On the southwest end of the Elizabeth Islands chain, Penikese Island is a 75-acre piece of land that remains almost untouched by time, offering a rare glimpse into what coastal Massachusetts looked like centuries ago. This year, the Island celebrates 150 years of botanical surveys, a scientific legacy that has quietly shaped some of the nation’s leading research institutions.
“It’s a really cool long-term data set,” Kimberly Ulmer, executive director of the nonprofit Penikese Island School, told The Times. “I’m not a botanist, but as a biologist, long-term data sets are really cool and interesting and valuable. The longer they go on, the better they become, and 150 years is a pretty good run.”
To celebrate this remarkable legacy, the school is hosting an event at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole on July 16. The event will highlight the data set collected on Penikese as well as the island’s historic ties to the lab, dating back to Penikese’s early days as a school for natural history in the 1870s.
Founded in July 1873 as the country’s first marine laboratory, the school invited students to “study nature, not books,” encouraging exploration of the island’s natural ecosystems. Though the school closed in 1875 after a fire, its influence rippled outward. In 1888, alumni opened the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole in an effort to carry on the original goal of hands-on, interactive learning. Former students also established the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, and Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station in California. “The spark of their beginnings is on Penikese,” said Ulmer, “amid the subjects that they are studying instead of hoisted away in their ivory towers. Two summers inspired a huge, profound, and lasting impact on the alumni. Outside-of-the-classroom studying founded lots of laboratories.”
In more recent history, the Penikese Island School functioned as a nonprofit private residential school for troubled boys from 1973 to 2011. From 2012 to 2018, the school served as a base to help facilitate the ongoing work of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. Today it has returned to its roots, using the island as a living laboratory for middle-schoolers, aspiring scientists, and future environmental stewards.
The gallery at the MBL will be there through Labor Day, and will include herbarium plant specimens, dry pressed specimens, and archival plant specimens, with displays that contain the species name, the location where it was found, and its ecological community. “The event will be an opportunity to publicly educate people on who we are and what we’re doing now,” said Ulmer, “using Penikese as a field site to try and study nature.”
Ulmer described an algae specimen collected in 1875, preserved like a botanical time capsule, that will be part of the exhibit. “They’re totally forgotten about, so I’m so excited to bring them into the spotlight,” she said. “It’s a beautiful fusion of art and science.”
This will also be the school’s first formal event under its new initiative to carry forward the legacy of “study nature, not books.”
“Our new mission comes down to inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards,” said Ulmer, “trying to use Penikese Island, which is this exceptional setting, to offer immersive, hands-based, hands-on learning experiences that will inspire the next generation of students, get them off of those screens and out into nature.”
Through field trips, science camps, and school programs, the Penikese Island School aims to reconnect students with nature. Over the past four years it has welcomed students from all of the Island schools: Tisbury, West Tisbury, Edgartown, Chilmark, Oak Bluffs, and the Charter School. Ulmer is hoping to make this trip an annual tradition for each school, as well as expand the program to include all students from Mashpee and Falmouth for a day of scientific exploration.
“The goal of this camp is to empower middle school campers to know that if they want to be a scientist, they can be a scientist,” she said. “I just want them to not lose the spark that they have, the curiosity that they have, the passion.
“I love that we are serving the Vineyard. I love that we are reaching people beyond the local schools,” Ulmer added. “You protect what you love, and you’re only gonna love something if you know it … and if you don’t go out into nature, you can’t know it.”
Ulmer notes that research shows a significant drop in confidence and interest in science, particularly among girls between the ages of 9 and 13. This flagship program aims to capture these children at a pivotal moment in their lives, to make sure that they remain eager to learn.
To counter a decrease in interest, the Penikese Island School also hosts a Girls Science Empowerment Camp for girls entering seventh and eighth grade. “Women continue to be underrepresented in the sciences,” Ulmer said. In the past, this camp has featured scientists including a vet from the MBL doing dissections, oceanographic institute engineers, and physical oceanographers. Activities also included density exercises of hot versus cold water, collecting live organisms, studying ocean currents and water movement, plankton observation, and ocean acidity observation. The school also integrates artists into the programming, offering workshops in nature photography, comic art, and mapmaking.
“I love that we are providing access for students to explore their own backyard, these beautiful coastal areas we call home,” Ulmer said.
The event at the MBL on July 16 will celebrate and share a remarkable story of local botanical history, specifically how the botanical surveys on Penikese helped inspire the MBL. “I hope everybody learns something when they’re there, and I hope some people are inspired to visit the herbarium specimens,” said Ulmer. “It’s this beautiful treasure trove of herbariums.”
The exhibit promises not only to celebrate a unique chapter in botanical history, but also to look forward to a future where a new generation, inspired by the wild beauty of Penikese, carries the torch of environmental stewardship. “I hope people feel inspired by the knowledge they just received, and they will pursue helping support the work that we’re doing,” said Ulmer.
The event is free and open to the public, and will include food and beverages as well as plants and history. For more information, visit penikese.org/mblevent2025. Kimberly Ulmer, executive director of Penikese Island School, will also be giving a public talk about the history of Penikese on August 14 from 5 to 6 pm at the Oak Bluffs library.