M. Jane Stroup

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • October 31, 2022

In 2011, the MMA’s former librarian, M. Jane (Jane) Stroup passed away. At that time, I wrote a piece that you can read below. Jane was an integral part of my time at the MMA growing up. I was lucky enough to have her as a friend and as a guide. In fact, growing up at the MMA as I did, I was incredibly lucky to be surrounded by an incredible group of women who served as mentors and friends and who showed me the paths that make up my life today. As I touch something or walk through a space at the MMA or along Vestal Street, I continue to feel their presence and love for this unique organization. It was their work and support that put us where we are today and where we continue to build upon what they did as they continued Maria Mitchell’s legacy. I still hear their voices and laughter (oh, the laughter!) and remember them as they guide me in my work. Recently, Jane’s estate was finalized and closed, and a gift was left by her for the MMA. This bequest is for our endowment and we hope that people will match her generous gift of $50,000.00. I have and hope you will too. 


On November 4th {2011}, the MMA lost a dear friend. M. Jane Stroup, Ph.D., known to all as Jane, was the MMA’s first year-round librarian, her tenure running from 1970 through the spring of 1994. Jane was known for her quick wit, her fantastic annual reports presented to the membership in verse, and for being the year-round presence of the MMA for so many years – the Library lights were the only ones on Vestal Street in the MMA complex of buildings. Jane was a lover of the natural world – from birds to wildflowers – capturing these in her sculpture and her poetry. She was a member of the Nantucket Artists Association. An English and Biology major in college, Jane went on to earn her Master’s Degree and then her Ph.D. at New York University. She moved to Nantucket in 1968 and would later also become well-known for the wonderful garden and greenhouse she shared on Candle House Lane with Joan Manley. She was a woman of many talents, gracing all with her humor, love, and incredible knowledge and intelligence. 


In 1987, Jane was thanked by the MMA’s president Jane Merrill for her long service to the MMA. In her public thank you, President Merrill said “Although many science libraries have bigger collections than the Maria Mitchell Science Center, none is more friendly, better organized, or better cared for . . .  The user is assured of a warm welcome . . . ” She kept the history of the MMA alive and enlivened the annual meetings where all awaited her annual report in verse.


In honor of her, we reprint here one of her much anticipated annual reports – this one is from 1978 – and we thank her for all the wonderful years she gave to the MMA. Those of us who knew her, those who were lucky to have been touched by her – and even appear in her annual report – will miss her.


Annual Meeting 1978

Listen, dear members, and you shall hear

Of a most exciting library year.

The Winter of seventy seven and eight,

Our doors were open early and late.

Folks came from far and near.

 

They wanted to know of the sun and stars,

Solar heat, black holes and life on Mars,

Lasers and quasars and quarks and charms

Kept the Librarian full of alarms!

How did the universe ever get going

Could be beyond a poor mortals knowing.

How it will end is full of conjecture

Suitable stuff for an M. M. lecture.

 

The snow was swept, and the birds were fed

The goldfish slept in their icy bed.

Nice Mr. Lucas took our picture,

So now we’ve become a permanent fixture.

The birders were busy as they could be

Spotting the birds on land and sea

Indeed one study, it is said,

Even counted those birds long dead!

 

Spring brought the tourists who like to come early

But finding things closed are apt to become surly

It was Library Week across the nation

So we cheered them up with a celebration

Real live authors and cookies and punch

Made for a lively bunch.

Then snowdrops and crocuses started blooming

And Library business started booming!

 

What is that tree that grows so tall?

What is that bird that looks so small?

What is that flower that grows by the road?

How do you tell a frog from a toad?

Why does the tide go in and out?

What is ethology all about?

We searched the books, and we shared a laugh,

And prayed for return of the Hinchman staff!

 

The Library silence turns to noise

As Dorrit arrives with her girls and boys.

The Birthplace door is opened wide,

And Edith’s arranging flowers inside.

Eileen is tromping across the yard,

Bringing another lecture card.

Sure signs of Summer . . . the Librarian’s sneeze.

And the annual swarm of the Library bees.


