Nantucket is a tourist destination andsummer colony. Due to tourists and seasonal residents, the population of the island increases to around 80,000 during the summer months.[2] The average sale price for a single-family home was $2.3 million in the first quarter of 2018.[3]
TheNational Park Service cites Nantucket, designated aNational Historic Landmark District in 1966, as being the "finest surviving architectural and environmental example of a late 18th- and early 19th-century New England seaport town."[4]
Clinton Folger,mail carrier for Nantucket, towed his car to the state highway for driving toSiasconset, in observance of an early 20th-century ban on automobiles on town roads.1870s street scene on Nantucket
Nantucket probably takes its name from aWampanoag word, transliterated variously asnatocke,nantaticu,nantican,nautica ornatockete, which is part of Wampanoag lore about the creation ofMartha's Vineyard and Nantucket.[5] The meaning of the term is uncertain, although according to theEncyclopædia Britannica it may have meant "far away island" or "sandy, sterile soil tempting no one".[1] Wampanoag is anEastern Algonquian language of southern New England.[6] TheNehantucket (known to Europeans as the Niantic) were an Algonquin-speaking people of the area.[7]
Nantucket's nickname, "The Little Grey Lady of the Sea", refers to the island as it appears from the ocean when it is fog-bound.[8][9]
The earliest European colonial settlement in the region was established on the neighboring island ofMartha's Vineyard by the English-born merchantThomas Mayhew. In 1641, Mayhew secured Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, theElizabeth Islands, and other islands in the region as aproprietary colony fromSir Ferdinando Gorges and theEarl of Stirling. Mayhew led several families to settle the region, establishing several treaties with theindigenous inhabitants of Nantucket, theWampanoag people. These treaties helped prevent the region from becoming embroiled inKing Philip's War. The growing population of settlers welcomed seasonal groups of otherNative American tribes who traveled to the island to fish and later harvest whales that washed up on shore. Nantucket was officially part ofDukes County,New York, until October 17, 1691, when the charter for the newly formedProvince of Massachusetts Bay was signed. Following the arrival of the new Royal Governor on May 14, 1692, to effectuate the new government, Nantucket County was partitioned fromDukes County, Massachusetts in 1695.[10]
European settlement of Nantucket did not begin in earnest until 1659, when Thomas Mayhew sold nine-tenths of his interest to a group of investors, led byTristram Coffin, "for the sum of thirty pounds (equal to £5,363 today) also two beaver hats, one for myself, and one for my wife".[11]
The nine original purchasers were Tristram Coffin, Peter Coffin,Thomas Macy,Christopher Hussey, Richard Swain, Thomas Barnard,Stephen Greenleaf, John Swain and William Pile. Mayhew and the nine purchasers then each took on partners in the venture. These additional shareholders were Tristram Coffin Junior, James Coffin, John Smith, Robert Pike, Thomas Look, Robert Barnard, Edward Starbuck, Thomas Coleman, John Bishop and Thomas Mayhew Junior. These twenty men and their heirs were the Proprietors.[12]
Anxious to add to their number and to induce tradesmen to come to the island, the total number of shares was increased to twenty-seven. The original purchasers needed the assistance of tradesmen who were skilled in the arts of weaving, milling, building and other pursuits and selected men who were given half a share provided that they lived on Nantucket and carried on their trade for at least three years. By 1667, twenty-seven shares had been divided among 31 owners.[13] Seamen and tradesmen who settled in Nantucket included Richard Gardner (arrived 1667) and Capt. John Gardner (arrived 1672), sons ofThomas Gardner.[14] The first settlers focused on farming and raising sheep, butovergrazing and the growing number of farms made these activities untenable, and the islanders soon began turning to the sea for a living.[15]
The town on Nantucket Island, when it was still called Sherburne, in 1775
Before 1795, the town on the island was called Sherburne.[16] The original settlement was near Capaum Pond. At that time, the pond was a small harbor whose entrance silted up, forcing the settlers to dismantle their houses and move them northeast by two miles to the present location.[17] On June 8, 1795, the bill proposed byMicajah Coffin to change the town's name to the "Town of Nantucket" was endorsed and signed by GovernorSamuel Adams to officially change the town name.[18]
