Ruth Haviland Sutton Engraving of Pleasant Street, Nantucket, circa 1930s

Ruth Haviland Sutton Engraving of Pleasant Street, Nantucket, circa 1930s, a black and white view of the start of Pleasant Street with a Greek Revival whaling captain’s mansion on the right facing older grey shingled whaling captain’s houses on the left, titled “Pleasant Street, Nantucket” in pencil lower left and signed RH Sutton in pencil lower right. This is the desirable medium size of Sutton’s prints.

Image Measures: 4-3/4 in H x 6-5/8 in W
Matted: 12 in H x 9 in W

Ruth Haviland Sutton (1898-1960) studied at the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Arts in Philadelphia and at the Grand Central School of Art in New York
City in the 1920s. She attended the Art Students League in the 1930s, and was also active in the Springfield Artists Guild, the Springfield Art League, and helped found the Boston Printmakers. She studied under Frank Swift Chase on Nantucket, established the Inner Harbor Art Colony, and taught for many years. She was an early member of the Artists Association of Nantucket and was a key supporter of the Sidewalk Art Sale.

This engraving is actually unsold stock from Marshall Gardiner’s store on lower Main Street, Nantucket back in the 1910s to 30s. It is in its original mat, but was never framed, and has descended within his family.

H. Marshall Gardiner (1884-1942) was born on September 18, 1884 in Windsor, Ontario, and immigrated to the United States circa 1890, where his father W.H. Gardiner opened two photographic studios, one in Detroit during the winter months and a second at Mackinac Island during the more tourist-oriented summer months. Marshall learned many of his photographic techniques from his father prior to going out on his own at a relatively early age. Around 1910, at the age of around 24, he first traveled to the island of Nantucket. The year-round population of Nantucket was then just over 2500, not nearly enough to sustain a photographic business for the entire year, so he opened a joint Photography and Art Supplies Store. Working as Nantucket’s exclusive agent for Eastman Kodak, his business expanded to include the island’s only photo-finishing service. However, with such a small year-round population, even the addition of a Gift Shop to compliment the hand-painted photographs, general portrait & photographic services, and art supplies couldn’t sustain him on Nantucket year round, so during the winter months he continued to help with the family’s photographic businesses in Daytona and Mackinac Island.