Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Announces 2025 Discovery Camp Registration

January 6, 2025

NANTUCKET, MA—The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA), your gateway to Nantucket’s natural world, is excited to announce its 2025 Discovery Camp registration. Registration for children ages five through sixteen will open during the week of January 13.

 

Camp registration is open to MMA Members only who have an active Family Membership or Year-round Island Family Membership. Family or Year-round Island Family Memberships can be activated or renewed at https://www.mariamitchell.org/membership. Membership gives you many benefits including unlimited free admission to the Aquarium, Natural Science Museum, Loines Observatory, and the Historic Mitchell House, discounts on programs and merchandise, invitations to special member-only events, and much more.

    

The MMA will offer age specific weekly sessions this summer full of hands-on science education, research, and exploration of the sky, land, and sea of Nantucket Island. The MMA’s award-winning Discovery Camps kick off in June and continues for ten weeks of curiosity, wonder, and exploration. The popular camps featured include: “Animal Signs & The Five Senses,” “Aware in the Wild,” “Underwater Explorations,” “Exploring Art in the Ecosystems,” “Marine Biology Boot Camp,” “Cosmic & Climate Connections,” “Green Guardians,” “Junior Historians –  A Walk Through Nantucket,” “Junior Astronomers – Reaches of the Universe,” and “Nantucket Nature Bound” programs for ages 13 – 16 which include “Coastal Resiliency and Nantucket Ecology,” “Marine and Terrestrial Ecology,” and “Cross Island Habitat Hike.”

  

Visit https://www.mariamitchell.org/camp-programs to check enrollment availability and to register. Year-round Island Family Membership Registration will begin January 13 at 6am, and Family Membership Registration will begin January 15 at 6am. 

    

Thanks to a generous gift from EGCF, a non-profit foundation, the MMA offers scholarship opportunities for eligible Nantucket Island residents and visitors. This financial aid program provides an 80% discount off the price of camp sessions. Any family who can demonstrate a need is encouraged to apply.  To learn more, visit https://www.mariamitchell.org/scholarships-discounts.  

  

 

Please review the camp programs webpage at https://www.mariamitchell.org/camp-programs

to learn about the variety of camps offered for each age level and come explore with us!


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


###

For Immediate Release

January  6, 2025

Contact: Will Evans

wevans@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • July 6, 2026
July 15. {1863} My dear Sally . . . I think Mitchell is all right in his algebra. He can’t stand an examination in Trig but I don’t believe he will have a rigorous one. Father has seen the Prof. and will give him a letter to them.  If you can’t be honest with your sibling, who can you be honest with? Apparently, Sally Mitchell Barney’s son, William Mitchell Barney – known as Mitchell as his cousin William Mitchell Barney was known as Willie (how is that for honoring your father?!) – was visiting his aunt Maria and his grandfather, William Mitchell, at their home in Lynn, MA. Sally still lived on Nantucket and I suspect Mitchell was not only visiting but getting some much needed help with his mathematics by his aunt Maria. As always, she is brutally honest – he won’t pass a test in trigonometry (but, neither would I!). JNLF

Top O’ the Ridge!

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 29, 2026
In April and early May, at long last, the Mitchell House roof was replaced. (I noted this in an earlier blog.) I had also noted that the roofwalk, given the condition it was in and its location – sitting on the ridge – had to be replaced. They had thought they could jack it up – as they have done with other walks – but the Blizzard of February 2026 that was ALL wind (83 MPH winds – read Category 1 Hurricane) and no real snow, made the walk impossible to treat in such a manner (read: crumble). So, after much discussion, review by our preservation easement holder, and permits, as well as some fundraising, we are replacing the roofwalk. The prior walk was not the original. The original blew off in a gale in the late nineteenth century, replaced at some point in the 1930s, and likely replaced again in the 1960s or 1970s. Then, since that time, it was heavily repaired. Its framing members were notched to accept the ridge boards (read: peak) of the roof and I think that may have been an original way to construct a walk. Makes perfect sense – and gives the walk more support and a lower profile. It was after all about putting out chimney fires and preventing roof fires. People copied what worked – and there have been a few others noted to be built in this manner still. It presents an issue though – because if you need to work on the ridge board or close to it – you cannot get to it easily – I guess you may be able to access it to some extent by lifting the deck boards of the walk. The new Mitchell House roofwalk will sit about six inches above the ridge – which will also allow air to circulate better over the ridge and the shakes in that area. That is the only thing that will really be different. It is protected by a preservation easement – as part of the Mitchell House’s easement – and frankly, even if we did not have an easement, we would not want it to look any different. So keep your eyes to the skies at 1 Vestal as we work to re-build the walk. With a special thank you to Barber and Sons and Lydon and Sons. JNLF

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 22, 2026
1875, June 20. A meeting of the Officers of Congress was called at the house of Mrs. Hanaford, 5 Summit Ave., Jersey City. The weather was intensely cold. I went to New York on the 19 th and stopped with my friend Mrs. Clapp, 100 W. 54 St . . . .It was a question who should preside. Mrs. Hanaford thought the Chairman of the Executive Committee should and I had been told that I should, etc. The question was decided by the non-arrival of the Chairman of Ex.Com. I called them to order at an hour after the time appointed. Of course I made many blunders, as I have never presided before, but I continued for 4 hours. We did a few good things . . . The thing most weighing on Maria’s mind at this meeting was the looseness of membership for the Congress. She felt people were not being vetted properly in some areas of the country and thus they may allow in “undesirables.” I would take this to mean women who were not entirely behind the cause of the Congress and the Association for the Advancement of Women. I am not surprised by her suspicions and likely she was correct – one could see naysayers gaining access to this group and trying to destroy it from the inside. The women’s rights movement would have many schisms within it as people disagreed and broke into smaller factions.  Another important thing to point out is that Mrs. Hanaford is Nantucket-born Phebe Coffin Hanaford. Raised a Quaker, like Maria, Coffin Hanaford would become the first woman Universalist minister in New England – among many other firsts. She grew up with Maria, attended and taught at the Coffin School here on Nantucket, and was a founding member of another women’s organization, Sorosis, which Maria was also a founding member of. It’s nice to see two sister Nantucketers continuing to work together as adults – far from home! JNLF
Show More