The early settlers brought enslaved African Americans to Nantucket. Although slavery was not abolished on the island until 1773, earlier in the century freed African Americans established a neighbourhood called New Guinea (later Newtown) on the south-west outskirts of the main town, near the windmills on Mill Hill. The community thrived during the 18th and 19th centuries, with shops, churches, a school and a dance hall as well as houses. The building on the corner of York and Pleasant Streets, founded in 1824 as a school, church and meeting-house, was acquired by the Museum of African American History in 1999. During the nineteenth century, Nantucket, which by this time was predominantly Quaker and supported the abolition of slavery, became part of theUnderground Railroad, providing sanctuary to African Americans escaping slavery on the mainland.[19][20] New Guinea was also home toHawaiian Islanders who worked on the Nantucket whaleships, and to Wampanoags who had married into the African American community.[21][19]
When English settlers arrived on Nantucket in 1659, the island was populated by WampanoagNative Americans, one of theIndigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who had been living there for thousands of years. As many as three thousand people lived on the island in groups governed bysachems.[22]: 17, 21 Within two years of their arrival, the settlers had persuaded two of the sachems, Wanackmamack and Nickanoose, to relinquish their rights to the island in exchange for 66pounds sterling, equal to £11,798 today).[22]: 26-7 In 1750 the deeds were upheld by a judge from theGeneral Court of Massachusetts in spite of petitions from the Wampanoags claiming that the sachems had not had the authority to sell the land.[22]: 52 The Wampanoags converted to Christianity and took up trades that were useful to the settlers, becoming, for example, carpenters and weavers.[22]: 40 When the whaling industry developed on Nantucket in the 18th century, Wampanoag men went to sea and often made up half or more of the crew of the whaling ships.[22]: 44-6 By the beginning of the 18th century, a system ofdebt bondage had been implemented to provide local colonists with steady access to a pool of Wampanoag labor.[23]
During the century that followed the arrival of the settlers, the Wampanoag community did not thrive, and by 1763 they numbered only 358 people. Various factors contributed to this decline, including the destruction of the ecosystem that had sustained them, the disadvantages they faced in competing in the developing money economy, losses at sea, and the detrimental effect ofrum on their health.[22]: 45-6,54 In 1763 the Wampanoag community was struck down by an epidemic of unknown origin, which killed 222 of them while leaving local colonists unaffected. Some of the survivors left Nantucket and some married into the small African community on the island.[22]: 52-4 Two children, Abram Quary andDorcas Esop, who were born after the epidemic and lived until 1854 and 1855, have been acknowledged as Nantucket's last Native Americans. Wampanoags fromMartha's Vineyard andCape Cod have since then lived on Nantucket.[22]: 56
In his 1835 history of Nantucket Island, Obed Macy wrote that in the early pre-1672 colony, a whale of the kind called "scragg" entered the harbor and was pursued and killed by the settlers.[25] This event started the Nantucket whaling industry. A. B. Van Deinse points out that the "scrag whale", described by P. Dudley in 1725 as one of the species hunted by early New England whalers, was almost certainly thegray whale, which has flourished on thewest coast ofNorth America in modern times with protection from whaling.[26][27]
At the beginning of the 18th century, whaling on Nantucket was usually done from small boats launched from the island's shores, which would tow killed whales to be processed on the beach. These boats were only about seven meters long, with mostly Wampanoag manpower, sourced from a system ofdebt servitude established by local colonists—a typical boat's crew had five Wampanoag oarsmen and a single white man at the steering oar. AuthorNathaniel Philbrick notes that "without the native population, which outnumbered the white population well into the 1720s, the island would never have become a successful whaling port."[15]
Herman Melville commented on Nantucket's whaling dominance in his novelMoby-Dick, Chapter 14: "Two thirds of this terraqueous globe are the Nantucketer's. For the sea is his; he owns it, as Emperors own empires". TheMoby-Dick charactersAhab andStarbuck are both from Nantucket. The tragedy that inspired Melville to writeMoby-Dick was the final voyage of the Nantucket whalerEssex.
The island suffered great economic hardships, worsened by the "Great Fire" of July 13, 1846, that, fueled by whale oil and lumber, devastated the main town, burning some 40 acres (16 hectares).[29] The fire left hundreds homeless and poverty-stricken, and many people left the island.
