A secret island history - chiseled in pine
At Nantucket Carving, master carver Paul McCarthy and graphic designer Jean Petty carry on a beloved island tradition
BY MARLI GUZZETTA INDEPENDENT ARTS EDITOR
If you were to catalogue all the signs and quarterboards on Nantucket, it would form a history of the island never before committed to writing. Master carver Paul McCarthy's chisel knows most of it, having translated the dreams and desires of so many Nantucket residents into names that adorn their homes. This week, you can meet the team behind these carvings during a Nantucket Carvings open house.

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL GALVIN/The Independent Paul McCarthy (right) works with a student carving a whale. The Nantucket Carving and Folk Art workshop in the basement of Arrowhead nursery has several student work stations.

As most Nantucketers know, and as the Historic District Commission defines it, a quarterboard is a rectangular, wooden sign bearing the name of a residence or boat. In Nantucket's early days, islanders began the tradition of tacking old ship quarterboards to their homes as names - in part to knock the British tradition of naming their estates and in part to commemorate wrecked or decommissioned vessels, according to Sharon Hubbard, who is writing a book on Nantucket quarterboards for Mill Hill Press. (See sidebar.) Often, quarterboards were the only things that could identify a shipwreck.

McCarthy helps a student carving an eagle - the first object McCarthy ever carved as a Scituate high school student in shop class. He was supposed to make a lamp.

As time went on, homeowners became keen on the prospect of naming their homes, a practice about which they became more enthusiastic than ever roughly 30 years ago, according to McCarthy, who drove around the islands with two friends in 1998, cataloguing every quarterboard they'd done … or at least every one that's tacked up.

"Tucked In" and "Tucked Away" are popular options, as well as derivations using the "tuck" in "Nantucket."

Sometimes, customers take years to decide on a name (the longest wait is 22 years and counting) only to decide at the last minute that things should be changed. One of McCarthy's current commissions, luckily, didn't get quite so far into the carving phase before the adult children of the homeowners vetoed the name, knowing the quarterboard would pass into their possession along with the house. Another couple is having a different name carved into each side of the quarterboard, so they can flip it.

Whatever Paul McCarthy carves folk artist Jean Petty treats and paints. McCarthy keeps a card catalogue of all of the quarterboards he's done over the years.

Naming a house is serious business here, and McCarthy has his favorites - including "Are You Happy Now?" in Dionis, "Never So Good" in Tom Nevers and "Takitezie" in 'Sconset.

In his shop in the basement of Arrowhead Nursery, McCarthy keeps several old, card catalogue files filled with images of quarterboards he's created, as well as other wood carvings he's fashioned, including highly recognizable wooden signs around town (including the Chamber of Commerce's whaleship and brilliant gold-lettered Key Post Corner sign) as well as the animals and eagles he's perfected over the years.

McCarthy got his start as a high schooler in Scituate, Mass., who rebelled against his woodshop teacher's instructions for a lamp and instead created a wooden eagle that hangs in the high school to this day.

It was in Scituate that he met designer Jean Petty, who works as a skilled folk artist in her own right. Petty comes from a family of New England artists, which includes folk artists, woodcarvers, cake decorators and everything in between.

Petty takes care of all the computerbased design, as well as the painting of each quarterboard, eagle, sign and animal.

They've been working together for the past four years. They play classic rock in the shop where McCarthy's workbench is joined by several others - benches for McCarthy's students, who file in on weekends, plop down in their seats and quickly become engrossed in their pieces. The winter is the high season for these classes, but even in summer, the benches are busy with men and women from all different walks of Nantucket life, including Nantucket Historical Association director Bill Tramposch, Nantucket Gourmet coowner John Stone and actor Peter Arsenault.

"Jonathan Stone actually went to the library and got Paul's b ooks, then started carving on his own, without realizing that Paul was on the island," Petty said.

McCarthy began the classes 14 years ago on North Beach Street, but went on a teaching hiatus when Nantucket Carving moved to a small space on Orange Street. After moving to their current location, McCarthy resumed the classes last fall.

"When he started the classes up again last fall, a lot of the old students reappeared with the same project they'd been working on years ago," Petty said.

Their pieces will be on display this weekend when Petty and McCarthy open their doors to curious customers and anyone else curious to see the place where all of Nantucket gets its name, one letter at a time.

When: Fri. and Sat., Aug. 3 and 4, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Where: 9 Wampanoag Way

For more information, please call 325-7463.

The Egan Foundation's Mill Hill Press has recently commissioned Sharon Hubbard to write a six-chapter book on the stories behind Nantucket quarterboards. So far, the book highlights over 100 quarterboards from whaleships, shipwrecks, antebellum 'Sconset homes and present-day homes.

"Quarterboards have been around since the early 1800s, going way, way back to quarterboards on ships in 1700s," Hubbard said. "In the last 20 years, it's become something everyone wants to do. It did start on Nantucket, and people were copying the English tradition of naming estates.

"You wouldn't believe some of the calls I've gotten."

Hubbard estimates that there are roughly 3,000 quarterboards on island right now and believe that the proliferation of quarterboards is indicative of the esteem with which Nantucket regards its history.

If you have a good story for your quarterboard, you can contact Hubbard to see if there might be a place for your sign in the book. Email sharjaynes@rcn.comm or call (617) 549-5895.