NANTUCKET MA: The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) will present “A Collectors Gam,” featuring Robert Hellman and Laurence Dober, at the Food for Thought series, on Thursday, February 17, in the Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street, at noon. Free admission; bring your lunch.
A longtime NHA interpreter, Hellman is also a renowned specialist in the history of whaling implements. A lifelong collector of whaling implements, he loaned a selection of his Nantucket whaling collection to the NHA for its grand opening in June 2005. Although those items are now back in his private collection, he has promised them to the NHA for its permanent collection.
Hellman will discuss a modified version of the “Tools of the Hunt” lecture he frequently gives for visitors – including some of the history and development of the harpoon.
Dober is a deltiologist, a person who collects and studies postcards. Although he has had ties to Nantucket for fifty years, it was only after he retired and moved to the island full time six years ago that his interest in vintage postcards and collecting began.
The pastoral scenes and images of Nantucket in the early 1900s are only part of his vast collection, which spans a hundred and ten years, and includes images from well-known island personalities Ruth Haviland Sutton, Henry Wyer, and Maurice Boyer (of Boyer’s Lane fame).
The Thursday, February 24, Food for Thought will feature Dr. Margot Hartmann, CEO of Nantucket Cottage Hospital, who will discuss “Nantucket’s Hospital in Its One-hundredth Year.”
Talks are free to the public and are given by notable Nantucketers on a range of fascinating topics. The Food for Thought programs are supported by a grant from the M. S. Worthington Foundation.
Each talk begins at noon; bring your brown-bag lunch to the Whaling Museum. For additional information about the 2011 Food for Thought series, please call 508-228-1894, ext. 0, or visit the calendar.
