New Bedford Whaling Museum

Hiya!

This is my second post covering the Boston and Greater Boston area:

D1: Buttonwood Park Zoo

D2: New Bedford Whaling Museum (this post)

D3: Franklin Park Zoo

D4: Museum of Science (Boston)

Still on the South Coast of Massachusetts, we are now turning our attention to the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

All of the pictures in this post were taken by me except for the maps of the museum.

NEW BEDFORD WHALING MUSEUM

18 Johnny Cake Hill
New Bedford, MA 02740

Website: https://www.whalingmuseum.org/

Hours: Open Daily, 9 AM - 5 PM

Cost (as of 2025):

Adults: $23
Senior (65+): $21
Youth: $13
Museum Members: FREE

A ticket for the 3D Movie costs an additional $4 for everyone (including members).

Parking on Johnny Cake Hill is free for up to 3 hours. Otherwise, you may need to pay for metered street parking or use a paid parking garage.

Estimated Time: 2 hours. You can spend more or less time depending on your interest.

If you're mainly a visual person or want to breeze through the museum, you can finish in 1-2 hours. If you want to take the time to read about local New Bedford history and learn the intricacies of the whaling industry, you could spend upwards of 3-4 hours.

I was at the museum for 2 hours. I spent a lot of time poring through the early exhibits but rushed through a few of the final galleries.

SUMMARY

NBWM Upper Level Map.jpg

NBWM Main Level Map.jpg

NBWM Lower Level Map.jpg

If you are fascinated by whaling, ships, and local New England history, then the New Bedford Whaling Museum is right up your alley! This museum was highly recommended to me by a friend who is local, but I found the museum just average because it is a highly specialized museum on whaling and local history. Personally, I would have preferred a bigger emphasis on whales but the focus of the museum is definitely on whaling and not so much on whales. While there are some animal displays that you would see at a natural history museum, it isn't as good as a bona fide natural history museum. And while I did find some animal or nautical-themed artwork to admire, it wasn't at the level you would expect at an actual art museum.

Highlights include giant whale skeletons, a life-size replica of a blue whale heart that you can crawl into, some historical taxidermy exhibits that used to be at P.T. Barnum's museum, an impressive scrimshaw gallery, and the half-scale model of the Lagoda.

Overall, I would give the New Bedford Whaling Museum an average rating of 2 stars. While there is a lot to see it is very specialized and admission is pricey at $23. It is slightly better than the Cape Cod Maritime Museum, which I also rate at 2 stars, though the latter is more cost efficient. But both pale in comparison to the Galata Museo del Mare in Genoa.

For comparison, here is how I rate other museums:

5 stars:

Field Museum (Chicago, IL)
Castello Sforzesco (Milan, Italy)

4 stars:

The Ringling (Sarasota, FL)
Museum of Science and Industry (Chicago, IL)
Museum d'Histoire Naturelle (Nice, France) (2 stars without the Lego special exhibit)
Musée Masséna (Nice, France)
Galata Museo del Mare (Genoa, Italy)
Museo del Duomo (Milan, Italy)
CDC Museum (Atlanta, GA, Free)
Mardi Gras World (New Orleans, LA)
World War 2 Museum (New Orleans, LA)

3 stars:

Chicago Fed Money Museum (Chicago, IL, Free)
Medieval Torture Museum (Chicago, IL)
Musée d'Archéologie de Nice-Cimiez (Nice, France)
Civico Museo Archeologico (Milan, Italy)
Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci (Milan, Italy)
Museo di Storia Naturale (Milan, Italy)
California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco, CA)
Michael C Carlos Museum (Atlanta, GA)
Center for Puppetry Arts (Atlanta, GA)
World of Coca-Cola (Atlanta, GA)
Fernbank Museum of Natural History (Atlanta, GA)

2 stars:

Musée d'Archéologie d'Antibes (Antibes, France)
Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Giacomo Doria (Genoa, Italy)
Museo del Tesoro di San Lorenzo (Genoa, Italy)
Museo Biblioteca dell'Attore (Genoa, Italy, Free)
Holcomb Observatory and Planetarium (Indianapolis, IN)
San Jose History Park (San Jose, CA, Free)
Museum of Illusions (Atlanta, GA)
Atlanta History Center (Atlanta, GA)
New Bedford Whaling Museum (New Bedford, MA)
Museum of Science (Boston, MA)
Cape Cod Maritime Museum (Hyannis, MA)
Cape Cod Museum of Natural History (Brewster, MA)
French Cable Museum (Orleans, MA, Free)
Pilgrim Monument and Museum (Provincetown, MA)

1 star:

National Center for Civil and Human Rights (Atlanta, GA)
Attleboro Industrial Museum (Attleboro, MA, Free)
Whydah Pirate Museum (West Yarmouth, MA)

ANIMALS

This sperm whale skeleton was recovered from Nantucket where it died in 2002. The skeleton and all associated parts are the property of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. It is on permanent loan to the New Bedford Whaling Museum as an educational specimen under the auspices of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Several whale skeletons hanging near the lobby and the theater:

The oil in this flask is slowly seeping out of the bones of the skull of KOBO, our blue whale skeleton. KOBO has been hanging in this gallery since 2000 and has been dripping oil nearly every day. The oil has been collecting in this flask since May 17, 2010. The team that assembled KOBO has estimated that this process may continue until 2060, perhaps longer.

