Item #7426 Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass. Maurice W. Boyer, photog.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.
Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.

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Aerial Views of Nantucket, Mass.

[Nantucket, Mass.]: 1926. Oblong 8vo, green cloth, embossed title in gold on upper cover. 16 silver print photographs, 6” x 8.5” plus margins, mounted on linen; tissue guards, label affixed to rear paste-down reading “Duplicate of this volume can be obtained from the Island Service Company or the Nautican Realty Co. of Nantucket, Mass. Copyrigt 1926 by Henry Lang.” CONDITION: Good, some discoloration to margins and edges of photos, but tonality generally good; some creases, tears, and losses to tissue guards.

A scarce published album of aerial views of Nantucket showing the town and island in the 1920s.

Evidently published at least in part to generate interest in Nantucket real estate, this album by a popular Nantucket photographer documents the island in a series of aerial views taken in 1926. The photographs show “The Wharves of Nantucket,” “The Entrance to the Harbor,” “Wauwinet and the Upper Harbor with the Town of Nantucket in the Distance,” “The Sankaty Head Lighthouse and Golf Course,” “Great Point Lighthouse,” and a variety of other subjects. These photos were commissioned by Henry Lang, president of the Island Service Company which supplied fuel, ice, and lumber. Lang likely had a financial interest in the Nautican Realty Company as well, which is named on the label affixed to the rear paste-down.

Born in Fiskdale, Mass., Maurice Weimar Boyer (1875–1938) was a Nantucket photographer whose extensive work documents the first third of 20th century Nantucket. Boyer was a protege of Henry S. Wyer, who specialized in portraits, landscapes, postcards, and photographing island houses. Wyer taught Boyer techniques such as retouching portraits, adding clouds to pictorial views, and removing unwanted subjects by cropping or via airbrush. Boyer received further training in Boston as an apprentice to the Ruby French Co. When Boyer returned to Nantucket, he established a photography business, which grew steadily. He photographed many island events and scenes, took portraits, and shot annual photos for schools. He enlarged his pictures and sometimes tinted them with watercolors. His popular postcards of the island's picturesque spots were displayed on racks in many Nantucket hotels and boarding houses. That same year he took a course at Columbia University in New York and became the first X-ray technician at Nantucket Cottage Hospital. Boyer was highly active in the Nantucket community throughout his life.

OCLC records just three copies.

An appealing photographic document of Nantucket “from above” during the 1920s.

REFERENCES: Gornick, Dorothy Boyer. “Maurice W. Boyer, Nantucket Photographer.” Historic Nantucket, Vol. 41 (Spring 1993), pp. 7-9.

Item #7426

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