JNLF

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Glass Plate Photographic Collection

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • August 4, 2025
With the help of Edward Pickering from Harvard, the MMA was able to develop a research program and realized that a photographic telescope would be necessary. Funds were raised and by November 1913, a 7.5-inch photographic telescope was installed. Using Maria Mitchell’s 5-inch Alvan Clark telescope as a guide for the larger photographic telescope, the photographic telescope had a lens from Thomas Cooke and Sons of York, England and a cast-iron pier, mount, and clockwork by Alvan Clark & Sons in Cambridge, MA. The pier, mount, and clockwork are still present in the MMO – the pier and mount still utilized but by a 17-inch research telescope purchased with a grant from the National Science Foundation. The glass plates taken of the night sky at the MMO total more than 8,000 and they are still utilized for research. They capture a moment in the night sky that can never be captured again – just like a regular photograph. In order to capture the image of the night sky, exposures could last for as long as three hours or more. Glass plates were heavily used for researching variable stars. They also afforded opportunities for new discoveries that could go unnoticed when one looked through a telescope by eye. Glass plates are gelatin-coated dry plate negatives that first came into use in the 1870s. They were utilized well into the late twentieth century particularly because they did not shrink or deform like plastic film. At the MMA, we continued to take glass plates of the night sky until 1995 when we had the opportunity and funding to update to a CCD camera – charge-coupled devices. While the CCDs provided many improvements, they still did not have the detecting area and resolution of glass plates. Technology continues to evolve, and the MMA with it, as we work with new methods to capture the night sky photographically. JNLF

Keep Calm and Bird On: August 2025

August 1, 2025
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.” -Edith Andrews

Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association’s National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates Interns Present Summer Astronomy Research Projects

August 1, 2025
NANTUCKET, MA— Please join us in person at the Maria Mitchell Association’s Research Center, 2 Vestal Street, or online via Zoom, on Wednesday, August 6, 5pm – 7pm, for a very special presentation of this summer’s astronomy research. The MMA’s National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) 2025 interns will present their research on everything from glowing supernovae and mysterious variable stars to ways dust affects the light we see. The MMA’s Maria Mitchell Observatory operates the NSF-REU program each summer and has done so for decades. The program, funded by a generous grant from the National Science Foundation, allows the MMA to bring six top undergraduate students to the MMA each summer who are selected out of a pool of over 250 applicants from around the United States. The NSF-REU interns come to Nantucket for ten to twelve weeks during the summer to participate in astrophysics research projects. While on Nantucket, the NSF-REU interns also participate in the outreach efforts of the Astronomy Department, primarily by hosting public Open Nights at the Loines Observatory. This summer’s five NSF-REU interns and their research presentations are: Madison Gerard (University of Texas at Austin): How Low Can You Glow? Analyzing the Low-Luminosity SN IIP 2024abfl Kaylee Perez (Texas State University): How Dust Changes the Light We See: Exploring the Link Between Dust Extinction and Attenuation with Simulated Data Lauren Barkey (California Poly Pomona): Peek-a-Boo!: Exploring the NEOWISE Lightcurves of R Coronae Borealis Variable Stars Aiden Agostinelli (University of Montana) & Ben Radmore (University of Michigan): When the Dust Settles: Late-Time Infrared Imaging of SN 2011ja This event is free to the public. This presentation is offered both in person and online via Zoom. Pre-registration is required. Register for in person here : https://112458a.blackbaudhosting.com/112458a/Science-Speaker-Series---MMA-x-NSF-REU-Interns-A Register for Zoom here: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_U5mGYBdESzKI8z_HX835eA The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA), founded in 1902, is a recognized leader in inspiring and training the next generation of astronomers and scientists. Since the Astronomy Department’s inception, hundreds of undergraduate students, the great majority of them women, have discovered the joy of doing astronomical research surrounded by the natural beauty and dark skies of Nantucket Island. Many have gone on to successful careers as astronomers at leading universities, observatories, and other organizations. In fact, it is estimated that one of every twenty American women PhDs in astronomy today acquired their first research experience at the MMA’s Maria Mitchell Observatory. The organization’s success in STEM education was recognized in 2009 with the prestigious Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring from President Obama for its half-century long program of mentoring student research in astronomy. Over the years, several MMA NSF-REU interns have won the prestigious Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award, including in each of the past five American Astronomical Society winter meetings, a testament to the quality of the MMA’s astronomy internship program. Approximately 90% of MMA astronomy interns have gone on to astrophysics Ph.D. programs. The Maria Mitchell Association was founded in 1902 to preserve the legacy of Nantucket native astronomer, naturalist, librarian, and educator, Maria Mitchell. After she discovered a comet in 1847, Mitchell’s international fame led to many achievements and awards, including an appointment as the first female professor of astronomy at Vassar College. Maria Mitchell believed in “learning by doing” and today that philosophy is reflected in the MMA’s mission statement, programs, research projects, and other activities. The Maria Mitchell Association operates two observatories, a natural science museum, an aquarium, a research center, and preserves the historic birthplace of Maria Mitchell. A wide variety of science and history-related programming is offered throughout the year for people of all ages. ###
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