A life-size blue whale heart:

You can even crawl into the blue whale heart, though it's a tight squeeze for adults:

Whale bones that you are encouraged to touch:

Northern Fur Seal (Callorhinus ursinus), 1850 - 1870

"Old Neptune" as this specimen was originally known, was exhibited at P.T. Barnum's museum in New York City in the 1860s. Barnum advertised it as a sea lion collected by the world famous explorer Elisha Kent Kane but Kane traveled in the Eastern Arctic where neither sea lions nor fur seals live. It was later exhibited in the Barnum Museum of Natural History at Tufts University, at the tourist attraction Perry's Nut House along Route 1 in Belfast, Maine, and at the Kendall Whaling Museum before coming to New Bedford.

Northern fur seals live in the North Pacific, the Sea of Okhotsk and the Behring Sea. Their fur, among the thickest and most valuable in the animal kingdom, led to widespread hunting in the 1900s. The animals have been protected since the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

NBWM, 2001.100.1894

Steller Sea Lion (Eumetopias jubatus), circa 1850-1875

The Steller sea lion, also known as the northern seal lion, is a threatened species native to the North Pacific. The species is named for the naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller (1709-1746), who first described them in 1741. The Steller sea lion has attracted considerable attention in recent decades due to significant, unexplained declines in their numbers over a large portion of their range in Alaska, possibly relating to equally declining fish stocks in that region.

This taxidermic specimen of this Steller sea lion was exhibited at the Barnum Museum of Natural History at Tufts University. Steller sea lions have had little commercial value through history but the collecting of natural history specimens for cabinets of curiosities in the 19th century led directly to some of the great natural history museum collections which in turn led to scientific research and ultimately, conservation efforts.

Gift of the Kendall Whaling Museum, 2001.100.1959

Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri), ca. 1909

In June of 1909 Captain Benjamin Cleveland (1844-1925) of the New Bedford whaling brig Daisy returned from the island of Desolation, known today as Kerguelen Island in the Southern Ocean, with a cargo of sperm oil and elephant seal oil.

During this voyage, Cleveland was also on a unique commission from the American Museum of Natural History to collect natural history specimens from these little-known Antarctic Islands. Among the specimens that he collected but kept for himself were the skull of an elephant seal, a king penguin and this emperor penguin.

Cleveland donated the sea elephant skull to our Museum in 1906 and his wife Emma donated the emperor penguin to the Museum in 1930.

NBWM, Gift of Mrs. Benjamin D. Cleveland, 1930.3.1

Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus)

Walruses live in the shallow waters of the Arctic seas where they root around on the sea bottom for their food, haul out to bask on floating slabs of ice and congregate in large numbers to socialize and raise their pups.

The walrus was once an important source of raw materials for Arctic whaling people like the Inuit of North America and the Chukchi of Siberia. Native whalers hunt walruses for food, use the hide to make skin boats and lashings, and historically used the ivory tusks to make tools like harpoons.

Walrus ivory has been traded for millennia and appears as far away from the Arctic as the Middle East and India. In the 1800s, New England whalers hunted walruses to the point of extinction for oil and marketable ivory.

NBWM, 00.238.12

Walrus skull without mandibles
NBWM 1944.2.1

Mismatched skull: black bear cranium and leopard seal mandibles
NBWM 00.223.36

Polar bear complete skull
NBWM, Gift of Pardon Gifford, 00.195.84

Cut section of a sperm whale mandible, showing internal bone structure
NBWM 1945.24.1

Lone-finned pilot whale skull without mandibles
NBWM

Elephant seal complete skull
NBWM 00.200.983

Bighorn sheep horn sheaths
NBWM 00.200.962

Arktische Fauna, undated
Chromolithograph on paper

Gustav Meutzel
German, 1839 - 1893
NBWM, 2001.100.5656

Look how cute the otter is!

