Nantucket's late 19th century popularity among the New York and Boston theater crowd was due in large part to the promotional efforts of the Old Colony Railroad and its affiliated steamboat companies. Their guides to the watering places of the southern Massachusetts coast touted Nantucket as a "quaint old place" with cobblestone streets, unspoiled natural beauty and a town crier who announced meetings, lectures, and steamboat arrivals with a fish horn and bell. They described the town of Nantucket as "a marine curiosity shop," where summer sojourners could rub shoulders with old sea salts.

Promotional literature promised large and commodious hotels (including those pictured in the lower margin vignettes), opportunities for bluefishing, sailing, and sea bathing. For "invalids, wearied brain-workers, and tired-out business men," Nantucket offered "invigorating sea air and quiet repose," a retreat from the hurly-burly of the city, and daily exposure to "the ministrations of Nature." The climate was characterized as so healthful that its natives enjoyed great longevity. Even summer visitors could benefit from the island's miraculous freedom from disease: "Sea breezes carry off every vestige of noxious gases or impure influences."

The artist, J.J. Stoner chose one of the most prolific and skilled 19th century lithographers, Beck and Pauli of Milwaukee, to print this charming and highly detailed view. Beck and Pauli brought their expertise from Germany, the birthplace of lithography in 1796.