By 1850, whaling was in decline, as Nantucket's whaling industry had been surpassed by that ofNew Bedford. Another contributor to the decline was the silting up of the harbor, which prevented large whaling ships from entering and leaving the port, unlike New Bedford, which still owned a deep water port. In addition, the development of railroads made mainland whaling ports, such as New Bedford, more attractive because of the ease oftransshipment of whale oil onto trains, an advantage unavailable to an island.[30] The onset of theCalifornia Gold Rush in 1849 further lured many of Nantucket’s workers from whaling, as many islanders abandoned whaling in pursuit of opportunities in the West. TheAmerican Civil War dealt the death blow to the island's whaling industry, as virtually all of the remaining whaling vessels were destroyed byConfederatecommerce raiders.[31]
As a result of this depopulation, the island was left under-developed and isolated until the mid-20th century. Isolation from the mainland kept many of the pre-Civil War buildings intact and, by the 1950s, enterprising developers began buying up large sections of the island and restoring them to create an upmarket destination for wealthy people in theNortheastern United States.[citation needed]
Nantucket and towns on Martha's Vineyard contemplated seceding from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which they considered at varioustown meetings in 1977, unsuccessfully. The votes were sparked by a proposed change to theMassachusetts Constitution that would have reduced the size of the state's House of Representatives from 240 to 160 members and would therefore reduce the islands' representation in theMassachusetts General Court.[32][33]
Thecobblestone Main Street in historic downtown Nantucket
According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 304 square miles (790 km2), of which 45 square miles (120 km2) is land and 259 square miles (670 km2) (85%) is water.[34] It is the smallest county in Massachusetts by land area and second-smallest by total area. The area of Nantucket Island proper is 47.8 square miles (124 km2). The triangular region of ocean between Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Cape Cod isNantucket Sound. The highest points on the island include Saul's Hill at 102 feet (31 m),[35] Altar Rock at 100 feet (30 m),[36] and Sankaty Head[37] at 92 feet (28 m).[35]
NASA satellite image of Nantucket Island
Nantucket was formed by the outermost reach of theLaurentide Ice Sheet during the recentWisconsin Glaciation, shaped by the subsequent rise in sea level. The low ridge across the northern section of the island was deposited asglacial moraine during a period of glacial standstill, a period during whichtill continued to arrive and was deposited as the glacier melted at a stationary front. The southern part of the island is anoutwash plain, sloping away from the arc of the moraine and shaped at its margins by the sorting actions and transport oflongshore drift. Nantucket became an island whenrising sea levels covered the connection with the mainland, about 5,000–6,000 years ago.[38]
The island and adjoining islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget comprise the Town and County of Nantucket, which is operated as aconsolidated town and county government. The main settlement, also called Nantucket, is located at the western end of Nantucket Harbor, where it opens into Nantucket Sound. Key localities on the island includeMadaket,Surfside,Polpis,Wauwinet, Miacomet, andSiasconset (generally shortened to "'Sconset").[39]
According to theKöppen climate classification system, Nantucket features a climate that isCfb (oceanic), a climate type rarely found on the east coast ofNorth America.[40] Nantucket's climate is heavily influenced by the Atlantic Ocean, which helps moderate temperatures in the town throughout the course of the year. Average high temperatures during the town's coldest month (January) are around 40 °F (4 °C), while average high temperatures during the town's warmest months (July and August) hover around 75 °F (24 °C). Nantucket receives on average 41 inches (1,000 mm) of precipitation annually, spread relatively evenly throughout the year. Similar to many other cities with an oceanic climate, Nantucket features a large number of cloudy or overcast days, particularly outside the summer months. The highest daily maximum temperature was 100 °F (38 °C) on August 2, 1975, and the highest daily minimum temperature was 76 °F (24 °C) on the same day. The lowest daily maximum temperature was 12 °F (−11 °C) on January 8, 1968, and the lowest daily minimum temperature was −3 °F (−19 °C) on December 31, 1962, January 16, 2004, andFebruary 4, 2023. Thehardiness zone is 7b.[41]
Climate data for Nantucket, Massachusetts (Nantucket Memorial Airport), 1991–2020 normals, extremes 1948–present
In 2021, a 270-page coastalresilience plan was drafted to deal with issues related toclimate change: groundwater table rise, coastal flooding, high tide flooding, and coastal erosion.[44] The plan identified forty proposed projects over the next fifteen years at a cost of $930 million.[44] The coastal resilience advisory coordinator anticipated damages through 2070 of $3.4 billion if nothing is done to fightsea level rise.[44]
The 2020 data for racial makeup of the county was 71.3% white, 7.2% black or African American, 1.9% Asian, 0.6% American Indian, 9.3% from other races, and 9.7% from two or more races. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin made up 16.2% of the population.[52] The median age of the population was 39.9 years; 22.2% were aged under 21 years, while 15.9% were aged over 65 years.[52]
