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Wildflowers, Smuttynose
(Star Island in background)
Photo: Peter E. Randall
from Out on the Shoals, 1995

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Subjects

Isles of Shoals

Papers, 1945-1988

MC 38

1 box (.33 cu.ft.)

About the Isles of Shoals:

Located ten miles off the coast of Maine and New Hampshire, the group of nine islands known as the Isles of Shoals has had an impact on New England history and culture that is vast in proportion to the mere physical size of the islands.

One of the very first settlements in America and the most important fishing and trading center of northern New England in the 1600s, the Isles of Shoals became a popular Victorian summer resort and place of inspiration for writers, musicians, and artists. Celia Thaxter (1835-1894), the Shoals’ most famous inhabitant, lived on Appledore Island.

Malaga, Duck, Smuttynose, Appledore, and Cedar (all in Maine); Star, Londoners (or Lunging), Seaveys, and White (in New Hampshire) were included in a grant of a tract of land each side of the Piscataqua River, given jointly to Sir Ferninando Gorges and Capt. John Mason in 1631. In 1635, when the joint estates on the mainland were divided, neither Mason nor Gorges wished to surrender their entire interest in these valuable islands, and the group was divided between them on the line which runs through the middle of the harbor to the sea on the southerly side. Gorges took the northerly part and annexed it to what later became the province of Maine, while Mason took the southerly half and joined it to the existing province of New Hampshire.

About the Isles of Shoals collection:

The Isles of Shoals collection consists of materials about or related to the islands, including published works, magazine articles, ephemera, a few photographs and postcards, and newspaper clippings. In addition, there is a sizeable Celia Thaxter collection. The material was collected by Lewis M. Stark, a 1929 graduate of the University of New Hampshire, who served for 25 years as head of the New York Public Library’s Rare Book Division. Stark also donated to the University two other collections, the Early New Hampshire Imprint Collection and a collection of bookplates.

Folder Listing:

  1. About the Isles of Shoals
    1. Publications, 1801-1978
    2. Clippings & Miscellaneous, 1847-1987
  2. Of Celia Thaxter and others
    1. Of Celia Thaxter
    2. Photographs
  3. Appendix: Cataloged Books in the collection

    4. I. About the Isles of Shoals

    A. Publications, 1801-1978

    BOX 1
    f.1 “A Description and Historical Account of the Isles of Shoals.” [Boston, 1801.] Pp. 242-261. 8vo. Excerpt from Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 1800.
    f.2 Thaxter, Celia. “Child-Life at the Isles of Shoals.” [Boston, 1873.] Excerpt from Atlantic Monthly, May 1873, pp. 532-539.
    f.3 [Chadwick, John W.] “The Isles of Shoals.” [New York, 1874.] Excerpt from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Oct. 1874, pp. 663-676.
    f.4 Blount, Annette M. “A Summer Day At The Isles of Shoals.” (In The Granite Monthly, Feb. 1903, pp. 89-94.)
    f.5 Gooding, Alfred. “Reverend John Tucke: An Address Delivered at the Dedication of a Monument on Star Island…July 29, 1914.” [Concord, N.H.] 1914.
    f.6 Donahue, Jessie E. Star Island Chronicles (Unitarian). First issue. Star Island, Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire, July 8 to 29, 1916. Concord, N.H.: Rumford Press.
    f.7 “Kittery: Ancient and Modern.” [Kittery, Me., 1925.] Includes sketch of the Isles of Shoals, with map, pp. 36-37.
    f.8 Randall, Peter E. “One Hundred Years Ago This Month: Louis Wagner and the Smuttynose Murders.” (In New Hampshire Profiles, March 1973, pp. 37-39, 52-56.)
    f.9 Kingsbury, John M. “The Shoals Marine Laboratory.” (In New Hampshire Profiles, June 1973, pp. 26-31.)
    f.10 McGill, Frederick T., Jr. “Who Remembers Gosport?” (In New Hampshire Profiles, July 1973, pp. 54-64.)
    f.11 Francis, W. L. “This New England – Isles of Shoals.” (In Yankee, July 1974, pp. [45]-51.)
    f.12 Randall, Peter E. “Winter Isles, A Mid-February trip to the Isles of Shoals.” (In New Hampshire Profiles, Feb. 1975, pp. 19-23.)
    f.13 Storer, W. Scott. “The Light of the Shoals.” (In New Hampshire Profiles, Sept. 1977, pp. 28-29, 45-46, & 48.)
    f.14 Randall, Peter E. “Birds of the Shoals.” (In New Hampshire Profiles, June 1978, pp. [12]-15.)
    f.15 Laighton Bros. “The Oceanic. Isles of Shoals. Off Portsmouth, N.H.” [n.p., n.d.], 20pp.

