Strawbery Banke Presents
HISTORIC PORTSMOUTH #240

A reader of this seacoast history web site recently found this unpublished photograph while going through her late father’s papers in Lansing, Michigan. It was apparently taken around 1935 by Robert Jenkins, a UNH student. (Continued below)

Prudy Crandall Randall of Lunging Island

The photo shows Prudence Crandall banding birds for the Audubon Society at the Isles of Shoals. Prudy’s father, a Unitarian minister, purchased Lunging Island at the Shoals in 1926. Prudy, a poet and a tomboy, served as a "pelican" or "pel" at the Oceanic Hotel owned by the Star Island Corporation. She married Robert Randall at the Gosport Chapel and became Prudence Crandall Randall. They summered at "Honeymoon Cottage", built by Oscar Laighton (Celia Thaxter’s brother), and the only house on the privately owned Lunging Island. Prudy was a well-known figure at the Isles of Shoals until her death last November at age 90. (Photograph courtesy of Sandra Moore)

Bonus Closeup Below