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© 2012 ISHRA Volume 21 Issue 2 Fall 2012 Our mission is to locate, collect, organize, preserve, expand and make available information and knowledge relating to the natural and human history of the With Roland Thaxter in Patagonia Will be the subject of our Fall Meeting Program Tuesday November 13, 2012 (Details on Back Page)

Celia Thaxter’s third son Roland became a prominent mycologist (fungus expert) at Harvard, and one present-day expert on Thaxter and his work has literally followed in his footsteps: our November guest speaker, Harvard professor Donald Pfister. Dr. Pfister grew up in Ohio and went to Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he was first introduced to fungi through a professor in the Botany Department. After Miami he went on to graduate work in mycology at Cornell University in the Department of Plant Pathology where he took up the study of cup -fungi. Classical education in mycology under Dr. Richard P. Korf prepared him for the field, the lab and the library. Donald Pfister, Mycologist, Teacher and Interim Director Of the Harvard University Herbaria His Ph.D. thesis was on a confusing group of cup-fungi that occur on wood in fresh running water. Following completion He has been active in campus life teaching, of his degree at Cornell he went to the University of Puerto Rico serving as House Master and most recently as the Dean as an Assistant Professor where he taught general biology and of the Harvard Summer School. He is currently the Asa mycology, continuing his research on cup-fungi, with a new focus Gray Professor of Systematic Botany and Curator of the on tropical species, and collecting around Puerto Rico and Farlow Library and Herbarium, has intermittently Guadeloupe. served as Director of the Harvard University After three years in the tropical climes of Puerto Rico he Herbaria and is presently its Interim Director. was appointed Assistant Professor in Biology and Assistant With students, post-doctoral fellows Curator of the Farlow Library and Herbarium of Cryptogamic and collaborators from around the world the lab now Botany at Harvard where he held the position that had been conducts research into a wide range of related topics. occupied by Roland Thaxter. A project that has been on his desk for some With the world class collection (built in part by time is the publication of Roland Thaxter’s South Thaxter), in both the herbarium and library, he took up a variety American Diary. This is a lively journal covering of studies alongside work on the cup-fungi. This research Thaxter’s collecting trip to Argentina and Chile in 1905 included bibliographic studies, documentation of collections, and -1906. Part travelogue, part mycological jottings, it historical studies of W. G. Farlow and Roland Thaxter. allows one to reflect on the stresses and rewards of field With changes in scientific methods, particularly work in far away places. Pfister visited some of these molecular phylogenetic studies, he and his students moved into areas in Southern Chile and is currently working on this new arena producing major works on the relationships among descriptions of new species, some of which were select groups of ascomycetes or sac fungi. observed by Thaxter but never formally published.

Don takes pleasure in gardening at home in Arlington, MA where he lives with his wife Cathleen. They enjoy hiking together and on woodland walks are ever alert for the fungi that, although frequently

One of the Laboulbeniales studied by Roland Thaxter (edit) clandestine, are to be found almost everywhere. Drawing by Roland Thaxter - Courtesy Harvard University Herbaria Page 2 ISHRA Newsletter Vol. 21 Issue 2

A Note From Your President The Historian in All of Us ISHRA June Conference Looking Beneath the Waves