And the adorable arctic fox:

Chart Showing Whales and Other Sea Creatures, 1700s
Engraving on paper

Artist once known
NBWM, 2001.100.6310

Pernetty's Dolphin, undated
Illustration on paper

James H. Stewart
Scottish, 1789 - 1856
NBWM, 2001.100.5780

Monstrus Horrendum, 1689
Engraving on paper

Artist once known
NBWM, 2001.100.5048

Makko Kujira (Physeter microcephalus), ca. 1992
Oil or acrylic on canvas

Kyusoku Iwamoto
Japanese, 1939 -
NBWM, 2001.100.4854

Design, undated
Brazilian beetle wings and fabric

Maker once known
NBWM, Gift of Mrs. Clara M. Rotch, 1905.30.2

Various oysters, abalones, and murexes:

Brown Mink, 2024
Mounted taxidermy
NBWM purchase

Plate 68: sea otter, lynx, muskrat, beaver, porcupine, and hedgehog, 1660
Copper engraving on paper
John Jonston (Polish, 1603 - 1675)
Matthaus Merian II (German, 1621 - 1687)
Jan Jacobz Schipper (Dutch, 1616 - 1669)
Historiae Naturalis de Quadrupedibus Libri
KWM Transfer, 2001.100.6486

Shadow Bird Decoys, ca. 1900
Wood, paint, and paper
Att. Leander Plummer (1857 - 1914)
Gift of Louise T. Stenson, 1995.34.4

Beaver Top Hat, ca. 1884
Fur, silk, and carboard

Libbeus Bailey (fl. 1875 - 1889)
Gift of Mrs. Albert W. Holmes, 1978.25

SCRIMSHAW

Scrimshaw are carvings made out of ivory and bone, such as walrus or narwhal tusks and the bones, teeth, and baleen of whales.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum has an impressive collection in their Scrimshaw Gallery, as well as sprinkled throughout the rest of the museum:

A collection of scrimshaw canes:

Soviet Antarctic whaling ensemble, circa 1961
Whale ivory

Victor Zhuravlev
2002.62

A whale ivor penguin and a tooth engraved with a portrait of a floating-factory whaleship mounted on a plastic platform; signed in Cyrillic, "V. Zhuravlev." This may be the best work from the Soviet Antarctic fleet. Victor Zhuravlev (b. 1938), from Ukraine, was evidently employed on at least one Russian whaling expedition in the early 1960s, prior to a career as a portraitist and figure painter.

Violin with ivory inlays:

Ivory clocks:

Anonymous tooth of circa the 1850s, based on "A Family Party," engraved by William E. Tucker (1801-1857) for the August 1850 issue of "Godey's Lady's Book."

Kendall Collection 001.100.633

Carved malformed tooth, undated
Sperm whale

Maker once known
NBWM, 2001.100.188

Narwhal, ca. 1974
Soapstone, ivory
Mark Tungilik
Inuit, 1913 - 1986
Naujaat (Repluse Bay), Canada
NBWM, 2001.100.1705

Walrus, ca. 1968 - 1977
Ivory
Issac Koyuk
Bering Strait Iñupiaq, 1944 - 2001
Alaska
NBWM, 2001.100.2244

ART

Kin, 2023
Recycled single-use plastic, wire, and heavy-duty hardware cloth
Dimensions: 108 inches long

Marnie Sinclair
1945 -

Kin was inspired by an unborn North Atlantic right whale calf that died with its mother from a ship strike off the coast of Virginia in 2005. Their skeletons hang inside the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The North Atlantic right whale is critically endangered. Today, there are about 335, and under 70 breeding females. Kin offers an opportunity for reflection about the human impact on marine mammals. By referencing familial bonds and generational loss, this emotional work inspires compassion toward these threatened creatures.

Dance of the Titans, 2025
Acrylics, holographic papers, beads, and high gloss resin on wood panels
Dimensions: 36 x 156 x 2 ¼ in.

Carl Lopes
1952 -

Whale Peace Offering, c. 2022
Painting over 1877 map of Mashpee, MA

Nelson Andrews (Mashpee Wampanoag)

New Bedford Whaling Museum Purchase, 2022.67.5

Chickadee on Bradford Thomas 1893 Massachsetts Ledger, 2022
Ink and watercolor on period ledger paper

Jeremy Dylan Cavin (Choctaw)

New Bedford Whaling Museum Purchase, 2022.67.4

Glass Collection in the Old Dartmouth Historical Society gallery:

Cornelia Grinnell, circa 1830
Marble

Horatio Greenough
1805 - 1852

Boston native Horatio Greenough was perhaps best known for his sculptures commissioned by the United States government. He spent most of his professaional life in Florence, inspired by the classical sculpture so readily accessible to him in Italy. His subject, Cornelia Grinnell, was born into a prominent New Bedford Quaker family and later became an outspoken abolitionist.

NBWM 1979.43.1

Stag, after 1874
Bronze

Thomas J. Pairpoint
Pairpoint Manufacturing Company

Thomas Pairpoint, the head designer of the Pairpoint Manufacturing Company, patented this design in November 1874. Pairpoint was an English silversmith who led the eponymous company to success in New Bedford, eventually merging with Mount Washigton Glass Works to form the Pairpoint Corporation.

