Family Registers:
Genealogical Decorative Art

By Donna Smith Fee

The Nantucket Historical Association is mounting an exhibition this spring and summer at the Whitney Gallery in the Research Library that simultaneously illuminates the importance of family history and Nantucket history. On display is a genre of decorative art called family registers: eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century compositions that use art and symbolism to show the life passages of birth, marriage, and death.

New England registers were customarily made with watercolors, paper cutwork, embroidery, ink, and oils, but most of the pieces in the NHA's collection are in watercolors. Creators of the registers were schoolchildren, or town clerks, teachers, or commissioned professional artists-all with a sure command of calligraphy. Registers were made in memory of someone, or sometimes as a wedding gift in which icons such as fruits and flowers would be left blank awaiting the names of future children. Family members who had died were depicted by a broken branch or a brownish flower.

Edward D. Burke, who made several of the registers in the NHA collection, is believed to have been a schoolteacher and a professional genealogical artist whose registers were commissioned pieces. Other registers in the collection were made by Phebe Folger, Rebecca Folger, and Eunice Gardner, who were connected to the families depicted.

Most of the registers in the Nantucket collection include the central motif of entwined flowering vines stemming from a pair of hearts growing out of the fertile earth. The Nantucket registers are similar to those created on Martha's Vineyard and in other nearby coastal towns and are unique when compared to those made in inland communities. The isolated maritime communities pursued similar occupations in the fishing and whaling industries and produced similar patterns in folk art, which were permanently adopted by local artisans. Another reason for the repeated use of the "hearts-and-vine" motif in Nantucket and the region is that the emblem is adaptable. It allows for the frequency of second and third unions among a population that saw many men off to sea never to return. Although marriages of widows and widowers were common enough, Peter Benes, coauthor of the recently published The Art of Family: Genealogical Artifacts in New England, suggests that a maritime enterprise was more likely to produce widows who would remarry than would the less risky farming establishments of inland New Englanders.

A bit of iconographic history further illuminates reasons for the popularity of the hearts-and-vine motif. According to information gleaned from the Cheney Residence, a repository of Phoenician and North African history and culture, the origin of the heart icon in the form of a seedpod goes back to the seventh century b.c.e. The heart-shaped seedpod was from a now-extinct species of giant fennel called silphium, which was a highly valued trading commodity in northern Africa. The city of Cyrene created coins bearing the image of the plant's seedpod. Silphium's enormous popularity was in part due to its efficacy as an herbal contraceptive. It was also used by the ancient Romans as an aphrodisiac, in perfumes, as a treatment for leprosy, as a hair restorative, and for wart removal.

Later, the icon of the heart came to have religious meaning as the symbol of everlasting life. Engravers and artists in Europe were prohibited from using the image because it was steeped in religious meaning. In New England, it became a popular gravestone illustration. By the time the heart icon became an emblem on the registers, it had come to symbolize the popular ideal of love. A pair of hearts on a register means the coming together of two people in the bonds of holy matrimony. Rising from the coupled hearts would be vines with flowers and seedpods to represent the fruits of marriage -- children.

The flower most commonly used on the Nantucket family registers resembles the ubiquitous native wild rose. Thriving in sandy soil and salt air, the local roses must have impressed those who created the family registers. They seem to be the perfect representation of what family demands: longevity, tolerance, and a few thorns for protection.

The family register of Thomas Hiller and Elizabeth Smith, drawn by Edward D. Burke, circa 1794-96, shows pink-hued rose petals with the seed pods containing the names of their children. It also includes the death dates of the children written in a hand different from that of the original artist, the family having added the new information.

The vines derive from the original "tree of life," which has its origins in the Book of Genesis, which places it in the Garden of Eden. The true botanical nature of the tree of life is disputed among biblical scholars but the top three contenders are the date palm, the olive tree, and the grape vine. All are ancient plants that produce life-sustaining fruits that nurture humankind. The coupling of hearts and vine now takes on a deeper emotional texture.

The Nantucket hearts-and-vine motif has its place among maritime artifacts as well. In the NHA's collection are ivory busks engraved with hearts and vines (a busk is the front stay of a corset and is meant to help keep the body straight). Busks were scrimshawed by whalemen and presented to the women left behind as intimate reminders of their affection. Women could walk through Nantucket Town with their scrimshawed busks close to their hearts.

The family registers of Nantucket tell the story of the irreversible bonds we make with our families. The entwining vines with hearts and flowers represent all that is precious regarding family ties.

One register that takes advantage of the adaptable hearts-and-vine motif is one "dron by Eunice Gardner 1796." Instead of a single pair of hearts rising from a mound of earth, there are three pairs of hearts. The center pair represents the union of Benjamin Cartwright and Elisabeth Bunker; the flanking hearts represent earlier unions: Benjamin Cartwright with Abigail Paddock and Peter Gardner's union with the same Abigail Paddock. The story continues as vines rise from the hearts. The vines support pink roses with attached seedpods. Written on the pods are the names and birth dates of children born from the unions. The union of Gardner and Paddock did not produce any children. This is shown by the vine rising up from the representative pair of hearts without flowers. Yet the vine is so fluid viewers must pay careful attention to follow the swirling vine upward. Of the flowers that announce both the birth and death dates of an offspring, the petals of the rose are yellowish, autumnal in hue, and are wilted.

Two Nantucket registers attributed to Rebecca Folger also follow the hearts-and-vine motif. One of the earliest, circa 1790-1800, shows the union of Walter Folger and Elizabeth Starbuck. Its fruits and flowers include bluebells, carnations, fuchsias, and berries. Rebecca, the youngest daughter of Walter and Elizabeth, may have drawn another register in 1813 depicting her own union with cooper Alexander Folger. On this piece, the rose appears to be slightly more fluid than in the earlier piece. Of the five children depicted, their death dates tell us that only one child made it to adulthood. Rebecca's death date shows that she lived to bury all of her lost children. The register also tells us she died of consumption in the same year as her son Albert -- he in May, she in July.

Phebe Folger drew a memorial to Zaccheus Coffin, which included his union with Thankful Joy. The scalloped circle containing the two names grows into vines producing two roses. Each rose leads to another scalloped circle that includes the names of the two children born of the union between Coffin and Joy. In the memorial circle, we learn that Zaccheus Coffin died in December 1788 after two and half years' captivity in Algiers. [During that time in history, American merchant ships were being seized by Barbary pirates who enslaved the American crews and held them for ransom. In 1799, the United States agreed to pay a yearly stipend to Algiers and other North African entities in an effort to protect American ships.]

A later composition, dated 1830, introduces the white rose and a banner held in the beak of a dove. Once again, children who have died are represented by wilted blossoms and broken stems from the vine. This family record of George Myrick Jr. and Eliza Mitchell emphasizes the earth more than the other compositions do. In the Myrick-Mitchell piece, the ground fills the lower third of the register. We can only conjecture as to why; perhaps the unidentified artist felt the earth from which we all stem should play a larger role in the work.

By studying these Nantucket family registers, people today might be inspired to create one for themselves. The definition of family has changed: how an artist would display a complicated, blended family of today would be of great interest to people who wish to explore alternatives to the traditional family portrait.

Please visit our digital exhibit: Family Roots: The "Vine and Hearts" Family Registers

Research on this article was conducted principally in the essay "Decorated New England Family Registers, 1770 to 1850," from a chapter in the book by D. Brenton Simons and Peter Benes, The Art of Family: Genealogical Artifacts in New England, published by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, 2002.-D. S. F.

Donna Smith Fee is a free-lance writer; she previously contributed "New Home, Old Soul" for the summer 2001 issue of Historic Nantucket.