At the end of the last ice age, Amagansett stood at the eastern tip of Long Island. At that time, Montauk was an island on its own in the Atlantic. In the intervening several thousand years, ocean currents, or littoral drift, filled in space with sand. This area is now known as Napeague.
Carleton Kelsey was a schoolteacher before becoming director of the Amagansett Free Library, a post in which he served until the age of 86. Town Historian and charter board member of the Amagansett Historical Association, he also performed in regional community theater for decades, and gave regular lively talks on regional history to academic and community groups. He could often be found sharing Amagansett “lore & legend” over breakfast at Estia with such well-known residents as Alec Baldwin, another Long-Island native (Massapequa). Carleton’s extraordinary collection of 18,500 Long Island photographs, dating back to 1860 and the ‘American Civil War’, can be viewed in the ‘Carleton Kelsey Wing’ of the Amagansett Free Library.