In my spring newsletter message, I mentioned that you don’t need a Ph.D. in history to help ISHRA June’s ISHRA conference “Under the Amazing locate, organize, preserve and expand knowledge about Sea at the Shoals” entertained, educated, and actively the natural and human history of the Isles of Shoals. involved those who attended. We enjoyed lectures, A wonderful example came to light this summer photography, walks, socials, crafts, campfire S’mores, when ISHRA board member Dorothy Healy tracked marine lab hands-on exploration, fishing, boating down a handwritten memoir touching on the victims and adventures, and of course the hospitality and ambiance of convicted perpetrator of the Smuttynose murders of 1873. Star Island. Thanks to all who participated and While attending a presentation at the York contributed in large and small ways! Library, Dorothy happened to hear mention of the ISHRA’s name includes “Research,” and Steven existence of such a memoir in the Maine Women Writers Keating’s ROV research was successfully tested during Collection. She wrote the curator, who invited her to the conference. Keating, an MIT researcher, designed his Portland to examine the notebook in person. “DIY ROV” (Do It Yourself Remote Operated Vehicle) to The writer, Mollie Lee Clifford (born Mary Jane be able to withstand the crushing pressure of ocean Lehee in 1865), may have been the only child ever to be depths while costing less than $100 in materials. His born on Lunging Island. She came to know Celia Thaxter, previous prototypes had been tested only in fresh water, who gave the young girl books, trinkets and even a pet in the MIT swimming pool and pressure chambers. homing pigeon, according to an account by Mollie’s The first tests in salt water happened June 25 as granddaughter. part of our conference. As the unit sank to the depth of Before Mollie’s family moved to Portsmouth a the Rutledge Marine Lab trench (3 feet, LOL), it was year before the murders, when she was seven, she already learned that electrolysis produced tiny bubbles in salt had met Karen and Annethe Christensen and the man water. In the next test, as the ROV plunged to the depth who would be convicted of their murder, Louis Wagner. of the Star Island dock (in the pouring rain), it In her notebook, a retrospective penned in 1901, successfully recorded data and popped to the surface Mollie wrote of having met the “sad-looking” Karen and exactly on schedule, beacon light flashing. her sister-in-law Annethe with “her bright blue eyes We all enjoyed the spirit of creative problem which were always laughing.” solving (including the metal nametag shorting out the “How well I recall the gentleness of those power), the ingenuity of the design process and testing Norwegian people,” she wrote. “Their neatness, and their protocols, and the sense of wonder at true state-of-the-art spirit of hospitality, which one may always expect to inventive scientific research. meet in the house of a Norwegian.” Jean Stefanik and Cassie Durette, Co-chairs Mollie’s memories of Louis Wagner’s visits to her Lunging Island home were dark ones. “His face was evil- looking although he could smile the blandest kind of smile,” she recalled. “My father, whose perceptions were unusually keen, declared that Louis Wagner has a black past and would bear watching.” More nuggets of Shoals history doubtless await discovery in unlikely places. Let’s keep our eyes peeled! Joel Plagenz, ISHRA President [email protected]

ISHRA Media Contacts

Cassie Durette The ISHRA Newsletter is Produced ISHRA Webmaster and Edited by Richard Stanley [email protected] [email protected] June Conference Attendees Vol. 21 Issue 2 ISHRA Newsletter Page 3

A Remarkable Life Review by Richard Stanley

In the fading light of an autumn evening four- year-old Celia Laighton stepped onto White Island, looking up in awe as the beacon lights in the tower were kindled against the dark background of sky, and stars began to twinkle. Thus began the life of an island sprite, the sandpiper, who later in life described herself at age eight as “a little savage.” At twelve she was “the pretty little Miranda” to and, just five years later, found herself the young mother of a disabled infant. This was the first of many challenges that were to forge her character with an uncommon strength belied by her gentle nature and cultivation of the aesthetic life.

Beyond the Garden Gate The Coming of the Swallow, n.d. The Life of Celia Laighton Thaxter Ribbon Bound Publication of Two Thaxter Poems By Norma Mandel Ballard Art Publishing Company Courtesy Bill and Sharon Stephan Illustrated, 197pp. Norma Mandel presents a unique and comprehensive account University Press of of Celia’s life that should be read by any and all with an interest in her, the Laighton and Thaxter families, and their part in Shoals history. In support of this contention I will confess that when introduced to the

book, like many familiar with the coverage that Celia and her life has received, I wondered if more was needed. I soon dismissed any such reservation, and discovered a strength and honesty in this narrative of a talented and unusual family that is rare throughout much of literature. I have searched the text in vain for the particular words or sentences that inform the quality of Dr. Mandel’s writing, but found that, like attempting to identify what it is that makes a great painting—the use of certain colors, this or that brush stroke—the answer is elusive. The best I can manage is to say that there is an uncommon quality of humaneness—perhaps it is the empathetic and patient nature that we associate with the feminine gender speaking— which informs this persuasive narrative of a great woman’s life. Read this book. In it you will discover a writer of uncommon merit and be introduced to dimensions in the life and character of Celia Thaxter that you would not have imagined existed.

We extend our most sincere appreciation to everyone who helped to make possible this issue focused on Celia Thaxter and her visual art.

All of her work in the illustrations on pages 3, 4, 5, 6 & 8 and the image of Celia in her garden on page 6 are reproduced with the express permission of the Portsmouth Athenaeum from One Woman’s Work: The Visual Art of Celia Laighton Thaxter, edited by Sharon Pavia Stephan, Portsmouth, , Peter Randall The Sandpiper Publisher: 2001, produced in association with ISHRA.

