Martha's Vineyard Museum

Table of Contents

Summary Information

Biography/Historical Note

Scope and Content Note

Administrative Information

Related Materials

Controlled Access Headings

Collection Inventory

Descriptive Summary

Repository	Martha's Vineyard MuseumGale Huntington Research Library 59 School Street P.O. Box 1310 Edgartown, MA 02539 (508)627-4441
Call Number	RU480
Creator - creator	Adams, Frank, 1871-1944
Title	Frank Adams patterns and journal
Date	circa 1925-1944
Extent	1 folder + 1 oversize box + 2 oversize folders + 1 flat file (0.326 cubic feet)
Language	The materials are in English.
Abstract	The collection contains a journal, decoy patters, and weathervane patterns created by woodworker, Frank Adams (1871-1944) of West Tisbury, Massachusetts.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions to access.

Use and Reproduction Restrictions

Requests to reproduce material from this collection should be directed to museum staff. Reproduction fees may apply.

Acquisition Information

Journal, gift of Sophie Block, November 13, 1997. (Accession no. 1997.056). Patterns, gift of Sophie Block, March 4, 1998. (Accession no. 1998.009). The Block family purchased the former home of Frank Adams on Music Street in West Tisbury.

Bibliography

Murphy, Stanley. Martha's Vineyard Decoys. Boston: D. R. Godine, 1978.

Publication Information

Martha's Vineyard Museum

Gale Huntington Research Library
59 School Street
P.O. Box 1310
Edgartown, MA 02539
(508)627-4441

Processing Information

Finding aid prepared by Insley Julier in October 2013. Finding aid finished by Lara J. Ullman in July 2014. Finding aid machine-encoded by Nathaniel Janick, July 2014.

 Creation of this finding aid was sponsored by the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Related Materials

Related Material

The Martha's Vineyard Museum holds a number of paperweights carved by Frank Adams.

Biography/Historical Note

Edward Francis (Frank) Adams was born in West Tisbury, Massachusetts in 1871 to Charles Adams and Nancy Allen Adams. He was apprenticed at age 19 to a machinist in Boston, Massachusetts, however he only remained in the city for one year. Returning to Martha's Vineyard, Frank Adams worked as a carpenter in Tisbury, Massachusetts, for 15 years and then in West Tisbury as a wheelwright in the workshop of Brandon Mayhew. Adams married Ethel Pease and eventually returned to carpentry and woodwork, opening a shop behind their home on Music Street in West Tisbury. He often made his own tools. Adams enjoyed hunting and employed his carving skills to make his own duck decoys and shore-bird decoys. He later discovered that miniature versions of these birds made popular and marketable paperweights. Adams began making ship weathervanes around 1925. By the 1940s, Adams billed himself as a creator of ship weather vanes, duck paperweights and doorstops in local advertisements. Frank Adams died in 1944.

Scope and Content Note

The collection contains decoy and weathervane patterns, circa 1925-1944 and undated, created by woodworker, Frank Adams (1871-1944). Patterns include a drawing of a ship's hull on paper, mounted on cloth, and a drawing of a flounder in pencil on paper. Additionally, there are seven patterns cut to the size and profile of desired carvings. These include four fish, a lobster, a shore bird and a black duck. The models are made from cardboard and bear decoration or annotations in crayon and pencil. The birds have annotations in black ink. The collection also includes a journal kept by Frank Adams, where he noted weather, customer names, and prices from 1941-1943.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged alphabetically. The journal is housed in a box with other small collections.