Nantucket and Other Native Places: The Legacy of Elizabeth Alden Little

Preface

Preface Dr. Elizabeth Alden Little (1926–2003) was an accomplished physicist, archaeologist, and anthropologist who devoted over thirty years of her life to the advancement and dissemination of scholarly research on Nantucket’s Native American and Colonial population. She received her PhD in physics from MIT in 1954 and her MA in anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in 1985. From 1971 to 1999, she collected and analyzed Nantucket Island data and self-published over thirty manuscripts on behalf of the Nantucket Historical Association (NHA). These manuscripts divulged complex details about Native American life and Colonial interactions from the Precontact period through the Indian sickness period of 1763–1764. Little’s research canvassed topics such as Native American diet, settlement patterns, community centers, architecture, Indian whalers, and sachems of note. In addition to her NHA manuscripts, Little maintained a steady and prolific academic publishing career that elevated her status in the professional archaeological community throughout the Northeast and elsewhere. She is widely recognized today for her extensive primary manuscript research on Nantucket and for enlightening the academic community on many topics, including radio carbon dating analyses and stable isotope analyses of human bone, a technique that can reveal the primary components of the human diet. In honor of Little’s accomplishments and influence, this book is a Festschrift of chapters written by archaeologists and scholars who were influenced by her work. The thematic contributions capture many of her areas of expertise, including Nantucket Island archaeology, and reflect the widespread influence she maintains. Chapters in this volume were written by archaeologists who knew Little well. The chapters are thematic and linked to many of Little’s research interests. Topics include the Jethro Coffin House, Native American architecture on Nantucket Island, coastal settlement patterns, maize, Indian sachems, wampum, and Contact period archaeology on Nantucket Island and the mainland. Little’s final manuscript, as edited by xiii xiv Preface Elizabeth Chilton, in draft at the time of her death, is also included here. A biography of Little’s life has been written by Dr. Dena Dincauze, and a comprehensive bibliography of Little’s publications has been compiled by Dr. Dena Dincauze and Mary Lynne Rainey. This work is a joint venture between the Massachusetts Archaeological Society (MAS), which received the Louis Brennan Award for this book project from the Eastern States Archaeological Federation, and State University of New York (SUNY) Press. The editors would like to thank the other members of the MAS Publications Committee, Tonya Largy and Dr. James Bradley. They also wish to thank Gary Dunham of SUNY Press for his support throughout this project and for supporting Northeast archaeology in general. Most importantly they wish to thank the Little family for helping them find a way to honor Betty’s memory, her life, and her work. The cover image of “The Shack” was taken by Mary Lynne Rainey, and the following excerpt is a quote written by Betty Little about The Shack at Miacomet (Little 1989): “ ‘The Blue Heron,’ an old gunning shack moved to the west side of Miacomet Pond near the ocean by ~1900, stood there until 1944, when it was burned down, probably by vandals. The present shack was once part of the old White Elephant hotel on Easton Street and was moved here when the hotel was rebuilt about 1965. ‘The Shack,’ a name which was applied to the site even during the 20 years when there was no shack on the property, has been used every summer by my family all of my life, and, according to my mother’s photograph album, at least once a summer since about 1924. My earliest recollections are of shack picnics, all day expeditions involving large numbers of family, through 5th cousins three times removed. [ ] The ocean swimming there can’t be beat!” ...