Nantucket Atheneum Podcast

Now it is time to meet some of these sea captains that were born in Nantucket, but became part of the Japanese expat community. This episode discusses Captain Peter Hussey.
 
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 the Berkshire Athenaeum for use of their space and 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.

The three captains we profile were atypical in their longevity and financial stability.

• Nantucket-born Robert Coleman, who was just a few years younger than Arthur Fisher, had risen to First Officer of the Mitsu-Bishi Steamship Co. However, in 1886 , he died, age 29, during a smallpox outbreak at Nagasaki.
  
  
• Our subjects were also impacted by the lack of shared information and slow transmission of information that did exist.
  • Credit rating agencies and uniform accounting procedures did not yet exist, so even within a firm, serious issues could go undetected.
  • Merchants had to rely on an individual’s reputation within their business community or a referral from a trusted party. Better candidates undoubtedly existed, but they were unknown or could not be verified.
  • Until the deployment of the telegraph, a round-trip business communication between China and America could take up to a year.
  • Even with the construction of the railway across Panama communication between California and the East Coast cities took several weeks, contributing to the glut of goods arriving at San Francisco and the collapse of its markets.
• On Nantucket whaleships, a cooper made and assembled the casks, whose liquid contents were measured in barrels (1 barrel = 31 ½ U.S. gallons). 
  
  
• George Bruce Upton, (1804-1874), exemplified how Nantucket’s wealth helped fuel America’s westward expansion.
• A successful Nantucket merchant, he held several political offices, and was a member of a firefighting company, skilled using explosives to demolish buildings as a firestop. He supervised the practice demolition of a vacant windmill, and during the Great Fire of 1838 the destruction of four buildings.
• After moving to Boston Upton channeled his Nantucket wealth into clipper ships. He also invested in railroads as part of John M. Forbes’ “Boston Group”, becoming Treasurer of their Michigan Central Railroad. 
• Portraits of George Upton and Anne Upton, now in the NHA, reflect their status. Their son George Jr. would become a regular summer visitor into the 20th century.
• The Bark Ly-ee-moon was commissioned for the Asia trade and built in Fairhaven Massachusetts by Moses Delano (distant relative of Warren). It was sold by its American owners to a Hong Kong firm before its launch in 1862. 

© The Nantucket Atheneum

When we left off, the samurai class was on the brink of revolt because they were tired of being bureaucrats and westerners were circling the shores of Japan itching to get in. It’s 1853 and the situation has reached a boiling point.
 
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 the Berkshire Athenaeum for use of their space and 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.

• In 1852, Cmdr. Perry visited New Bedford “for the purpose of obtaining information from our whaling captains in relation to the cost of Japan and securing their cooperation in the enterprise.” [I&M, May 8th, 1852]
  
  
• Manjuro’s life is featured in Christopher Benfey’s “Great Wave”.  His years in New Bedford are detailed in “The Life and Times of John Manjuro,” by D. R. Bernard. Manjuro was lucky to be brought before the ruler of Satsuma, who was particularly unhappy with the Shogunate and already looking to the West for both trade and weapons technology. 
  
  
• Warren Delano’s involvement in the opium trade and the resulting First Opium War is discussed in “Barons of the Sea”. Both Wars and their legacy is covered in Julia Lovell’s “The Opium War: Drugs, Dreams, and the Making of Modern China”.
  • Not lost on the Japanese negotiators was that the “Unfair” treaties being imposed on them by the Western Powers were based on those imposed on China after the First Opium War. 
  • While the West remained intransigent on most of the other terms, they readily agreed to ban importation of opium into Japan, mainly because of Japanese demand for other Western goods.
  • The Boshin War and its aftermath are the backdrop to Janice Nimura’s “Daughters of the Samurai”, which we will cover in upcoming episodes. 
• With Perry ‘s arrival, the Shogunate knew they had to open Japan, but planned to do so only to quickly reach parity and then re-negotiate as equals.
  • However, even this was seen as surrender by the already unhappy Samurai, leading to their rebellion.
  • Over the next 15 years, the Shogunate was violently disposed, the nobility transitioned to becoming governors of their former domains, and a small group of younger Samurai consolidated their power, ruling in the name of the Emperor (though any decisions made by the monarch had to be obeyed).
• Dr. Noelle Wilson gave an excellent presentation about the Japanese whaling apprentice programs and Hakkodate’s brief role as the “Nantucket of the Pacific” as part of the NHA Nantucket University  series.