According to the 2020 census data for Nantucket County, the largest groups by origins (alone or in any combination) wereIrish Americans (2,612),English (2,492),German (1,229),Italian (901),Jamaican (635),Scottish (632), French (476), Polish (389), Portuguese (285), African Americans (251), Swedish (247) and Bulgarian (201).[53] By Hispanic origins of any race, Salvadoran (1,143), Dominican (501),Mexican (124), Guatemalan (63), Spanish (46), Puerto Rican (41),Spaniard (34) and Colombian (32).[53]
There were 12,619 housing units on the island; 5,478 were occupied with most of the rest being for seasonal, recreational or occasional use. 59.7% of the occupied housing units were owner-occupied, 40.3% were renter-occupied.[52] Of the 5,478 households, 52.1% contained married or cohabiting couples. In 19.7% of households a couple were living with their children aged under 18, while a further 6% of households contained a householder living alone with their children under 18.[52]
In 2017–2021 the median income for a household in the county was $116,571 and the per capita income was $52,324. 5.9% of the population were living below thepoverty line.[51]
As of the fourth quarter of 2021, the median value of homes in Nantucket County was $1,370,522, an increase of 22.3% from the prior year, and ranked the highest in the US by median home value.[54]
Population density of Nantucket by census block (2020)[55]
Nantucket is the only such consolidated town-county in Massachusetts. As of the2020 census, the population was 14,255, making it the least populated county in Massachusetts.[56] Part of the town is designated theNantucket CDP, orcensus-designated place. The region of Surfside on Nantucket is the southernmost settlement in Massachusetts.
Town and county governments are combined in Nantucket (seeList of counties in Massachusetts). Nantucket's elected executive body is its Select Board (name changed in 2018 fromBoard of Selectmen),[57] which is responsible for the town government's goals and policies.[58] Legislative functions are carried out by an open Town Meeting of the Town's registered voters.[59] It is administered by a town manager, who is responsible for all departments, except for the school, airport and water departments.[60]
Nantucket is represented in theMassachusetts House of Representatives byDylan Fernandes, Democrat, of Woods Hole, who represents Precincts 1, 2, 5 and 6, of Falmouth, inBarnstable County; Chilmark, Edgartown, Aquinnah, Gosnold, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury, all inDukes County; and Nantucket. Rep. Fernandes has served since January 4, 2017. Nantucket is represented in theMassachusetts Senate byJulian Cyr, Democrat, ofTruro, who has also served since January 4, 2017.
In 2024, 63% of Nantucket residents were unaligned with a major political party, 25% were registered Democrats, and 10% were registered Republicans.[61]
Voter registration and party enrollment as of February 2024[62]
Throughout the late 19th and most of the 20th century, Nantucket was a Republican stronghold in presidential elections. From 1876 to 1984, only two Democrats carried Nantucket:Woodrow Wilson andLyndon Johnson. Since 1988, however, it has trended Democratic.
United States presidential election results for Nantucket County, Massachusetts[64]
In 1827,Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin set up the Coffin School to educate descendants ofTristram Coffin.[66] After initially faltering, the school was reconstituted in this building on Winter Street in 1854.
Nantucket's public school district isNantucket Public Schools. The Nantucket school system had 1,583 students and 137 teachers in 2017.[67]
Nantucket is home to both visual and performing arts. The island has been anart colony since the 1920s, whose artists have come to capture the natural beauty of the island's landscapes and seascapes, including its flora and the fauna. Noted artists who have lived on or painted in Nantucket includeFrank Swift Chase andTheodore Robinson. Illustrator and puppeteerTony Sarg moved to the island in 1922, and in 1937 created an inflatable creature which sailed across the harbour as part of the "sea monster" hoax.[72][73] Artist Rodney Charman was commissioned to create a series of paintings depicting the marine history of Nantucket, which were collected in the bookPortrait of Nantucket, 1659–1890: The Paintings of Rodney Charman in 1989.[74]
The island is the site of a number of festivals, including a book festival, wine and food festival, comedy festival, daffodil festival,[75] and a cranberry festival.[76]
The 1990s sitcomWings, which aired eight seasons from 1990 to 1997, was set in Nantucket. The series took place at the fictional "Tom Nevers Field" airport and other locations. It was filmed in LA but all of the establishing shots were filmed at various sites on the island and included fictional versions of real establishments, such as The Club Car restaurant.[78]
The 2007 comedyThe Nanny Diaries has the climax of the film take place at Mr X's Mother's Nantucket oversized Cape-Cod-styled home. Filmed in the Hamptons but made to look like Nantucket.[79]
In theQuentin Tarantino film,Inglourious Basterds, Colonel Hans Landa of the German Sicherheitsdienst negotiates a deal where he is awarded a property on Nantucket Island.