From Celia Thaxter, Poems,1873 We are also grateful to the individuals in whose collections the actual Courtesy Mr. and Mrs. Fred McGill works reside for their permission to allow the use of them here. Page 4 ISHRA Newsletter Volume 21 Issue 2 Celia Thaxter and the Aesthetic Movement

By Norma Mandel Ph.D. Celia Thaxter’s parlor embodied the spirit of the times: the walls were covered with pictures by her favorite artists, many of whom were guests at It was all the rage: from the Isles of Shoals to Appledore House. At one end of the room was the the plains of Nebraska, from the island home of Celia Thaxter to “Altar,” with its mass of flowers. Beside the Altar the Nebraska kitchen of the wife of the wicked Wick Cutter in was the “Throne,” as the guests called it, where Willa Cather’s My Antonia! When Oscar Wilde, the great Celia lounged. The musicians – who often were promoter of the Aesthetic Movement, arrived in 1882, the guests – sang, played the piano, violin, and cello, Movement was already well established in America. Women entertaining with Celia’s favorite romantic were painting on china teacups and tiles; they decorated their composers. Celia spent her days painting, writing, parlors with vases of poppies, lilies, chrysanthemums, and and entertaining; but the nights were different. sunflowers, as well as examples of Japanese art; sensuous colors Celia’s own description captures the magic of those were chosen for their curtains and chaises. evenings:

Enchanting days, and evenings still more so, if that were possible! With the music still thrilling within the lighted rooms where the flowers glow under the lamplight, while floods of moonlight make more mystic the charmed night without . . . lilies gleam and the white stars of the Nicotiana, the white Poppies, the white Asters ...... nothing disturbs their slumber save perhaps the rosy -winged Sphinx moth that flutters like the spirit of the night above them as they dream. What was the Aesthetic Movement? The term refers to the introduction of ideas that emphasized art in the production of furniture, stained glass, ceramics, textiles, wallpaper, paintings, and books. The early hints of it came in 1862 when Japanese art was exhibited for the first time at London’s Great Exhibition. Commodore Perry had introduced Japan to America after his 1853 trip to open trade negotiations. But it wasn’t until the London Exhibition of 1862 that this newly discovered art became popular. Quickly the ceramic industry adopted every possible Japanese theme: sparrows, bamboos, fans. Painting on china became the fashion. By the early seventies, the craze had spread to America.

Celia Laighton Thaxter, Plate with Aster, 1881. Celia Laighton Thaxter, pitcher with iris (Iris), 1878, Porcelain Courtesy Vaughn Memorial Library and Museum, Above right. Celia Laighton Thaxter Courtesy Prudence C. Randall Star Island Corporation Jug with Olive Branch, 1881. Courtesy Portsmouth Athenaeum Volume 21 Issue 2 ISHRA Newsletter Page 5

Although Oscar Wilde is the name most associated with the Aesthetic Movement, it actually began in America with the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The Exhibition took ten years to plan and cost more than $11,000,000; in six months, 10,000,000 people viewed the works of 30,000 exhibitors! Many of the visitors, particularly women, hurried to the home design and ceramics exhibits. When they returned home, they experimented with the new ideas they had seen. This was the true beginning of the Aesthetic Movement. It was to become a bridge between the 19th century and the 20th as it assimilated into the mainstream of American culture. Its effect on Celia Thaxter was huge. Painting was not Celia Thaxter’s only response to the Painting her tiles and tea cups became an obsession. Aesthetic Movement. There were other aspects of it that captured Besides relieving the boredom of the long winter her imagination. She dressed in the prevailing styles: loose white nights on the Isles of Shoals, it satisfied her artistic or grey garments with a simple brooch at her neck. Her flower desires and provided a new source of income. She garden flourished; her appreciation of art and music grew; her had become tired of writing and needed an outlet parlor became the center for artists and musicians. The horizons for her aesthetic sense, which had been stifled for so of many other Americans expanded as well: Louis Comfort Tiffany many years. The time was ripe for her to paint, took glass to a new dimension; ’s Talks on Art paint, paint – not only on china but at her easel. In became immensely popular--and, most exciting of all, the Boston a letter to a friend she wrote: Museum of Fine Arts was founded in 1870. I want to paint everything I see: every leaf, stem, Celia Thaxter faced many challenges in her lifetime. seed vessel, grass blade, rush, and reed and flower When she was four she lived in the tiny keeper’s cottage of the has new charms, and I thought I knew them all White Island lighthouse. Although her family moved to some of before. Such a new world opens, for I feel it in me; I the larger Isles of Shoals islands, her only playmates were her know I can do it, and I’m going to do it! What a brothers. At sixteen she married Levi Thaxter and moved to the resource for the dreary winter days to come! mainland. Since Levi seemed incapable of making a living, Celia

