Treasure Trove!

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • August 26, 2013

Well, we have made it into the basement of the Wing to clean out the journal stacks. I would like to give a HUGE thank you to our Education interns who pulled and boxed and moved the journals from the outside walls of the Wing basement over the course of several afternoons this summer. I now have six interior shelves to complete (and I think the liquor stores are tired of seeing me!). These journals will all be carefully combed through (for ephemera, notes, and MMA related articles), assessed, and we will decide how to process them further – hopefully all this winter.


But, as I was working near the stairs yesterday, I cleaned off the rest of a wooden shelf. Obviously, there is a little space behind this shelf under the stairs so I moved the shelf to check behind it for any things stashed away and lo and behold! I found what you are seeing in these images. When I saw the “Hinchman Nantucket Wildflowers ” stamped on these small wooden boxes, my first thought was “First edition leftovers of the book!” (Published in 1921.) Then I thought, “No silly, too small a box for that.” I opened one and saw all these small, what I at first thought were glass slides. So I thought, glass slides or negatives of the flower drawings from the book! Then I saw how many boxes – it’s a deep dark space in there – and knowing the book has not that many images, I investigated further. What I uncovered was ALL of the original printing plates for the book! That means there are 400 plus steel plates for the printing press. Very exciting!


Nantucket Wildflowers was written by (then) Alice O. Albertson and illustrated by Anne Hinchman. MMA saw to its publishing and the Knickerbocker Press, a part of G.P Putnam’s Sons printed it. Albertson was the MMA curator – back when all the departments were in the Mitchell House – from 1914 – 1931. She would marry Alfred Shurrocks (in 1929), a well-respected architect, who designed the fireproof Wing of the MMA Science Library in the 1930s. Mrs. Shurrocks was the granddaughter of Peleg Mitchell, uncle of Maria Mitchell. Mrs. Albertson also wrote Two Steps Down about her recollections of spending summers with her grandmother, Mary Mitchell (Peleg’s wife), at 1 Vestal Street. Anne, a talented artist, was her cousin and also a granddaughter of Mary and Peleg. All in the family, eh?


I hope to, sometime soon, create a small exhibit in which something like these plates can be featured so stay tuned!


JNLF

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