In the first episode of The Shelves of Yore, Adult Programs Coordinator Janet Forest and Reference Library Associate Jim Borzilleri take you back to the year 1841 when the Nantucket Atheneum was a members-only institution and the island was prospering at the height of the whaling industry.
Jim explains the significance of the 1841 library catalogue created by the first head librarian Maria Mitchell, and Janet asks Jim about one of the items in the catalogue: Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville.
The Shelves of Yore is a production of the Nantucket Atheneum.
It was written, narrated, and edited by Janet Forest and researched by Jim Borzilleri
References and Resources:
The Nantucket Atheneum: A History by Betsy Tyler. Available to borrow at the library.
What is a panopticon? And what does it have to do with Alexis De Tocqueville?
The panopticon was the brainchild of English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in the 18th century. It is a building design that allows a single prison guard to see and control all the inmates, while all the inmates cannot see each other or the security guard. The theory was that if criminals were isolated and left alone with their thoughts and knowing they are under constant surveillance, they will reform their bad behavior.
Alexis De Tocqueville and his colleague Gustave de Beaumont were sent to United States by the French crown observe and report back on the American penitentiary system. Among other places they visited the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philidelphia that was built in 1829 by the Quakers and had many of the characteristics of Bentham’s vision of panopticon.
Click here for an image of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon.
For more information about how the panopticon still influences our prison system, check out Ted Conover’s Vanity Fair 2015 article “Guantanamo Bay Solitary Confinement”
The Nantucket Atheneum is located at 1 India Street in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
Visit us online at www.nantucketatheneum.org