© The Nantucket Atheneum

After the collapse of whaling and the discovery of gold in California, Nantucket mariners fled the island for their next opportunity. Many would eventually end up in Japan. In this episode, we find out what was going on in Japan prior to the arrival of islanders.

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 the Berkshire Athenaeum for the use of their whisper booth and 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.

• Key texts consulted for this episode include:
  • “A modern history of Japan: from Tokugawa times to the present (3rd ed.)” by A. Andrew Gordon. (2014, Oxford University Press.) 
  • Japan: The Story of A Nation (4th ed.), by E. O. Reischauer. . (1989, McGraw-Hill) . [somewhat dated]

Both are available from the Nantucket Atheneum via the Commonwealth Catalog 

• A more visual resource is the “MIT Visualizing Cultures” website . It includes several modules on Tokugawa and Meiji Japan, utilizing a mix of graphic and text display.
  
  
• Those with a basic understanding of the Meiji Era should enjoy the “Meiji at 150 Podcast” series created at the University of British Columbia in 2017-2018
  
  
• If you watched the recent adaptation of James Clavel’s “Shogun”: 
  • The consolidation of power under the Shogunate and the closing off of Japan to outsiders occurred in the early 1600’s, bringing an end to the centuries of  war and chaos depicted in most Samurai movies.
  • The events discussed in this podcast begin roughly 250 years after “Shogun”, (i.e. starting around 1850). For perspective, that’s about as far as we are today from the Boston Tea Party.
• Most Westerners perceived Japan as having three significant hierarchical social classes: Nobility, Samurai, and “Commoners”. Aside from the imposition of Western concepts, what was sometimes overlooked was that “Commoners” had its own hierarchy.
  • “Peasants” were the most esteemed, followed by skilled artisans. Merchants, considered non-productive, were placed near the bottom.
  • Social hierarchy didn’t always reflect economic reality. Many peasants (i.e. farmers), in both the West and Japan could be quite prosperous and influential in their community.
  • Ironically, the stability imposed by the Shogunate not only facilitated peasant wealth, it enabled the rise of densely populated cities. Merchant and artisan “townsmen”, low in the social order, also ascended to the top of the economic order.
  • This new wealth was increasingly detached from the traditional agricultural economy and the taxation that supported the Noble and Samurai classes. The resulting social tensions came to a head when Perry’s ships visited Edo (now Tokyo) in 1853).
• The concept of the “Great Divergence” remains controversial. What is agreed is that many 19th Century Westerners perceived Japan as “backward” in at least their technology, and that remarkable strides were made (as we shall see in later episodes), to close the gap in just a few decades.

© The Nantucket Atheneum

In Season Six of the Nantucket Atheneum Podcast, Janet and Jim are back to trace the travels of islanders that made their way around the world to Japan in the 19th century. In this first episode, we try to answer the question "What happened after Nantucket?"

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 the Berkshire Athenaeum for the use of their whisper booth and 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. 

Nantucket’s connection to Japan pre-dates Commodore Perry’s arrival and extends to the present day. Our podcast series focuses on a handful of individuals, active in the Meiji era of Japan (1868-1912), as they illuminate the rich complexity of that connection. We hope that others will be inspired by to bring additional lives and eras to light…  

• For those new to Nantucket and its history, our “go-to” introduction is Nathaniel Philbrick’s “Away Off Shore”. 
  
  
• The Summer 1999 Issue of the NHA’s Historic Nantucket Magazine was devoted to the islanders’ experience in Gold Rush California. 
  
