Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association Welcomes Pam Murphy and Kim Schulam of Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket as Featured Guests for the February Science Speaker Series

February 18, 2025

NANTUCKET, MA—The Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) announces that it will host Pam Murphy and Kim Shulam of the Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket (MMAN), as featured presenters for its February Science Speaker Series. Their presentation will take place on Wednesday, February 26 at 7pm via Zoom. This event is free to all.


Join Pam Murphy, the MMAN Executive Director, and Kim Schulam, the MMAN Vice President and Stranding Coordinator, in a discussion on the importance of seals and other marine mammals in maintaining a healthy marine ecosystem, and how we can all help keep these populations safe.


The mission of the Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket is to monitor, rescue, and protect marine mammals on Nantucket, advocate for their well-being, and educate the public. MMAN belongs to the Greater Atlantic Marine Mammal Stranding Network, and is among thirteen organizations dedicated to protecting, rescuing, and advocating marine mammals along the Atlantic coast from Virginia to Maine. You can learn more about the animals they rescue, their partner teams, useful tips, and statistical maps here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/5d29b842996d44eea0c4517f71ecca4d


Pam Murphy has been involved in animal rescue for many years, from creating a Be Kind to Animals Club at the age of seven, to being one of the founders of Nantucket Island Safe Harbor for Animals (NiSHA) in 2011; serving eight years as board president. Her extensive board experience with TWN, NiSHA, and NAC put her in a solid position to manage MMAN’s board and see it develop into a stronger organization, capable of attracting the donor support the mission deserves. A lifelong vegetarian, Pam has never been able to stand idly by when an animal is suffering. To be allowed to approach injured and entangled marine mammals legally and help was what drew her to MMAN. She became Level A trained, learning to restrain and disentangle seals and went on to attend a Cetacean Stranding Workshop with IFAW. “I have learned a great deal about marine mammals and how to help through the vast knowledge of my teammates.”


Kim Schulam began visiting Nantucket in 2013 and fell in love with the remote, natural qualities of the island. A Biological Sciences major in college, she initially considered the fields of Marine Biology or Veterinary Medicine but ultimately pursued a career as a Physician’s Assistant. Now retired from medicine, she met former Stranding Coordinator Scott Leonard and learned of MMAN. She immediately joined the team and became Level A trained. She regularly attends IFAW’s Marine Mammal Mass Stranding training, and is 24-Hour HAZWOPER certified for oil spill wildlife rescue. Now a full-time resident of Nantucket, she serves as the team’s Stranding Coordinator and Board Vice President. She coordinated MMAN’s first team-conducted large whale necropsy last year and works closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to maintain the team’s Stranding Agreement as Nantucket's sole agency legally permitted to handle marine mammals. She feels strongly that humans have an obligation to marine life to help them survive given all we have done to injure them and destroy their environment.


Pre-registration is required to attend Zoom. To register for Zoom, use the registration link below: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7UnSEop1RKyxgl0LBio2Kw#/registration


This series is generously sponsored by our lead sponsor, Bank of America.


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

February 18, 2025

Contact: Jónelle Gurley

jgurley@mariamitchell.org

Recent Posts

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger June 30, 2025
As we are now complete with the conservation of the historic Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory (MMO), I thought it would be good to post a series of blogs concerning it history and activities, as well as some of the amazing people who have made it what it is over the last 100 plus years. Therefore, over the next few weeks, the focus will be on the MMO. And it is now open for tours – Monday through Saturday 11-1PM. Founded in 1902, the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association (MMA) had its beginnings in the Mitchell House where Maria Mitchell was born. Over the first few years, the preservation of the Mitchell House, family artifacts, and the collection and display of Nantucket’s native flora and fauna, as well as a small library, were the key components of the MMA. Special “Moon Evenings” were held on the lawn and people observed Nantucket’s night skies using several small telescopes, including William and Maria Mitchell’s two-and-three-quarter-inch Dollond telescope. The popular evenings led to the inevitable – a desire and need to expand based on the demands of the visitors to, and members of, the MMA. In 1906, Lydia Hinchman, a founder of the MMA and a family member, purchased the house and lot adjacent to the Mitchell House. The house – once the home of William Mitchell’s father and mother – was taken down. The MMA began a dialogue with the Harvard College Observatory and its director, Edward Pickering, Ph.D. The connection to Harvard was to become essential to the success of the beginning years of the Maria Mitchell Observatory and continued a legacy of friendship and work – Maria Mitchell and her father worked with the Bonds who once ran the observatory at Harvard and the families were close friends. Besides his assistance, Pickering asked a member of his staff, Annie Jump Cannon, to assist the MMA. This “provided an indispensable collaboration for Nantucket astronomy,” with Cannon spending two weeks on the island in 1906 and 1907 lecturing and teaching. While back at Harvard, she continued to teach the students on Nantucket by mail. Cannon would go on to be recognized as the leading woman astronomer of her generation and as the founder of the MMA’s Astronomy Department. JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger June 23, 2025
An older term, that we seem to not use that much anymore but maybe that’s in part because not many people “put things by” anymore. It is having a bit of a resurgence as people try to return to the garden and focus on local produce. My in-laws used to spend a lot of time – before I knew them – canning and preserving many different things – from jellies to string beans that became “dilly beans.” I, on the other hand, do not can produce. Frankly, I fear messing up the process and making my family sick. So, for now, I stick to making refrigerator jams and pickles. I have made some chive vinegar – that is frankly, amazing, and a brilliant shade of pink! But in any case, Bartlett’s Farm opened for pick-your-own strawberries on June 7 and I made my way over on June 8. My son has been asking for strawberry jam since about February – I told him I wait for fresh and local but he wanted some so badly he was begging for store bought. I almost caved but then I told him – out of season and they taste like cardboard – and also made a LONG journey to get to us. Once people ate with the seasons – now we do not have to with trains, planes, and ships crossing all over. It is also, why, oftentimes, fruit has no flavor. Produce is picked often before it ripens and “ripens” as it ships – or with sprays – and since many varieties have been crossed with others or engineered, we have lost the taste. I remember tasting a peach a few years back from North Carolina – fresh off the tree. After rubbing it to get all the “fur” off, I bit into an exquisite peach that tasted like a peach of my youth. So, Maria was not eating a strawberry in January but she was eating them in June – local and full of flavor. And likely, putting some by as well. JNLF
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
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