Nantucket Atheneum Podcast

In our fourth episode on the Tiffany Paradox, Jim and Janet invite  Mary Bergman back to ask her about the mysterious Lost Mid Century on Nantucket. We asked her what her favorite structures that are still standing and which structure she would wish away. And...What happened to the "geo" domes? 

This has been a production of the Nantucket Atheneum. It was hosted by Janet Forest. It was co-hosted and researched by Jim Borzilleri. Production support by Shire Video. 

A special thanks to Executive Director of Nantucket Preservation Trust Mary Bergman for her time and insights.

Music by Tunetank, Dvir,  Melody Ayres-Griffiths and Medieval_Horizons from Pixabay.

The Nantucket Atheneum is located at 1 India Street in Nantucket, MA. We would love for you to stop by and say hello. You can find us online at NantucketAtheneum.org or search @NantucketAtheneum on Facebook and Instagram.

In this episode, Jim and Janet speak to Mary Bergman about the messy and complex business of preservation. Our conversation takes several twists and turns, but you’ll see the Tiffany Paradox popping up all over the place. TRIGGER WARNING: We talk about stop lights...

This has been a production of the Nantucket Atheneum. It was hosted by Janet Forest. It was co-hosted and researched by Jim Borzilleri. Production support by Shire Video. 

A special thanks to Executive Director of Nantucket Preservation Trust Mary Bergman for her time and insights.

Music by Tunetank, Dvir,  Melody Ayres-Griffiths and Medieval_Horizons from Pixabay.

The Nantucket Atheneum is located at 1 India Street in Nantucket, MA. We would love for you to stop by and say hello. You can find us online at NantucketAtheneum.org or search @NantucketAtheneum on Facebook and Instagram.

In this episode, Jim and Janet look for the Tiffany Effect in the 1920's restoration of the Jethro Coffin House, better known as "The Oldest House." We learn a little bit about Peter Coffin, who originally built the house and then invite two guests from the Nantucket Historical Association to discuss its meticulous and complicated restoration.

CLICK HERE to watch this episode on our YOUTUBE Channel.

CLICK HERE to see the photos referred to in the show.

Other sources and references:

• NHA Website: Oldest House Page
  • Oldest House History (PDF) (rendering of twin gables on Pg. 4)
• Historic New England: Drawings of the Jethro Coffin house, Nantucket, Mass., by Alfred Shurrocks
• Jethro Coffin House – Forman
• Houses Cited
  • The “Old Workhouse” Finchingfield, Essex, Eng. Ca 1600 also illustrated in Cummings, 1979
  • The Tristam Coffin House, 14 High Rd., Newbury MA (1678)
  • Sherburne House (c. 1695-1703) Strawbery Banke
  • Captain John Whipple House (1677/1690), Ipswich MA 

This has been a production of the Nantucket Atheneum. It was hosted by Janet Forest. It was co-hosted and researched by Jim Borzilleri. Production support by Shire Video. 

A special thanks to Phoebe Botticelli-Pohl and Thomas Perich at the Nantucket Historical Association.

Music by Tunetank, Dvir and Medieval_Horizons from Pixabay.

The Nantucket Atheneum is located at 1 India Street in Nantucket, MA. We would love for you to stop by and say hello. You can find us online at NantucketAtheneum.org or search @NantucketAtheneum on Facebook and Instagram.

In this first episode of the Tiffany Effect, Jim explains what the Tiffany Effect is and then Janet and Jim invite Nantucket High Alum and Start Up Founder Fernando Young to join them to discuss how Silicon Valley's economic structure is quite similar to how whaling functions in the 19th century. Though the two industries are nearly two centuries apart, they both rely on the "Long Tail" theory. They also discuss the significant differences. 

If you want to learn more about the connection between whalers and Silicon Valley, we recommend the book VC: An American History by Tom Nicholas.

CLICK HERE for more sources and more information.

This has been a production of the Nantucket Atheneum. It was hosted by Janet Forest. It was co-hosted and researched by Jim Borzilleri. Production support by Shire Video. The Nantucket Whaler was voiced by Reference Library Associate James Grieder

A special thanks to Tech Founder and Nantucket High School Alum Fernando Young of Beluga Labs.

Music by Tunetank and Medieval_Horizons from Pixabay.

The Nantucket Atheneum is located at 1 India Street in Nantucket, MA. We would love for you to stop by and say hello. You can find us online at NantucketAtheneum.org or search @NantucketAtheneum on facebook and Instagram.

In medieval times, Tiffany was a common woman’s name. It comes from the Italian word for Epiphany. But today, it is more likely to be associated with the 1980s or the jewelry store, so the name pulls the reader out of the story. This predicament of removing historically accurate details to seem more historically accurate was coined the Tiffany Paradox or the Tiffany Effect. 

