Nancy Luce (August 23, 1814 - April 9, 1890) was a poet and folk artist who lived in

West Tisbury, Massachusetts West Tisbury is a town located on Martha's Vineyard in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,555 at the 2020 census. Along with Chilmark and Aquinnah, West Tisbury forms "Up-Island" Martha's Vineyard. History West T ...

Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...

Biography

Luce was orphaned by her parents, Philip Luce and Anne Manter, in her late twenties and suffered a debilitating disease leaving her nearly homebound at the family farmhouse. She raised bantam hens to survive, often giving them fanciful names such as Ottee Ophete, Pondy Lilly and Letoogie Tickling. She wrote and self-published poetry pamphlets about her chickens and got professional portraits done of them and herself. Tourists would come to her cottage and small store on the property to visit with her and purchase keepsakes to bring home. As she buried her chickens on the property, her collection of chicken gravestones became its own tourist attraction. She was considered "one of the Island's most well-known historical figures." When Luce died, the chicken gravestones were given to the town library. Luce herself is buried in the West Tisbury cemetery, where her marble gravestone is decorated with chickens.

Legacy

Luce's chicken names live on in the names of chickens at the

Los Angeles Zoo The Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens is a zoo founded in 1966 and located in Los Angeles, California. The city of Los Angeles owns the entire zoo, its land and facilities, and the animals. Animal care, grounds maintenance, construction, ed ...

. Composer Thomas LaVoy is currently working on a commissioned choral piece based on her writings. Vineyard artist Daniel Waters has created a series of linoleum block prints featuring Luce and her chickens. Nancy Luce's manuscripts and other related material are at the

John Hay Library The John Hay Library (known colloquially as the Hay) is the second oldest library on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is located on Prospect Street opposite the Van Wickle Gates. After its constructio ...

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Luce, Nancy 1814 births 1890 deaths People from Martha's Vineyard People from West Tisbury, Massachusetts 19th-century American poets 19th-century American women writers American folk artists