Stalking The Wild-Eyed Curator

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • September 3, 2013

I realized after I took this “selfie” (oh, what will they think of us in 200 years?), that my eyes were a little wild and crazed looking. Perhaps a bit of stress as I took a look at the 6 remaining shelves of bound and unbound periodicals that date back to the very late 19th century and all the way through the early 21st century! Astronomy, observatories, natural science, birds, plants. You name it, the MMA has subscribed to it or been gifted these periodicals for over 100 years. The Education interns very nicely helped me over the course of perhaps 12 hours, emptying all the outside wall shelves. Now, I have the ones in the middle. Pull from the shelves, box, label, carry up the stairs and carry into the other basement.


Why am I doing all of this? Because the conservation work on the exterior of the Library will begin soon. It is being funded – about $250,000.00 worth – by the Community Preservation Act, a grant I applied for on behalf of the MMA last fall. Happily, the Community Preservation Committee (Thank you, CPC!) funded the entire exterior conservation work and we hope to start with the roof in a few weeks. Then the mason will come and this will require cutting into the building to make the repairs thus, everything has to come out. The Special Collections have all been cleaned and moved to a climate controlled space – also funded by a grant. And now, it’s time for the periodicals or journals as we more commonly refer to them. Once moved, I will spend the winter going through them to make sure there is nothing stuck in them (ephemera) and that people have not written anything (important notes, etc.) in the margins. We will be keeping some, but there are others that will likely find a new home with other institutions. If there are articles in any of them by or about MMA or Nantucket, they will be kept. And the few that date to the nineteenth century, we will keep in the Special Collection as I believe these to be family items.


P.S. Please note that while I am wearing a Vassar t-shirt (in honor of Maria and the MMA-Vassar connections of past and present), I am a proud Mt. Holyoke graduate! I would never be forgiven if I did not note that!


JNLF

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Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 24, 2025
Nov. 15, 1876. Congress. The Woman’s congress met in Philadelphia. The papers were numerous and excellent. Mrs. Howe’s on paternity the most successful. Grace Anne Lewis, ABB [Antoinette Brown Blackwell], Mrs. Diaz [Abby Morton Diaz], Mrs. Perus and others had very good papers. The newspaper treated us very well. The institutions opened their doors to us, the centennials gave us a reception. But – we didn’t have a good time! 1 st . The Hall was a very bad one to speak in, almost no one could be heard. 2 nd . The Women’s committee of Philadelphia led by Mrs. Bartol, attempted to control us . . . Several women protested via passed note to Maria Mitchell that they did not want to discuss suffrage for women at the Congress. Really? Why were they even there then? Apparently, they were afraid (I can see that). Ultimately, papers were presented and discussed concerning women’s suffrage. They even had people oppose the nomination of Julia Ward Howe as President. A small group of women offered up other nominations with one finally saying that the new president needed to be from the west, implying there was too much northeast representation on the board. Maria was not pleased in the least. Ultimately, Julia Ward Howe became President. JNLF

Curator Almost Eaten By Large Lobster

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 17, 2025
Clementine has finally molted! We at the MMA have been awaiting this for quite some time so I decided to re-post an old blog about Clementine. Well, not quite. But, part of my job is to also take care of all of the MMA properties. So, I headed over to check on one and what cleaning supplies are needed for the summer and for our staff spring clean-up of the site. In one room, some of the animals from the Aquarium over-winter. One of those is “our” lobster, Clementine, so-called because she is orange in color. (Orange lobsters are five times rarer than blue lobsters and only one in ten million lobsters are orange.) She is fairly active and though the hope is that she “sleeps” a bit for the winter, she doesn’t seem to. So, enter curator into room who glances over and hopes the lobster does not “run” to the side of the tank asking to be fed. Yes, she really does that – she has gotten used to people. I always hate it because I feel guilty – I do not feed her because that falls to the Natural Science Department and I do not want to hurt her or her schedule in any way. In any case, “Whew!” She actually seemed quiet at the back of the tank. Maybe she was “sleeping.” I kept moving to the next room and glanced back. Low and behold, she was at the front of the tank waving her claws! Seriously? So I kept moving on – after telling her, “I can’t feed you,” – and she went to the back of the tank again! Another, “Whew!” I decided to text Emily, our Director of Natural Science (at that time), and relay what happened. I get a text back. “You can feed her if you want.” “Really?” I texted back. “What do I give her?” So, Clementine then ran back to the front of the tank when she saw me opening the freezer and taking out the mussels and a shrimp. I got another text from Emily: “Use the forceps to hand them to her.” Well, I wasn’t about to put my hand in there! So, I get the shrimp, put it in the forceps, open the top of the tank and start to put my hand down, and INSTANTLY two HUGE lobster claws come out of the tank and grab not the shrimp but the forceps! I wish I had a picture. I was afraid she was going to take the forceps. And then, I was afraid my hand was going to be her lunch. I could not get her to release the forceps – it was a battle royale though the battle was more on her part because I was afraid I would break her claw! After some twisting of the forceps and tugging, she finally relented, took the shrimp, and began her lunch. Another, “Whew!” I was afraid I was either going to hurt her or I was going to be explaining to my three-year old what happened to Mommy’s hand at work. Veuve Clicquot with that, Clementine? Apparently, someone else knew what transpired with the lobster. As I left the building, a male mallard duck was paddling around in the rather large puddle – if you can call it that – located on the property. We have recently had a large amount of rain. He was laughing (I mean quacking) at me. In all seriousness, I have never met a lobster with so much personality. Yes, personality. Clementine may just have changed my tune on lobster rolls. JNLF

Miss Herschel

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • November 10, 2025
A re-blog from years past. The item you see here is a small piece of what once was. Upon her visit to Europe as a young woman’s chaperone in 1857 –1858, Maria Mitchell visited many of the major observatories of Europe and met many of the movers and shakers in the scientific, art, and literary worlds of the continent. While Caroline Herschel (1750 – 1848) and her brother, Sir William (1738 – 1822), were long dead, Maria was able to meet Caroline’s nephew (William’s son), Sir John Herschel (1792 – 1871). All three were astronomers, though Caroline found herself having to give credit – or have her brother accept credit – for much of her work because she was a woman. She has often been credited with the being the first woman to discover a comet. She was likely not – and the other woman who was the first lost credit through history as she had to “give” her comet discovery to her husband. See a pattern? Caroline was just one of many women in a long line of, “She couldn’t possibly do that – she is a woman!” As Maria once said, “But a woman, what more could you ask to be?” But back to this small item. It was a page from one of Caroline Herschel’s notebook’s, torn from its home by John Herschel to serve a s a memento for Maria of her visit to the family’s home. Maria was a bit shocked but . . . she took it! Over the years, the paper tore and ripped and just crumbled away until Maria finally decided that to save it, she needed to past it into one of her own journals. And thus, we have what we have. I assume Caroline’s notations refer to her brother William – “Wol” and Woll.” It could be an “I” but it really looks like an “O.” She is considered the world’s first professional woman astronomer – she would be compensated for her work after some time – and she warrants a greater look at – too much for a blog. So I encourage you to go take a look at her. Maria would want you to! JNLF
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