In this season of the podcast, We look for examples of the Tiffany Paradox in Nantucket’s history. We invite special guests to share insights into each topic.

Were Nantucket whalers the original tech giants? 

What factors went into restoring the Oldest House as it is?

Who decides what gets preserved what gets forgotten?

This is a production of the Nantucket Atheneum. It is hosted by Janet Forest. It is co-hosted and researched by Reference Library Associate Jim Borzilleri. Production support by Shire Video. Music by Tunetank from Pixabay

The Nantucket Atheneum is located at 1 India Street in Nantucket, MA. We would love for you to stop by and say hello. You can find us online at nantucketatheneum.org or search @NantucketAtheneum on facebook and Instagram.

You can find all the previous episodes of this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you are listening now. If you like this episode, please share it with a friend!

Janet speaks with Head of Adult Programs Sammy Aguiar and Young Adult Librarian Sierra Hurd about the escape room they designed and installed this past spring called "The Wreck of the Essex."

They are bringing it back for one night only on Thursday, July 17. CLICK HERE to sign up for a time slot.

This is a production of the Nantucket Atheneum. It is written, edited and hosted by Janet Forest. Thanks to Sammy Aguiar and Sierra Hurd for their time. Special thanks to Shire Video for production support.

Janet speaks with Adult Collections Manager Pamela McGrady and Reference Library Associate Jim Borzilleri about why the Atheneum no longer accepts book donations.

This is a production of the Nantucket Atheneum. It is written, edited and hosted by Janet Forest. Thanks to Pamela McGrady and Jim Borzilleri for their time. Special thanks to Shire Video for production support.

In this final bonus episode of Season 6, we invite back on Jascin Leonardo Finger from the Maria Mitchell Association to discuss what role Florence Easton Conable played in the the founding of the organization and the greater influence she and her contemporaries had on women's rights at-large.

This is a production of the Nantucket Atheneum. It is hosted and edited by Janet Forest. It was researched, fact checked and co-hosted by Reference Library Associate Jim Borzilleri. Special thanks to Shire Video for production support.

SHOW NOTES
If something piqued your interest and it isn’t in the Show Notes, please email [email protected]. and include “Podcast Question” in the subject header. 

• Special thanks to Kurt Gally, Alyssa Gouw, and the  team at the Monrovia California Public Library for their research assistance on this episode.
  
  
• The founding and growth of the Maria Mitchell Association is documented on the Association website.
  
  
• Florence Conable might have become re-acquainted with Capt. Arthur Fisher when he visited Nantucket in 1904.
  
  
•  Florence’s friendships and social activities on Nantucket blended into her life in Monrovia. For example, she likely met Capt. Richard and Caroline Swain when they visited Nantucket in 1912 (discussed in Episode 6). The following January, Florence hosted a Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A. R.) event in Monrovia where Caroline was one of the guests of honor and gave a talk about Japan. The other Guests of Honor were Mrs. Eleanor Williams Morgan, Regent of the Nantucket D.A.R. Chapter, and Helen  Parker Willard, wife of Henry K. Willard, the young man Florence first met at the Surfside Depot party in 1882 (discussed in Episode 11). 
  
  
• The Willards summered on Nantucket and wintered in Pasadena. They were close friends with Florence (while her Sconset cottage was being renovated in 1913, Florence stayed with the Willard’s at “Wesco”, their house on Orange St). Florence and the Willard’s were also members of the “Silver Grays”, an informal group that socialized and travelled together in Southern California.
  
  
• It’s also possible that during her stay with the Willards, Florence met Capt. Peter’s Hussey daughter, Phoebe Hussey Allen, whose family was renting a cottage just around the corner in Gorham’s Court. (Phoebe is the only one of Peter Hussey’s children known to have visited Nantucket).
  
  
• Florence may have later seen Richard and Caroline Swain during their extended visit to North America in 1921-22. If not on Nantucket that summer, then possibly in Monrovia when they passed through California on their way back to Asia.
  
  
• To put in perspective how much changed during the era we explored this season, consider this article from the June 14, 1930, I&M:
  
  “From California to Nantucket in Ninety-six Hours. Mrs. Morris Conable arrived in Nantucket, Wednesday evening, to spend the summer at her cottage in 'Sconset, and made the trip across the country from California to Nantucket in four days. She left there Saturday evening and in 96 hours was heading in over Nantucket bar. Fast train service and close connections at Chicago and Boston favored her in the journey.”
  
  Unimpressive today, but when Peter Hussey made his first voyage to the Pacific in 1847 at the start of our series, four months would have been a noteworthy time...

