NHA Presents a Trio of Lectures
Dappled sunlight through stately trees, well-known artists and craftspeople, food and wine. . . . The Coordinators of the Nantucket Historical Association’s 1800 House Early American Arts and Craft program are delighted to invite the public to a reception to meet Don Carpentier and other class instructors this Tuesday, August 5, at 5:30 P.M. at the 1800 House, 4 Mill Street—followed by an evening lecture by Carpentier on historic lighting of the nineteenth century at the Hadwen House, 96 Main Street, at 7 pm.
A respected craftsman and historian, Carpentier’s discussion and demonstration is especially appropriate in the elegant 1845 Greek Revival home built by whale-oil merchant and candle manufacturer William Hadwen—and will focus on the restoration and history of period light fixtures.
The 5:30 meet-and-greet lawn reception is free; the 7 p.m. lecture is free for NHA members and $15 for the general public.
The next evening, Wednesday, August 6, The NHA will present its first August lecture featuring Barbara White, who will discuss Cyrus Peirce at 7 pm in the Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street. White recently retired from the Nantucket school system where she taught history in the middle-school for twenty-five years. While researching the life of Anna Gardner, White became interested in Cyrus Peirce, a fervent abolitionist and promoter of education for women, who was the founder and principal of the first normal school in the country, now Framingham State College.
Cyrus Peirce was born in 1790 in Waltham, Massachusetts, the youngest of twelve children. While attending Harvard as an undergraduate, he developed his love of teaching and in 1810, when he was twenty years old, he moved to Nantucket. Peirce taught school for two years before he left to attend Harvard Divinity School, and in 1815 Peirce came back to the island to resume teaching.
Following Quaker teachings, he trained both boys and girls to love learning, be morally responsible, and develop a sense of civic duty. Additionally, he also realized that teachers needed proper training and became the first person to establish a training school for teachers in the U.S. He taught in several of Nantucket private schools and then became principal of the town’s first public high school.
The August 6 lecture is free for NHA members and $15 for the general public. Please call 508-228-1894, ext. 0 for additional information.
The third lecture in three days will feature renowned American craftsman Don Carpentier at a Mochaware Presentation on Thursday, August 7, at 2 pm in the Whaling Museum, 13 Broad Street.
Mochaware, also known as mocha diffusion, is a little-known, difficult technique of surface decoration that dates from the 1780s and was developed in Staffordshire, England. The original recipe involved a tea made by boiling tobacco leaves, which formed a thick sludge that was then thinned with water, which was then colored with iron oxide. This process is mastered by very few pottery artists.
Carpentier, well respected as a craftsman and historian, is a self-taught potter, and will discuss the vividly colored mochaware plates and mugs found in 18th- and 19th-century kitchens and taverns. He also creates his own mochaware, using authentic tools and period methods.
Carpentier’s work has received praise from the Henry Francis duPont Winterthur Museum in Delaware and the Iron Bridge–Coalport Museum in Shropshire, England. Carpentier has created china for Old Sturbridge Village, and some of his feather-edged creamware china is displayed at Colonial Williamsburg.
The mochaware presentation is free for NHA members, $15 general admission.
