Most of the items in this small collection of papers of the Gardner family of Nantucket Island, Mass., were gathered together by Dr. Edgar Alexander Fisher of Worcester, Mass., who was a descendant of the family. Included with the original documents is one folder, folder 1, of notes made by Dr. Fisher, probably in preparation for a genealogy. The only part of this he completed was a family chart which is available in the genealogy collection of the American Antiquarian Society. The second folder contains a recollection of the 1876 Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia made by Edgar Fisher's mother, Charlotte Vinette Gardner Fisher (daughter of George Gardner) in 1882, from notes she had made during her visit. The other folders contain miscellaneous Gardner family items. In folder 3 there are 22 letters from Jared M. Gardner (1818-1876?) to his wife Harriet, while he was on a whaling voyage in the Pacific on the brig Washington, 1840-1843; there is one letter he wrote her from another voyage in 1846; and there is one letter from Gardner to his parents dated Jan. 25, 1843. There are also 3 letters from Harriet to Jared, two dated 1842 and one 1854, and there is one letter from S. Bailey, a sailing companion of Gardner's, to Harriet. Most of Gardner's letters dwell on his homesickness, but there is interesting detail on whaling and life on the ship. In folder 4 there are incomplete drafts of 3 letters written by Harriet Gardner to her family during a voyage she took with her husband around Cape Horn to San Francisco, 1849-1850; an 1833 letter from Lucretia Mott to Eunice Gardner exploring the state of her soul; and an 1841 letter from Rebecca B. and Mary Ann Swain to their sister Harriet Gardner written from Clinton, Michigan. In this letter they complain about the hard life of the western country. In folders 5 and 6 there are several family documents, a small account book, and a group of legal documents, most of which are land deeds of Jared M. Gardner. In his diary for 1887, octavo volume 1, George Coffin Gardner (1809-1889?) notes the weather, keeps a record of his daily chores on what appears to be a small farm, and occasionally mentions family and local events. This collection is supplemented by materials in the Logbook Collection. Item 17 F in that collection is a logbook kept by Jared M. Gardner on the voyage with his wife to San Francisco. Item 20 F includes journals written by George Coffin Gardner while keeper of the South Shoal Light Ship off Nantucket.
