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

Recent Posts

Miss Herschel

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 10, 2025
A re-blog from years past. The item you see here is a small piece of what once was. Upon her visit to Europe as a young woman’s chaperone in 1857 –1858, Maria Mitchell visited many of the major observatories of Europe and met many of the movers and shakers in the scientific, art, and literary worlds of the continent. While Caroline Herschel (1750 – 1848) and her brother, Sir William (1738 – 1822), were long dead, Maria was able to meet Caroline’s nephew (William’s son), Sir John Herschel (1792 – 1871). All three were astronomers, though Caroline found herself having to give credit – or have her brother accept credit – for much of her work because she was a woman. She has often been credited with the being the first woman to discover a comet. She was likely not – and the other woman who was the first lost credit through history as she had to “give” her comet discovery to her husband. See a pattern? Caroline was just one of many women in a long line of, “She couldn’t possibly do that – she is a woman!” As Maria once said, “But a woman, what more could you ask to be?” But back to this small item. It was a page from one of Caroline Herschel’s notebook’s, torn from its home by John Herschel to serve a s a memento for Maria of her visit to the family’s home. Maria was a bit shocked but . . . she took it! Over the years, the paper tore and ripped and just crumbled away until Maria finally decided that to save it, she needed to past it into one of her own journals. And thus, we have what we have. I assume Caroline’s notations refer to her brother William – “Wol” and Woll.” It could be an “I” but it really looks like an “O.” She is considered the world’s first professional woman astronomer – she would be compensated for her work after some time – and she warrants a greater look at – too much for a blog. So I encourage you to go take a look at her. Maria would want you to! JNLF

From The Rear

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 3, 2025
I am not so sure our founders would love that title but the image is of the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO) “from the rear.” I love this image as it is really the only one we have – unless you count the one that is taken from farther away and from further into the backyard of the Mitchell House. That one allows you to see the natural slope of the Mitchell House back lawn which would be altered when they added the Curator’s Cottage. Both of the images were taken before the Curator’s Cottage was added at the back of the Mitchell House in the early 1930s – and this one you see here was taken before 1922 when they added the Astronomical Study onto the MMO. It also shows the original dome – which was copper – before it was replaced in 1951 – which is the current dome. The copper did not hold up to our climate here – salt spray, damp, fog. But the new one, shipped over from England, has held up well. The current dome was donated by Margaret Underwood Davis (MMA board president at the time), in memory of her son, Cushing Davis who was an amateur astronomer. Margaret Davis served as president from 1930-1946 and again from 1949-1953. The image tells you some other things too. For instance, the grape arbor behind the Mitchell House is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell’s (Maria’s uncle) grape vine – I have blogged about it several times before – and you can see it in this image. You can also see how the Milk Room connects to the 1850s kitchen. The 1850s kitchen was added by Peleg Mitchell Jr and it’s the first little wart you see with the white pipe attached. The next wart is the Milk Room – also added by Peleg – it’s the one with the shutters on the window. Both still exist it’s just the Curator’s Cottage was attached in the 1930s. You will see another chimney too. It appears alongside the white pipe. That is likely the original chimney to what is now the Astronomer’s Cottage at the MMA. We acquired the Cottage in the 1920s but I believe all of the additions, and the removal of the chimney, were done before we were given it.  Fun! JNLF

Keep Calm and Bird On: November 2025

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