Publisher's Note

June is arguably the most beautiful month on Nantucket. The roadsides are punctuated with vivid spikes of yellow, courtesy of the Scotch broom that blooms this time of year.

Magenta and white rosa rugosa are also in flower in sandy soils, while the climbing roses decorate Sconset mid-month and oxeye daisies paint the meadows yellow and white across the island. The air is warm and perfumed with the scent of early summer, and the crowds have yet to invade our streets and beaches. Where else would you want to be but Nantucket in June?

Our Editor’s Choice for what to do this month is Stop and Smell the Roses, literally. Stroll country roads or bike out to Sconset mid-month when the rambling roses have all but taken over the rooftops and sidewalls of cottages and estates in this fabled part of Nantucket Island. In town, stop at the Whaling Museum on Broad Street and take a virtual tour of Sconset via the NHA’s exhibit, complete with a replica of the old railroad that served this village as well as a replica of the old Sconset pump, built for the exhibit specifically by Nelson “Snooky” Eldridge. Writer Josh Gray previews this new show.

Nantucket is defined by the sea in so many ways, and one of the great stories of our island’s past centers around our Life-Saving Museum, scheduled to reopen in July in an expanded space and with a new name: The Nantucket Shipwreck & Lifesaving Museum. You’ll be reading a lot about that effort in this and the next two issues of Nantucket Today. In the June issue of the magazine, we excerpt a chapter from a new book The Inquirer and Mirror Press is putting out this summer in conjunction with our reprinting of “Wrecks Around Nantucket.” John Stanton gives us a taste of what being shipwrecked was like in “Throw out the Lifeline,” an account of the sinking of the T.B. Witherspoon, from the archives.

Islander Maurice Gibbs has had a fascinating career at sea, much of it spent in the colder climes of the Antarctic. Josh Balling interviewed him about it for this issue of Nantucket Today. As president emeritus of the Nantucket Life-Saving Museum, Maurice is a true treasure trove of information about Nantucket’s maritime past and we are happy to share some of his stories with you.

If you are looking for less adventurous pursuits, consider that now is the time to visit your island bookstores and pick out your summer beach reads. Nancy Thayer, long-time island author and resident, has a new book, “Moon Shell Beach,” that you’ll want to read. Josh Gray sat down to talk with Nancy this spring, and her interview is published in this month’s issue of Nantucket Today.

Finally, we post tributes in this issue to two dear friends of Nantucket who left us this spring. First, Beverly Hall shares her memories of her dear friend Krister Stendahl, Bishop of Stockholm, and a 45-year summer resident of Nantucket. Bishop Stendahl was a frequent guest preacher on the island where he came to relax, visit with friends, enjoy the sea and swim. I pick up my pen to write about Marie Giffin, Inquirer and Mirror publisher and icon for 20 years, though her career at the newspaper spanned 28. She oversaw the modernization of the newspaper, both in terms of updating the printing process to new technology, and presided over the largest period of growth in the island’s history since the whaling days. She was quite a lady, and also my mother.

MARIANNE R. STANTON

EDITOR AND PUBLISHER

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