All across America other women, many of was faced with the dual role of mother to her three children (one whom had been tied to their domestic chores and of whom was disabled) and main provider for her family. reliance on their husband’s money, suddenly felt Meanwhile, she was always under the thrall of her own needy free to take control of their lives because they, too, mother who lived miles away on the islands. Eventually she made were able to earn a living. Celia joined those who the unusual (for the times) decision to leave her husband and flocked to classes and lectures about the newest become independent. Finally she had found fulfillment in the discoveries in the decorative arts and who read the Aesthetic Movement where she thrived until her death in 1894. many publications describing the best techniques. Even her funeral was in the aesthetic tradition: as her friend Annie Celia was lucky that she had access to some of Fields wrote: her body lay in her parlor on a “bed of sweet bay… America’s finest artists: she studied china painting prepared by her friends Appleton Brown and . . . with John Appleton Brown and drawing with William Mason once more played the music from Schumann Childe Hassam. which she chiefly loved . . . It was indeed a poet’s burial, but it was far more than that: it was the celebration of the passing of a Above right. Celia Laighton Thaxter large and beneficent soul.” Jug with Olive Branch, 1881. Courtesy Portsmouth Athenaeum Page 6 ISHRA Newsletter Vol. 21 Issue 2

A Resort for the Invalid by Lois Williams

In Under the Isles of Shoals: Archaeology & Discovery on Smuttynose, J. Dennis Robinson describes the Mid-Ocean House of Entertainment and cited an 1845 article about Thomas Laighton’s plans to build a larger hotel, with Laighton calling the Shoals “the ideal sanatorium site for invalids who would profit from the peaceful island pace and its fresh healthful salt air.” Similarly, Robinson cited an 1855 article in which Laighton “claimed to have cured five out of six consumptives who stayed at their hotel.” Testimonials continued through the years. Dr. Henry I. Bowditch, a “chest specialist,” wrote in an 1862 Boston Medical and Surgical Journal article, “Persons having throat and lung difficulties. . . were enabled to breathe more freely” at the Atlantic islands. Invalids found “the tonic, clear, soft air of the Isles of Shoals, in summer, of immense service.” Twenty years later, in an article in the same journal titled “The Isles of Shoals as a Summer Resort for the Invalid,” Bowditch claimed the Shoals climate was “soothing, and sometimes curative, in pulmonary diseases. Persons recovering from any acute disease would do well to try the Shoals. Some nervous complains, common debility or overwork may be almost sure of benefit. Dyspeptics will find fresh air and pleasant exercise in the yachting and rowing afforded there.” Celia Thaxter in her Garden, c. 1890 The Atlantic Islands as Resorts of Health and Pleasure, published in Courtesy Portsmouth Athenaeum 1878, enumerated health benefits of the Isles of Shoals. The author wrote, “A residence there possesses the tonic qualities of a sea voyage, An ISHRA Appledore Sojourn and as for hay fever, the unhappy victim may calmly sit on the piazza at Appledore or Star Island, while he smokes his cigar with serene The ISHRA Appledore trip on July 22 was a blast. The exultation.” day was gorgeous, so we were off to a great start. The Oceanic Hotel brochures of the early 1900s claimed, boat trip out to the island, with Captains Tim and “Eminent physicians all over the country advise a sojourn here as Randy, was a lot of fun on the UNH Challenger, and it productive of wonderful results.” was interesting to ride on a “working” boat, not one Apparently the unique benefits of the local atmosphere work geared to crowds of traveling tourists. their magic not only on people, but also extend to flowers. Melissa They did a great job of getting us out and back. Saggerer, writing in an earlier issue of the newsletter in Celia and The island is so special in many ways. History was seen and heard everywhere we went with the very Flowers relates: knowledgeable ISHRA guides. The three tours offered Celia Thaxter, in Among the Isles of Shoals says, “Every nature (learned about species that I always thought were flower seems twice as beautiful under these circumstances it is a fact that the salt air and a peculiar richness in the soil give a just weeds, but had a purpose in the daily lives of the luxuriance of growth and depth of color not found elsewhere . . . island inhabitants); cultural (Celia’s garden was a As for garden flowers, when you plant them here they fairly run photographer's joy and just amazing with the variety of mad with color. But, when they are sown in gardens on the flowers, color combinations and so well kept); and mainland, they come up decorous, commonplace and pale, like architectural (where buildings stood, how they were their sisters in the same soil. Yet the little spot where they grow constructed)—gave us a full day of excursions and

on the island is like a mass of jewels. learning. A lot was covered in a short time, and there is Scientists agree with Celia's observations. The fog no doubt more to be learned and enjoyed in future trips. coming in from sea on all sides encourages plant activity and With the ISHRA guides we can’t go wrong! enhances color by keeping foliage pores moist and cool. Trace elements are carried in the fog which activates the pigments as Appledore is a beautiful, unique island—a hidden jewel, well. -Melissa Saggerer with no crowds of tourists. I hope it always stays that way. Perhaps another trip is in store for next summer? Can I sign up now? Woodbine by Celia Thaxter, Sketchbook, Courtesy of Celia Thaxter Hubbard Valerie Tipton Vol. 21 Issue 2 ISHRA Newsletter Page 7

