Talking to the Nineteenth Century

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • October 24, 2022

In my line of work, I meet many people from all over the country and all over the world. This is in large part because I provide – with the Mitchell House summer intern and summer volunteer tour guides – tours to the public. I also provide history walks and workshops as well and so I meet many interesting people and learn new things from them every day.


These visitors may provide new thoughts on something in history or about an artifact. A while ago, I gave a tour to a woman, a former kindergarten teacher. We had a lovely tour and chatted throughout our time together. We came to a place in the tour where something triggered a thought for her. She said to me that I was “too young” to have the experience she was going to relate. She told me she has spoken to people from the 1800s. She stated she has told this to people before and that the reaction she usually receives upon mentioning it is people backing away from her and asking her if she is seeing ghosts – with a look of skepticism among other looks. 


When she began to explain what she meant, I suddenly realized I had never thought about what she was saying in that way. I told her, “I’m not that young,” and then said I had never before considered what she was saying until she mentioned it. It seems pretty silly for me to have never really thought about it in this way. I too have spoken to people from the 1800s and touched  them – you have too if your parents or grandparents or other family or friends were born in the nineteenth century. I’m not sure how I never thought of this – I am a bit embarrassed – but I distinctly remember my great-grandmother (or, Other Nana as we called her) who died when I was three. She was born in the 1880s. I was a bit squirmy at that age and in order to have me sit with her, she would place the Montgomery Ward’s or Sears catalog on the table.  I would sit in her lap as she turned the pages for me to look at them – I adored those catalogs with all the pictures and colors, particularly the images of rooms all set up. I remember one such time, in particular, sitting on my family’s porch on her lap looking out over the backyard, catalog on the table in front of us. I have other memories too – playing with the laces on her shoes – leather shoes with a bit of a heel to them even though she walked with a walker. In addition, I remember my great-grandfather on my Dad’s side (Pop). Pop lived a long time – well into his 90s. He was a World War I veteran and had massive tattoos on the insides of his arms that he likely acquired while in Europe. He lived probably until I was in late elementary school or even the beginnings of junior high and he too was born in the nineteenth century – as were other of my relatives who I knew when I was young.


So, you see, I have spoken to people from the 1800s – and you have, too.  We are that last connection to the nineteenth century and the people of it.  It’s quite remarkable to sit with that.


JNLF

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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

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