The Importance of Memory

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • June 1, 2012

Of more of a personal note, my husband’s father passed away last week. My husband’s mother passed away in 1999. They were collectors – collectors of pieces of history not their own and collectors of pieces of family history. My mother-in-law was adopted as an infant and my father-in-law lost his mother at age two. When his father remarried, another family became part of the family history so there are all sorts of roots and stories and grandmas and grandpas that may not be blood related but all are family.

As we took in all of the things in the house, I realized we did not know the history behind each and every piece. As a curator and a collector of historic items and family stories as well, I was overwhelmed. Living so far away, we had to spend some time sorting at a very tough time. When it comes right down to it, it is stuff – things – and we know things are not important. But, when you feel the weight of family history and you know these items were important to someone, or were carried from a far distant land so that one could maintain a connection and have something familiar with them in a strange new place, it makes it harder.

The stories however are the most important. Stories are important to pass down through generations so that family members know where they came from and know those who had the strength and courage to make decisions to insure that the next generations lived strong and well. I certainly would not have the courage or emotional strength to come from where my family came from. Imagine leaving family behind to arrive in a new world after a long voyage, not speak the language, and have no place to live? And then, having to start from scratch.

At the lunch after the services, my husband’s aunt told us her memory of the mother she lost when she was only five – she is the full blood sister of my father-in-law. She says she only remembers her as a ghost-like figure. A kidney disease left her bedridden and she died two years before a treatment was found for what ailed her. Aunt MJ remembers being brought into her bedroom once per day so that she could see her two children and they her. That is the only memory MJ has of her mother but at least she has one. I do not think my father-in-law remembered that daily visit with his mother.

That is a sad memory. But other memories abound that are happy or funny. Such as Great Grandma Behnke at age 100+ shooting squirrels on her roof (Horrors! She and I would indeed have a fight on that one.) – they were destroying her house. My husband remembers her stalking through her home in Indiana as a tornado drew close – she ordered him to hide away but she was out to keep track of its movements to protect her family. Feisty is not strong enough a word for her and I have always admired the photograph we have of her – her strong, steady gaze at the camera as she fishes from her canoe. When we would visit my in-laws, we would sleep under her handmade quilt – squares individually stitched, stuffed with pantyhose, and then all stitched together. Cold winters are no match for that quilt. And now, it will rest in my home.

These stories are important to pass on in order to help us to understand where we have come from and who came before us. I also firmly and most importantly believe that by telling these stories and talking about those in the past that they continue to live on. So, I will keep telling the stories of the Mitchell family to visitors at the Mitchell House and recounting stories of my own family and my husband’s. Because each time I speak the name of a person no longer with us, she or he lives on.

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Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • August 18, 2025
August 17{1857} Today we have been to the far-famed British museum. I carried as “open sesame” a paper given to me by Prof. Henry asking for me special attention from all societies with which the Smithsonian {is} connected . . . . The art of printing has brought us incalculable blessings, but as I looked at a neat manuscript book by Queen Elizabeth copied from another, as a present to her Father I could not help thinking that it was better than worsted work! On August 2, 1857, Maria Mitchell and the young woman she was accompanying as a chaperone, Prudence Smith, arrived in Liverpool England for their European tour. Maria Mitchell’s “open sesame” was a letter of introduction – she went with several. She would find that the doors were thrown open for America’s first woman astronomer – she was that well known in America and abroad. She would become quite close to Sir George Airy, the British Astronomer Royal, and his wife Richarda, as well as the astronomical Herschel family. JNLF

Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory: Conserved, Refreshed, and Renewed