  
• The post-whaling emigration from Nantucket’s was common knowledge at the time. A “Letter From Nantucket” originally published in the Fall River News on Aug 3, 1877, and reprinted in the I&M on Aug 18th (page 4), describes:
  “….its sons bearing the honored names of Coffin, Hussey, Barker, Rotch, Joy, Macy, Starbuck, Mitchell, or others equally familiar, leaving the paternal roofs, and applying their native shrewdness and their academic and collegiate education in honorable avocations in distant marts; with its daughters famed for their beauty, tidiness and culture, presiding over houses in all the Northern States.….For one hundred years Nantucket prospered; now she sits in widow’s weeds.” 
  
  
• “Barons of the Sea and Their Race to Build the World’s Fastest Clipper Ship” by Steven Ujifusa is available at the Nantucket Atheneum and Island bookstores. 
  
  
• Additional information about Frederick Sanford is  available at the Nantucket Atheneum Reference Dept, including background information on the five Delano and Low ships whose portraits hang in the Atheneum Great Hall. 
  
  
• The Nantucket Atheneum also has copies of Mr. Ujifusa’s recent works:
  • A man and his ship: America's greatest naval architect and his quest to build the S.S. United States “ 
  • The last ships from Hamburg : business, rivalry, and the race to save Russia's Jews on the eve of World War I 

© Nantucket Atheneum

“How Much Can You Change What You Are, To Preserve What You Have Been?”

Sit back, open your mind, and get ready for ... Japan-Nantucket (Rashomon)

In this season of the podcast, we will explore one aspect of the “Nantucket diaspora” by tracing three journeys:

Islanders who built careers commanding Japanese-owned steamships and resided in Japan for decades. While they tried to maintain their former lives in western enclaves, their brief return visits to the Island revealed how different they had become. 

Three young Japanese girls making the reverse journey, from Japan to America. Not as immigrants, but students, mandated to return and help transform their once-closed nation into a modern industrial state. Like our Captains, the girls were changed by the experience and after their return struggled to remain  “Japanese” in a nation balance tradition against the existential need to become a global power.

Americans who went to Japan not to make their fortune, but to acquire and preserve its material past before it was swept away by the modern age. They quickly discovered that the decision of what to acquire, and whose opinion to follow, altered the definition of what was  “authentic”. And their immersion in a culture they were just beginning to comprehend altered their sense of what was authentic in their own lives.

Three books, will be our guideposts for these journeys:

1.         Barons of the Sea, by Steven UIjifusa

2.         Daughters of the Samurai, by Janice Namura

3.         The Great Wave, by Steven Benfey

This is a production of the Nantucket Atheneum.

In this final episode of Season 5, James picks up where we left off in Henry Clapp Jr.'s story. He begins holding court at Pfaff's Beer Hall where aspiring arts and writers vie for a seat at his table. This period is short lived, but it will become a huge part of Clapp's legacy.

Sources and references:

CLICK HERE to read Henry Clapp Jr.’s Obituary as printed in the Inquirer & Mirror on April 17, 1875

Notes on Henry Clapp's epitaph written by his friends and colleagues:
 - The first lines are from a poem by William Winter
- “Figaro” refers to Clapp's pen name.

This has been a production of the Nantucket Atheneum.

It was hosted and edited by Janet Forest. Special thanks to Reference Library Associate James Greider for his knowledge and research. 

If you have an idea for what we should talk about next, send us an email at [email protected]

The Nantucket Atheneum is located at 1 India Street in Nantucket, MA.
www.NantucketAtheneum.org
Facebook: @NantucketAtheneum
Instagram: @NantucketAtheneum

In this episode, James picks up where we left off with Henry Clapp's return to Paris where experience a person transformation that turns  his world view on its head. With his new found lifestyle, he goes back to the use and eventually finds his way to New York City and rubs elbows with artists and actors and even advocates for the "free love" movement.

Sources and references:

CLICK HERE to read the full announcement for Clapp’s “Paris As It Is” lecture series the Nantucket Weekly Mirror on March 25, 1854

The episode image is by Frank Bellew is from the February 6, 1864 issue of Demorest's New York Illustrated News. 

This has been a production of the Nantucket Atheneum.

It was hosted and edited by Janet Forest. Special thanks to Reference Library Associate James Greider for his knowledge and research. Newspaper announcement voiced by Andrew Cromartie. 

