Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Summer 2023 Programs and Events are Live for Registration

June 14, 2023

NANTUCKET, MA—The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA), your portal to Nantucket’s natural world, announced its schedule for another summer full of science education, research, and exploration of the sky, land, and sea of Nantucket Island through its award-winning Discovery Camp, robust summer programs, events, and the reopening of its properties.

 

On Monday, June 12, 2023, the MMA will reopen its Aquarium (28 Washington Street), Hinchman House Natural Science Museum (7 Milk Street), and Historic Mitchell House (1 Vestal Street). These properties will be open Monday-Friday from 10AM-4PM and Saturdays from 10AM-1PM. Tours (self-guided, except at the Mitchell House where visitors take guided tours) are available on a rolling basis throughout the day and do not require a reservation. An all-MMA properties pass ($22 Adult, $12 Children) provides admission to each property and can be purchased in-person upon entering the properties. A single entry to the Historic Mitchell House is available for $10 Adult, $8 Children. In addition to entry at the three properties, the property pass provides admission to a Stargazing Open Night, which must be registered for in advance online. Admission to all MMA properties is free for MMA Members.

 

Stargazing Open Nights at Loines Observatory (59 Milk Street Ext.) will begin on Monday, June 12and are offered on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays at 9PM and 9:45PM and the admissions is part of the MMA site pass ($22 Adult, $12 Children, free for Members, and free for those already holding an all-MMA properties pass). You must register for Open Nights in advance online at: www.mariamitchell.org/calendar for these 45-minute Observatory programs. The MMA Astronomy staff will lead constellation tours and guide visitors through viewing stations inside and outside the observatory domes. Participants will have a chance to view astronomical objects through our historic 8-inch Alvan Clark refractor and our modern 24-inch research telescope. Get a chance to view the Moon, planets, star clusters, nebulae, and even other galaxies!

 

Summer 2023 Program offerings, across our sites, include: Maria Mitchell and the Daring Daughters of Nantucket, Four Centuries Domestic Tour, Family Sailor’s Valentines, Preserving Monuments of our Ancestors, Oika for Earthlings, Ravenous Reptiles, Nature Story Hour, Bug Bonanza, Saturday Science, Feeding Frenzy, Beach Biology Field Trip, Marine Ecology Field Trip, Night Marine Ecology Field Trip, Marine Story Hour, Owl Prowl, Nantucket Bird Walk, Earth Story Walk, Full Moon Walk, Nature Based Meditation, Sunrise Beach Meditation, Sunrise Yoga Flow and others. These programs will be offered throughout the summer and are now open for registration. New program offerings this year include Oika for Artists, Big History/James Webb Space Telescope, Full Moon Walk, Nature Based Meditation, Sunrise Beach Meditation, Sunrise Yoga Flow, and our Free community Birding with Ginger Andrews. For the full schedule of programs and registration information, please visit www.mariamitchell.org/calendar

 

Other events and program offerings this year include the Maria Mitchell Birthday Party Open House on August 1, Astrophotography with Charity Grace Mofsen, the Horseshoe Crab Solstice Walk, Horseshoe Crab Community Science Surveys, Green Crab Surveys, the Celestial Stakeout at Loines Observatory, Green Crab Week’s Green Crab Derby, and our complete Artist-In-Residence program with individual special workshops and events.

 

Our informative and popular Science Speaker Series, a complimentary bi-monthly lecture series, will continue throughout the summer from 7-8PM and will be presented via Zoom. The summer lineup will feature over a dozen scientists from Nantucket and beyond. A special thank you to our lead sponsor Bank of America, in addition to the White Elephant Hotels and Resorts and Cisco Brewers of Nantucket who also make this program accessible to all.

 

The MMA’s award-winning Discovery Camp kicks off on June 20th. Offered weekly for children ages 5-16, this summer there are ten weeks of our popular camps such as “Animal Signs & Senses,” “Amazing Adaptations,” “Coastal Resiliency and Nantucket Ecology,” “Cosmic & Climate Connections,” “Junior Historians - A walk through Nantucket,” and, “Junior Astronomers – Reaches of the Universe.” Visit https://www.mariamitchell.org/camp-programs to check availability and to register.

 

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

June 6, 2023

Contact: Jonelle Gurley,

jgurley@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 16, 2025
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

At Long Last!

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 9, 2025
After several yes’s and then several no’s, not going to have time, we have indeed received the final layer of asphalt on Vestal Street. This goes back to last March and April when we finally had our sewer and waterlines replaced. While I am all about preservation, 1903 piping is a bit old and tired and filled with tree roots to make the passage of sewer sludge quick and easy. While we still await some fixes to curbing – we have our original concrete curbs from 1946/1947 when Vestal Street was first paved – it was dirt until then! – some of them have been buried by time and just need some suavity to pull them up and get them back where they go. Thank you to the Town, N&M, and Victor Braden for completing the work thus far. But, with the paving completed, we may possible begin the replacement of some of our picket fencing and we have permission to restore our fences to what originally existed along the street in the 1920s and earlier – the rail was a rolled, thick top – and we are excited to use some grant funding to make that happen. Stay tuned! JNLF

Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Welcomes Darren Humphreys of Travel Sommelier for June Science Speaker Series

June 6, 2025
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