Archives and Special Collections
Archives/Special Collections
2 Vestal Street, Nantucket, MA 02554
(508)228-9219
Housed in the former schoolhouse of William Mitchell, the Maria Mitchell Association preserves artifacts relating to Maria Mitchell and the history of Nantucket in its Archives and Special Collections. You'll find Maria Mitchell's manuscripts, 19th century scientific books with handsome illustrations, contemporary scientific journals, the personal and professional papers of members of the Mitchell Family, and the records of the Maria Mitchell Association.
Currently, the library is open by appointment only to researchers needing access to certain books and documents. To schedule an appointment, contact curator Jascin Leonardo Finger.
Maria Mitchell Association Collections
(click a link below to access finding aid PDF)
1. Maria Mitchell Papers
2. Mitchell Family Papers
3. Mitchell Memorabilia Microfilm
4. Maria Mitchell's Personal Library
For more information on access to these collections, please contact Jascin Leonardo Finger, Curator at jfinger@mmo.org.
Maria Mitchell's Personal Library
This collection is held by the Maria Mitchell Association in the Archives and Special Collections. Most of the books owned by Maria Mitchell were left by her to her younger brother Henry Mitchell who then bequeathed them to the Maria Mitchell Association (MMA). This collection has been processed by volunteer and rare book cataloger Maris Humphries, under the direction of the Mitchell House, Archives, and Special Collections Curator, Jascin N. Leonardo Finger. The ability to process the catalog and place it on our website has been generously donated by the M. S. Worthington Foundation through a grant. The MMA is eternally grateful for this assistance.
The catalog of the books is extensive. We have only provided the author, title, and date here in order to provide a brief overview of the books in the collection. The listing is arranged alphabetically by author. In the near future, we hope to provide more details on the website, as well as a searchable catalog but currently we are limited. Should you need more information, please do not hesitate to contact the curator who can provide you with more information concerning the book(s) in the collection, including the Special Collection books which are not listed on this PDF and include books on Nantucket, astronomy, and the natural sciences which date from the seventeenth century through the early twentieth century.
Preserving Maria Mitchell's Legacy
Archives and Special Collections Receives Grant from the M. S. Worthington Foundation
The MMA is pleased to announce that it has received a grant of $10,000.00 from the M. S. Worthington Foundation in order to purchase archival-quality shelving and storage units for the storage of the Maria Mitchell, Mitchell Family, and MMA Archives and the Special Collections. These items will be housed in a newly installed climate-controlled storage space at the MMA, also funded with a generous grant from the M. S. Worthington Foundation. These important collections boast not only the personal papers of Maria Mitchell and her family, but also documents related to the founding of the MMA in 1902. Included in the collections are letters from such scientific and nineteenth century luminaries as Charles Darwin, Mary Sommerville, Sir George Airy, John Greenleaf Whittier, Susan B. Anthony, Lucy Stone, and Graceanna Lewis.
The M. S. Worthington Foundation has also financially supported the processing of the archives, as has the Community Preservation Act, and in placing the Finding Aids for the archive collections online. You can see these Finding Aids, with complete lists of the people whom Maria and her family were in contact with, by accessing the MMA’s website. The Finding Aids are found under “Archives and Special Collections.” In the next few months, historic photographs from the collection will also be posted online allowing researchers, publishers, and students to see and choose photographs they would like to use in publications and projects. The M. S. Worthington has helped to make this process possible. The MMA is incredibly grateful to the M. S. Worthington Foundation for its financial support of our endeavors on behalf of the Archives and Special Collections.