If you have an idea for what we should talk about next, send us an email at [email protected]

The Nantucket Atheneum is located at 1 India Street in Nantucket, MA.
www.NantucketAtheneum.org
Facebook: @NantucketAtheneum
Instagram: @NantucketAtheneum 

The last three episodes of this season are dedicated to Henry Clapp, Jr., who was a writer, publisher and activists that moved in circles with William Loyd Garrison, Walt Whitman and other historical figure. He lived large and made a big splash wherever he went but has been mostly lost to history...Until now.

In part one, James explains Clapp's early life and his foray into political activism where impressed some and angered others.

Sources and references:

CLICK HERE to read the full review of “The True Aim of Life”, Inquirer & Mirror, Dec. 18, 1841” 

CLICK HERE to see the map of Nantucket by William Coffin and published by Henry Clapp Sr. in 1834.

This has been a production of the Nantucket Atheneum.

It was hosted and edited by Janet Forest. Special thanks to Reference Library Associate James Greider for his knowledge and research. Newspaper announcement voiced by Andrew Cromartie. 

If you have an idea for what we should talk about next, send us an email at [email protected]

The Nantucket Atheneum is located at 1 India Street in Nantucket, MA.
www.NantucketAtheneum.org
Facebook: @NantucketAtheneum
Instagram: @NantucketAtheneum 

In this episode, James describes the mid-19th century crazy of panoramas that tours the country and wowed audiences for a while before fading into the background, so to speak.

Notes and References:

Read the special notice for the Mammoth Panorama in the Inquired and Mirror on Monday, March 26, 1849 HERE.

See photos and more information about the Gettysburg Cyclorama HERE.

More on John Banvard from Atlas Obscura can be found HERE.

In 1918, the New Bedford Whaling Museum acquired the Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage Round the World, created by artists Benjamin Russell and Caleb Purrington in 1848, and recently completed work on its preservation.
Click here to watch a video of the panorama.

This has been a production of the Nantucket Atheneum.

It was hosted and edited by Janet Forest. Special thanks to Reference Library Associate James Greider for his knowledge and research. Newspaper announcement voiced by Andrew Cromartie. 

If you have an idea for what we should talk about next, send us an email at [email protected]

The Nantucket Atheneum is located at 1 India Street in Nantucket, MA. 

www.NantucketAtheneum.org
Facebook: @NantucketAtheneum
Instagram: @NantucketAtheneum 

In this episode, James and Janet discuss the impresarios who performed in Atheneum Hall and introduced islanders to the world of magic and illusion.  

Resources and additional information:

Woodcut images from Yankee Hill's book Scenes from the Life of an Actor (1853).
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Q6q8FgL3eAA/RrsXpR3WdxI/AAAAAAAAAG8/9TaIPNb2UOg/s1600-h/hiramdodgeyankeepeddler.gif

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q6q8FgL3eAA/RrsXph3WdyI/AAAAAAAAAHE/_83I2-tJdxY/s1600-h/jedidiahhomebredgreenmountainboy.gif

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Q6q8FgL3eAA/RrsXph3WdzI/AAAAAAAAAHM/u_f83eUs4jM/s1600-h/nathantuckerwifeforaday.gif

Woodcut images of Dr. Valentine’s Comic Metamorphoses
Click here for photos.

Portraits of Signor Blitz
Click here for photos.
Advertisement for Signor Blitz's performance at Atheneum Hall, which appeared in the April 14, 1840 issue of The Islander.
Click here to see ad.

Andrew MacAllister in his elaborate stage costumes.
Click here for photos.

This has been a production of the Nantucket Atheneum.

It was hosted and edited by Janet Forest. Special thanks to Reference Library Associate James Greider for his knowledge and research. Newspaper announcement voiced by Andrew Cromartie.

If you have an idea for what we should talk about next, send us an email at [email protected]

The Nantucket Atheneum is located at 1 India Street in Nantucket, MA.
www.NantucketAtheneum.org
Facebook: @NantucketAtheneum
Instagram: @NantucketAtheneum