curators were Maria Mitchell’s cousins and their daughters; the cousins having lived at 1 Vestal Street with their parents after Maria Mitchell’s family moved to the Pacific Bank where William Mitchell was cashier.  To Maria’s cousins, the House was still their home, but now a museum, and things they did were maybe a bit different than you would think for a historic house museum – and the times were different too.

Thus, items that once belonged to Maria Mitchell were also used by the fledgling organization.  Her Dollond telescope, with which she discovered her comet in 1847, and her Alvan Clark telescope –were used for moon evenings in the yard – and then next door at the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory.  In fact, the lenses in her Clark telescope were removed and used as the guide on the telescope in the MMO for many years.  It was by chance and poking around many years ago that a conservator found the Dollond telescope’s other eyepieces in a drawer of the 1922 Astronomical Study of the MMO.

Now, it was in cleaning out the MMO’s Seminar Room (ca. 1987) for its renovation project, to be funded with a gift from a descendant of William Mitchell, that we located these.  While I am embarrassed that no one seemed to notice them, I am relieved that they were unearthed!  These are the eyepieces to Maria’s Alvan Clark telescope.  A five-inch refractor which she was able to work with Clark on creating when she was given $500.00 by the “Women of America,” headed by Elizabeth Peabody, in 1858.  Obviously, these were used during the MMO moon nights a long time ago and then nicely put away – in a drawer.  Thankfully, someone had made a wooden holder for them, thus keeping them all together.  I suspect it was likely Alvin Paddock, the Coffin School principal who assisted our first astronomer, margaret Harwood, who made this “holder.”  He was once a carpenter and started at the Coffin School as a teacher of woodworking. While the collections in the MMO do not fall under the Mitchell Housie collections, I am glad that these items can be reunited with the telescope and find a better home for display and storage.

JNLF

#Nantucket #Maria Mitchell #Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association #Alvan Clark #Maria Mitchell Observatory #Elizabeth Peabody #William Mitchell #Pacific Bank Nantucket