Ferry service is provided year-round by theSteamship Authority andHy-Line Cruises. Seasonal ferry services include ferries from New Bedford, Harwich, and Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard. Private boats can also access the island via Nantucket Harbor.[82]
The island is served byNantucket Memorial Airport (IATA: ACK), located on the south side of the island. During the summer months, the airport becomes one of the busiest in Massachusetts, handling a high volume of private aircraft and seasonal commercial flights. Carriers such asCape Air operate frequent regional flights, primarily using small aircraft such as theCessna 402 andTecnam P2012 Traveler.JetBlue andAmerican AirlinesDelta Connection AndUnited Express also offer seasonal jet service to major hubs including Boston, New York, and Washington, D.C. Chicago O’Hare and Newark NJ
From 1900 to 1918, Nantucket was one of few jurisdictions in the United States that banned automobiles.[83]
A narrow-gauge railway, the Nantucket Railroad, operated from 1881 to 1917, connecting Nantucket town to Surfside and later to Siasconset. It served both passengers and freight but was eventually shut down due to financial difficulties and the rise of alternative transportation.
During the early 20th century, steamboats were the primary means of reaching the island. These vessels connected Nantucket to the mainland before the rise of modern ferry systems and air travel.
TheArgo Merchant ran aground on December 15, 1976. A silvery oil slick can be seen coming from the center holds in the foreground.
Nantucket waters were the site of several noted transportation disasters:
On May 15, 1934, the ocean linerRMSOlympic, sister ship toRMSTitanic, rammed and sank theNantucket Lightship LV-117 in heavy fog, roughly 45 miles south of Nantucket Island. Four men survived out of a crew of 11.
On July 25, 1956, the Italian ocean linerSSAndrea Doria collided with theMSStockholm in heavy fog 45 miles (72 km) south of Nantucket, resulting in the deaths of 51 people (46 on theAndrea Doria, 5 on theStockholm).
On December 15, 1976, theoil tankerArgo Merchant ran aground 29 miles (47 km) southeast of Nantucket. Six days later, on December 21, the wrecked ship broke apart, causing a largeoil spill.
On October 31, 1999,EgyptAir Flight 990, traveling fromNew York City toCairo, crashed approximately 60 miles (97 km) south of Nantucket, killing all 217 people on board.
^Huden, John C. (1962).Indian Place Names of New England. New York: Museum of the American Indian. Cited in: Bright, William (2004).Native American Place Names in the United States. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, p. 312
^abcdefghKarttunen, Frances Ruley (2005).The Other Islanders: People who pulled Nantucket's oars. New Bedford, Massachusetts: Spinner Publications, Inc.ISBN0932027938.
^Nathaniel Philbrick,In the Heart of the Sea: The Incredible True Story that Inspired Moby-Dick,William Collins 2000 p.5.
^Macy, Obed (1835).The History of Nantucket:being a compendious account of the first settlement of the island by the English:together with the rise and progress of the whale fishery, and other historical facts relative to said island and its inhabitants:in two parts. Boston: Hilliard, Gray & Co.ISBN1-4374-0223-2.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
^Van Deinse, A. B. (1937). "Recent and older finds of the gray whale in the Atlantic".Temminckia.2:161–188.
^Dudley, P (1725). "An essay upon the natural history of whales".Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.33:256–259.doi:10.1098/rstl.1724.0053.S2CID186208376.
^Hinchman, Lydia S. (February 1907), "William Rotch and the Neutrality of Nantucket during the Revolutionary War",Bulletin of Friends' Historical Society of Philadelphia,1 (2):49–55,doi:10.1353/qkh.1907.a399227,S2CID160684041
^The most recent survey of the geology of Cape Cod and the islands, accessible to the layman, is Robert N. Oldale,Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket: The Geologic Story, 2001.
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