    B. Clippings & Miscellaneous, 1847-1987

    f.16 13 newspaper clippings recounting various stories, including the fire which destroyed the Appledore Hotel; a marine boundary dispute over lobster-fishing rights (1973); two proposed movies to be shot in New Hampshire, one of them “Murder at Smutty Nose” [never made?] (1948), and others.
    f.17 Brochure for the Boston & Portsmouth Steamship Company publicizing the daily line direct from Boston to the Isles of Shoals and Portsmouth, N.H. from Snow’s Arch Wharf, Boston on the Steamer “John Brooks,” n.d.
    f.18 Four postcards (two views of Gosport Church on Star Island, a wider view of the island, and “Shore line and mountains visible from the Isles of Shoals”) two notecards (views of the approach to the church and of the church entrance), a 4×5″ printed card, headed “Nathaniel Hawthorne was a Shoaler, too,” with an excerpt from Hawthorne’s diary from Sept. 13, 1852 in which he describes the Isles of Shoals, a 3×4″ card with illustration of a Chines junk on the front and “Appledore House, Isles of Shoals, Sunday, July 4th, 1880″ on the back, and an envelope with “The Oceanic Hotel/Isles of Shoals, N.H.” printed in top left-hand corner as return address.
    f.19 Blunt, Edmund March. Map of the Isles of Shoals. New York, 1847. 9×10″.
    f.20 Photostat negatives:
    1) of cover and first page of A Voyage Into New England: Begun in 1623 and ended in 1624 by Christopher Levett, London: 1628. Note attached in Lewis Stark’s handwriting: “The earliest printed mention of the Isles of Shoals”;
    2) of “White Island Light (Isles of Shoals)” by John Weiss (3 pages). On back of first page in Stark’s handwriting: “From No.1 of a collection of ms. poems, stories, etc. entitled “Fraternity Papers” (Mss. Div.)” Stamped “New York Public Library”;
    3) of page 421 of the 1882 Bulletin of the United States Fish Commission containing a letter from Cedric Laighton, dated April 3, 1882, reporting on the “The Capture of Shad at Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire.” Stamped “New York Public Library.”
    f.21 Linen teatowel. Map of the Isles of Shoals. Webster, Mass., [1975?].

    f.22 Shoals Marine Laboratory materials: “Shoals Diary,” summer 1982; welcome flyer, summer 1983; newslette, spring 1983 (?)[missing first two pages - pages 3 and 4 are duplicated].
    f.23 “Savor the Isles of Shoals.” Advertising poster for festive dinner at University of New Hampshire dining halls, March 5, 1987. Sponsored jointly by UNH Dining and the Shoals Marine Laboratory.
    f.24 Fish, C. Julian. Isles of Shoals & Blackbeard’s Treasure. Colored illustration with brief text, 11×14″.

    II. Of Celia Thaxter and Others

    A. Of Celia Thaxter

    f.25 Letters from Celia Thaxter:
    1) to Mr. Jenks, March 11, 1872. Apologizes for keeping his book so long and thanks him for his kind words.

    2) to Miss Bates, Dec. 29, 1884. Thanks her for praise of Prang’s Christmas Card, noting that Prang feared the card would not be popular.
    3) to F. J. Garrison, Boston, Nov. 6, 1886. Invites him to an evening gathering.
    f.26 Broadside: Prang’s American Fourth Prize Christmas Card. Boston, 1881.
    Verse by Celia Thaxter: “Climb thou and cling to reach life’s highest good.” Illustration by Rosina Emmett.
    f.27 Howells, William Dean. “Literary Boston Thirty Years Ago.” Excerpt from Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Nov. 1895, pp. [865]-880.

    An account of Celia Thaxter, with portrait and view of White Island Light, Isles of Shoals, pp. 872-874.
    f.28 Miss M.H. Jewell. “An Early Letter by Celia Thaxter.” Old-Time New England, April 1947, pp.101-103.
    f.29 Lord, Caroline M. “To Celia Thaxter” [poem]. Yankee, March 1951, p. 34.
    f.30 Thaxter, Rosamond. “Celia Thaxter’s First Poem and the Isles of Shoals.” Yankee, Sept. 1959, pp. 52-57.
    f.31 “A Garland For Celia Thaxter 1835-1894 on the 70th Anniversary.” Colby Library Quarterly, Dec. 1964. Celia Thaxter issue.
    f.32 Sweetser, Mary Chisholm. “The Legend of Appledore.” The New England Galaxy, Spring 1966, pp.22-28.
    f.33 Five photographs and one postcard:
    1. Portrait of Celia Thaxter in middle age.

    2. Celia Thaxter in her garden.
    3. Celia Thaxter’s cottage on Appledore Island.
    4. Man (Childe Hassam?) and two unidentified women on the Isles of Shoals.
    5. The Appledore House, Isles of Shoals.
    Postcard of Celia Thaxter’s cottage, Appledore, Isles of Shoals, N.H.

    B. Others

    f.34 Two letters:
    1. Emma C. Marean to Amos R. Wells, April 5, 1929. Asks if she may send him a book of verses for publication.
    2. Rosamond Thaxter to Lewis M. Stark, March 11, 1958. Thanks him for copies of four letters written by Celia Thaxter.
    f.35 Four letters documenting Lewis Stark’s purchase of Lyman V. Rutledge’s Moonlight Murder at Smuttynose, 1958.
    f.36 Pencil drawings by Oscar Laighton: Fish – “Massey Trotter (via HC), May 22, 1950″ written in pencil on back; and sketch of a sailing ship.
    f.37 Two cards with poems by Oscar Laighton: “Slumber Song,” and “Christmas Eve”; signed photo-postcard of Oscar Laighton.
    f.38 Photograph of Rosamond Thaxter, aged 14 years and 3 months, July 1909.

    III. Appendix: Cataloged Books From This Collection

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