Membership Beacons of the Sea

ISHRA Membership Includes: “New England Lighthouses and the People Who A subscription to our newsletter, published twice a year. Kept Them” was ISHRA’s September Conference theme Access to the Members Corner of our web site, this year. Longtime members and New Shoalers alike ISHRA.org, which features past newsletters, speaker enjoyed a wonderful weekend together. details, and other Shoals resources. American Lighthouse Foundation historian Jeremy

An opportunity to attend our meeting programs on the D’Entremont delighted the group with his photographs and 2nd Tuesday of April and November, conferences on Star Island, day trips. encyclopedic knowledge. He shared details of a way of Fellowship with people who share your interest and life—that of the lighthouse keeper—that has nearly enthusiasm for the history of the Isles of Shoals. vanished today, and even told some lighthouse ghost stories An invitation to work on Isles of Shoals historical at a fireside marshmallow roast on the rocks by the sea after research projects as well as our newsletter, web site dark. content, and list of archived Shoals materials. Susy Mansfield offered an informative presentation To become a member please send your contact showing how the covered walkway connecting White information, including telephone and email address, along Island Light to its keeper’s house was reconstructed last with annual dues (payable to ISHRA) to this address: fall, after having been washed away in a violent storm in ISHRA, P.O. Box 705, Portsmouth, NH 03802 April 2008. And conference co-chair Dorothy Healy led a

Yearly dues are: “Literary Lighthouse” discussion group in the Pink Parlor, $10– Individual $5– Junior (18 and younger) where conferees gathered to talk about the different short $25– Family, Group, or Institution $100– Lifetime stories each had read from the collection Poe’s Lighthouse. If you would like to make a gift of membership to someone, please Rounding out the weekend was an authentic include contact information for the recipient and proper dues. historic candlelit service in the chapel, first created for an

For more information, please contact: earlier ISHRA conference by Laury Bussey based on a 1732 Cassie Durette, Membership Chair sermon and on the church record book recorded by Star [email protected] 603-667-3306 Island minister John Tucke in his own hand. Conference registrar Rose Schlegel reports an unusually large number of first-time attendees this year, including many who learned of Star Island from ISHRA member Brenda Watts. We will come back! You Are Invited!

We Need Your Ideas  for 

Greatest Hits

Isles of Shoals History

What do you love about the Isles of Shoals? Now is your chance to help build the ISHRA June Conference for 2013. We’re designing a festival of Shoals history topics, with your favorite conference activities built right in. Would you like to explore “Art of the Isles” one day and “Shoals Fishing” another? Do you have memories of a conference program that delighted you in the past? Let us know and we’ll collect the five most popular themes and give you the conference of a lifetime. Please send your ideas to: [email protected] ISHRA Fall 2012 Conferees Discovered Lighthouses Isles of Shoals Historical & Research Association Volume 21, Issue 2 P.O. Box 705 Portsmouth NH 03802 Fall 2012

Officers and Directors

Joel Plagenz, President Cassie Durette Alice Gordan, Secretary Dorothy Healy John Diamond, Treasurer Maryann Stacy Gary and Kate Bashline Richard Stanley Amy Cook Ann Beattie, ex-officio

ISHRA Membership Meeting Seacoast Science Center, Rye NH Tuesday, November 13, 2012 Refreshments at 6:30pm, Meeting at 7:00pm Please Bring Refreshments! Inside this Issue:

With Roland Thaxter p. 1 in Patagonia Guest Speaker Donald Pfister

A Note From Your President p. 2 The Historian in All of Us ISHRA June Conference p. 2

A Remarkable Life p. 3 Book Review by Richard Stanley

Celia Thaxter and the p. 4 Aesthetic Movement By Norma Mandel

A Resort for the Invalid p. 6 By Lois Williams

An ISHRA Appledore Sojourn p. 6 By Valerie Tipton

Fall 2012 ISHRA Conference p. 7 New England Lighthouses Celia Laighton Thaxter Champerdown Farm and Elm, 1884 And Their Keepers (Laighton Family Residence on Kittery point, ME) ISHRA Membership p. 7 Courtesy Celia Thaxter Descendant