Maria Mitchell Association Announces Scallop Presentation with Dr. Val Hall, Scallop Lab Research Assistants and High School Interns

July 11, 2023

NANTUCKET, MA—The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) announces that Dr. Val Hall will be hosting a formal presentation at the Great Harbor Yacht Club. Dr. Hall will be joined by her lab assistants and interns to give a formal presentation on Nantucket Bay Scallop biology, as well as define student driven research questions and describe the procedures used to study bay scallops. This presentation will take place on Tuesday, July 18 from 4 - 6pm. The presentation is complimentary and open to the public.


The presentation will provide an overview of their Nantucket Bay Scallop research and summer laboratory experiences, describing the histological techniques used, as well as an explanation of the basics of bay scallop biology and reproduction, predators and parasites, the scallop-eelgrass relationship, and other ecological factors that influence the scallop population. In recent years, bay scallops have declined in numbers and Dr. Hall's research is an important component to our understanding of the Nantucket ecosystem’s overall health. Dr. Hall has been a Research Associate with the MMA since 2006.


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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For Immediate Release

July 11, 2023

Contact: Grace Baisley

marketinginterns@mariamitchell.org

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June 1851 My Dear Sister . . . . Mrs. Dassel has painted me kneeling at my telescope. It looks like Adeline Coffin and is of course not handsome. If thee was here thee would have Mitchell’s {William Mitchell Barney, son of Sally and Matthew Barney} painted at once. She has a head of a child N. P. Willis that is very lovely. She has taken a room at the Atheneum and put up about a dozen pictures – very beautiful – Isabel is lovely. She has not tried to make a portrait, but a very pretty picture . . . . She is now engaged on Abra’m Quary – he is much flattered by it and it will be a fine portrait. I think we shall buy it or a copy for the Atheneum . . . . She will paint father also for herself – having made a pencil sketch . . . .We like her very much . . . . The above is from a letter sent by Maria Mitchell to her eldest sister, Sally Mitchell Barney. In it, Maria details what everyone in the Mitchell family is up to. She includes some details about Herminia B. Dassel, an artist who came to Nantucket to paint the last Native Americans and also took an interest in the famous Mitchell family. This was of course four years after Maria’s discovery of the comet. At the time of this letter, Maria was still the librarian for the Atheneum and the portrait of Quary that she mentions possibly buying for the Atheneum, she did buy as it hangs in the Atheneum by the front door today. Another Dassel portrait of Quary is in the collection of the Nantucket Historical Association and the portrait of Isabel Draper is currently on display at the NHA’s Whaling Museum – on loan from a museum in Rhode Island. The portrait Maria states she posed for at the start of the letter is in the collection of the MMA. It was given to us in the early 1990s by Sally’s great granddaughter – the granddaughter of Mitchell whom she mentions above as well. Maria and Dassel would become good friends – Maria was named the godmother of Dassel’s daughter. And the sketch of William made by Dassel that Maria states would become a portrait? It likely did come to fruition. It made its way down a side of the family but was unfortunately lost, likely sold as part of a family estate though we do have a photograph of it and one can tell it is the brush work of Dassel. JNLF

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