In this second episode about Florence Easton Conable, Jim and Janet speak with Vassar’s Head of Special Collections and College Historian Ronald Patkus about what the emerging women's college was like when Florence arrived on campus.

This is a production of the Nantucket Atheneum. It is hosted and edited by Janet Forest. It was researched, fact checked and co-hosted by Reference Library Associate Jim Borzilleri. Special thanks to Shire Video for production support.

SHOW NOTES: If something piqued your interest and it isn’t in the Show Notes, please email [email protected]. and include “Podcast Question” in the subject header. 

• Sample questions for the 1878 Vassar College Entrance Examination were included in its Annual Catalog. (Florence Easton did particularly well on the Greek and Latin sections; how would you do?)
  
  
• Link to the Vassar College Digital Library
  • Photo of Main Building ca. 1860’s.
  • The Trigonometry Ceremony remained a tradition until the 1890s. Florence Easton’s Nantucket education prepared her for the material, something we will discuss in our next episode.
• Ella Gardner (‘77) and Florence Easton (‘82) were the only students from Nantucket listed as graduates of Vassar College in its early decades. However, eight other Nantucket women attended as Special or Preparatory students, and/or were enrolled but did not graduate:
  • Charlotte Puffer Baxter: Special, 1871-72
  • Phebe West Bunker: Special/College 1871-1873
  • Charlotte Eliza Coffin: College, 1869-70 
  • Francis Mitchell Macy: (Niece of Maria Mitchell), School of Art,1878-79.
  • Helen Marshall: College, 1872-73
  • Emma Louise Nickerson: Special, 1871-72
  • Annie Eliza Spencer: Preparatory,1874-75
  • Maria Mitchell Starbuck: Special, 1868-70
• Many other young woman would be added if we included those with Nantucket ancestry. Brooklyn-born Elizabeth Coffin graduated in 1870, and Florence’s classmate, Susan Coffin Coleman was from Cleveland.
  
  
• The drop in Nantucket attendees reflects both the island’s declining population and the establishment of competing women’s colleges.
  
  
• The scrapbooks of Florence Easton’s classmates, Jesse Wheeler and Anne Wyman, give a sense of their campus life.
  
  
• See the Show Notes for Episode 8 (The Daughters of the Samurai) for a discussion of Florence’s scrapbook of her Vassar years, which includes a photo of Sutematsu Yamakawa Oyama

© The Nantucket Atheneum - March 29, 2025 

Jim and Janet are back with three bonus episodes about Florence Easton Conable, who gets just a small mention on one episode, but who helps tie the whole series together. She has personal connections to our three Nantucket Sea Captains, was a classmate of the Samurai Daughters and friends with Maria Mitchell. In this first episode we give an overview of her life. 

This is a production of the Nantucket Atheneum. It is hosted and edited by Janet Forest. It was researched, fact checked and co-hosted by Reference Library Associate Jim Borzilleri. Special thanks to Shire Video for production support.

SHOW NOTES: If something piqued your interest and it isn’t in the Show Notes, please email [email protected]. and include “Podcast Question” in the subject header. 

• Other prominent Nantucketer’s holding positions at the Michigan Central Railroad in the mid-1850’s included Charles B. Swain Esq., Agent of the Company’s Great Lakes steamers, and Frederick Hussey, (uncle of Capt. Peter Hussey), who was an accountant.

• The quoted letters written by Florence Easton Conable are part of the Archives and Special Collections Library at Vassar College. We will be discussing its other relevant holdings with Ronald Patkus, head of Special Collections at Vassar College, in our next episode.

• Edward Bellemy’s “Six to One” may be the first “rom com” set on Nantucket. We discussed it in our podcast from Season 2, The Shelves of Yore: Annals and Idyls from the 1900s, starting around 09:50 (but the prior discussions are also pretty interesting).

• The jaw-dropping scope of the development planned for Surfside is detailed in the “Plan of the Lands of the Nantucket Surfside Land co…. [1881]” (Courtesy of the Nantucket Historical Association).

• For a general history of the Progressive Movement, see Michael McGerr’s, “A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920”. (2005) [available via CLAMS]. For a more detailed discussion of its impact on Southern California, see Kevin Starr’s “Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era” (2014). [Available via ComCat]

• Florence Easton Conable remained politically and socially active. (At age 82, she was reappointed to the Board of the Monrovia Public Library.) She died in California in her 90th year and was buried next to her late husband in Cortland, N.Y.

• “Inn and Out”, the cottage inherited by Florence Easton Conable was documented in “Architectural & Historical Report for 6 Center Street Siasconset…”. It was prepared by Marsha L. Fader, AIA Architect and Betsy Tyler, Historian for The ‘Sconset Trust, Inc.