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • August 11, 2025
After many years on the making, we are happy to officially announce the re-opening of the Maria Mitchell Vestal Street Observatory – also fondly referred to as the MMO. As you may have seen on the Maria Mitchell’s Attic bog, this has truly been more than a multi-year labor of love. Way back in 2016, we began the first steps with a structural assessment by structural engineer, John Wathne of Structures-North. That, coupled with an earlier Conservation Assessment Program grant from Heritage Preservation and supported by the Institute for Museum and Library Services that allowed the MMA to hire architectural conservator, Michael Devonshire, began us on our path to conserve the historic MMO. Grants from the Community Preservation Act and the M. S. Worthington Foundation supported the conservation work on the 1908 Observatory and its 1922 Astronomical Study. Masonry and grout were repaired, rusted iron lintels over windows and doors were replaced with steel and work was completed to the “parapets.” This sounds simple – it was not – it was a multi- year project to work with the masonry and to create a matching grout. Wayne Morris, the mason, became a fixture on Vestal Street again – as he did all the masonry conservation and work on the exterior of the Research Center. Once the MMO’s exterior was weather tight and the interior masonry work completed, the rest of the crew moved in to conserve the plaster, re-paint, and conserve the original 1922 bookcases and woodwork in the Study. Paint was removed from the dome bringing it back to its original glory. Cement floors were cleaned and treated and electrical wiring was updated and new lighting put in the Study. A major renovation was also conducted concerning the “Seminar Room” – a 1987 addition to the west of the MMO – which was completed in 2024. This was funded in large part by Mitchell family descendant and former (now honorary) MMA Board Member, Richard Wolfe. New office spaces were created for astronomy staff, updates were made to the astronomy intern workspace and meeting space, and a new accessible bathroom was completed. We also owe a huge debt of gratitude to two other board members in this work, particularly with the Seminar Room – Elizabeth Markel and John Wise. We would like to thank everyone for their roles in making this long journey a success and for doing all of this important work. Thank you does not express it well enough – they have truly all been heroes of the MMO. We are beyond grateful. THANK YOU and WOW it all looks incredible! Wayne Morris, Mason John Wathne, Structures-North Consulting Engineers Wise Construction – John Wise, Pat Marks, “Chip” and Crew Elizabeth Markel, Elizabeth Markel Interiors Ellis and Schneider Electrical Benjamin Normand, Normand Residential Design W. B. Marden Plumbing, Robert and henry Butler, Mike Gillies, and Derek Kevin Wiggin and Crew, KW HVAC INC Pen Austin, plasterer Evita Caune, Riptide Finishes Brian Connor and Crew, Brian Connor Electric Inc. Adam Zanelli and Crew, Nantucket Heritage Painting Michael Devonshire James Lydon and Sons and Daughter Michael Stefanski, Seed to Stone Landscaping Matthew Anderson and Maxx Ray Michael Gault Pioneer Cleaning Brook Meerbergen, M.A. Supply / Green Mountain Window Co. Nantucket Networks Polygon Group JNLF

Glass Plate Photographic Collection

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • August 4, 2025
With the help of Edward Pickering from Harvard, the MMA was able to develop a research program and realized that a photographic telescope would be necessary. Funds were raised and by November 1913, a 7.5-inch photographic telescope was installed. Using Maria Mitchell’s 5-inch Alvan Clark telescope as a guide for the larger photographic telescope, the photographic telescope had a lens from Thomas Cooke and Sons of York, England and a cast-iron pier, mount, and clockwork by Alvan Clark & Sons in Cambridge, MA. The pier, mount, and clockwork are still present in the MMO – the pier and mount still utilized but by a 17-inch research telescope purchased with a grant from the National Science Foundation. The glass plates taken of the night sky at the MMO total more than 8,000 and they are still utilized for research. They capture a moment in the night sky that can never be captured again – just like a regular photograph. In order to capture the image of the night sky, exposures could last for as long as three hours or more. Glass plates were heavily used for researching variable stars. They also afforded opportunities for new discoveries that could go unnoticed when one looked through a telescope by eye. Glass plates are gelatin-coated dry plate negatives that first came into use in the 1870s. They were utilized well into the late twentieth century particularly because they did not shrink or deform like plastic film. At the MMA, we continued to take glass plates of the night sky until 1995 when we had the opportunity and funding to update to a CCD camera – charge-coupled devices. While the CCDs provided many improvements, they still did not have the detecting area and resolution of glass plates. Technology continues to evolve, and the MMA with it, as we work with new methods to capture the night sky photographically. JNLF
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