Martha's Vineyard Antique Photos

09/05/2025

[From the Collection] Prior to the opening of the current Edgartown School for the 1925-1926 school year, Edgartown students were split between two different schools. Students attended the North School on Pease’s Point Way North for grades 1 to 6 before moving to the South School at the corner of School and Norton Streets for grades 7 to 12. Taken sometime in the first two decades of the 20th century, this photo captures a group of students and school staff posed in one of the South School classrooms.

Then and now, the first week of school marks a fresh chapter—wishing students and educators a meaningful start to the year.

09/03/2025

08/23/2025

Nancy Luce (1824-1890), born 202 years ago today, was the Vineyard’s first celebrity. A farmer, poet, and folk artist who lived alone on her small West Tisbury farmstead, she doted on her chickens and erected marble gravestones for them when they died. Summer tourists who had read about her in mainland newspapers saw her, because of her unconventional lifestyle, as a “curiosity” to be gawked at. She saw the tourists as a source of extra income, selling them eggs, booklets of her poetry, and “carte de visite” photos like these . . . creating a “personal brand” long before there was a name for it. Happy birthday, Nancy Luce!