New Bedford Whaling Museum, Glass Museum Purchase. In memory of Mrs. Frederick S. Shirley, the donor's grandmother, 1992.100.583

Burmese Lamp and Vase with Scenes of Egypt, c. 1885-1895, and c.1907-1929

Many of the painted decorations and scenes used on Mount Washington glass were reiterated on later Pairpoint lamp shades. Mount Washington entitled this scene, "Storks, Egyptian Landscape," which Pairpoint renamed "Garden of Allah."

Pairpoint bowl with hobstar, crosshatching, mitre, and daisy-and-button cuts with serrated, scalloped rim and Wheeler pattern stand, c. 1907

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William T. Bailey, 1992.100.705

Ming Dog, undated
Carved tree root

Chinese maker once known

NBWM, Gift of Miss Eleise B. Doran, 1980.52.2

Toy dog

Grand Ball given by the Whales in honor of the discovery of the Oil Wells in Pennsylvania
Vanity Fair (April 20, 1861), 186

Woodland Marsh, date unknown
Oil on canvas

Louis H. Richardson
1853 - 1923

NBWM 1984.18.11

Autumn Woods, ca. 1865
Oil on canvas

William Allen Wall
American, 1801 - 1885

In memory of Hope Waldo, Howland, 1979.3

Bartholome Gosnold at Cuttyhunk, 1858
Oil on canvas

Albert Bierstadt
1830 - 1902

As an infant, renowned American artist Albert Bierstadt immigrated with his family to the bustling city of New Bedford. His early work reflects life in the region.

In this painting, made 256 years after the historical event, Bierstadt represents the moment English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold (1571-1607) landed on the shore of Cuttyhunk Island in 1602. Cuttyhunk is an island in the Elizabeth Islands chain (named for Queen Elizabeth I) nine miles south of New Bedford harbor. Bierstadt imagines the landing as a placid fantasy of settlement, with softened light, calm water, abundant resources and wildlife, and a Native village. His painting contradicts the violence of colonization.

In the 1850s, the United States was deeply invested in forced Indian Removal to fulfill the myth of Manifest Desinty and continental expansion. By 1856 the policy of Indian Removal was largely complete and most Native Americans were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), west of the Mississippi River.

As a work of art, this painting was part of a larger national project at the time to erase Native histories and presence from the cultural imagination. It projects a fantasy of conquest for period audiences.

Gift of Emma B. Hathaway, 1904.63

FREQUENCIES: WE ONCE WALKED, 2023
Acrylic & graphite on panel

Perri Lynch Howard
1971 -

Lost Legends: Tundra Study, 2024
Ink & graphite on paper

Perri Lynch Howard
1971 -

Sealers Crushed by Icebergs, 1866
Oil on canvas

William Bradford
1823 - 1892

Great pictures like this grand painting were presented as theatrical events, where the artist would sell tickets to an eager audience, pulling back the curtains to reveal the painting at the allotted time. "Sealers" traveled to Europe where it was viewed by Queen Victoria amongst others, and to cities in the United States for spectacle display. Like Benjamin Russell, there was credibility of authenticity to Bradford's work on Arctic themes, as he traveled the region six times during his career, making sketches and working with accompanying photographers in the field to inform large and small scale paintings upon his return. New Bedford artist and colleague of Bradford's, Albert Bierstadt, also travelled a "Great Picture," entitled "Among the Sierra Nevada, California", 1868, throughout Europe and the United States.

1972.33

The Susie Prescott and Charles W. Morgan, 1916
Oil on canvas

Clifford Ashley
1881 - 1947

Gift of Virginia T. Gray and Louisa Tripp Knowles in memory of Dr. and Mrs. Curtis C. Tripp, 1987.36

Beyond the Shadows, 2020
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 60 x 48 in.

Alison Wells
1972 -

Alison Wells is a Trinidadian-born artist living and working in New Bedford, whose paintings address subjects of local import, including the histories of African diasporic communities and social and cultural events in the region. "Beyond the Shadows" poignantly addresses the historical legacies of New Bedford - the "shadows," so to speak, of place and time. The composition layers visual invocations of the Atlantic slave trade and middle passage and the slaughter of whales and experiences of those who hunted them with the vibrant contemporary "face" of the city. Wells implies that history is always present and remains relevant to New Bedford and its residents today.

Gift of Michael and Michelle Kelly, NBWM 2021.53

Fishing Trawler, Butler Flats, 2005
Watercolor on paper

Mike Mazer
1936 - 2022

NBWM 2013.50.2

Fishing Draggers, I, 2008
Watercolor on paper

Mike Mazer
1936 - 2022

NBWM 2010.32

Completing the Cargo, 1880
Oil on canvas

Clement Nye Swift
American, 1846 - 1918

NBWM 2023.49

A Nantucket Sleigh-ride, circa 1922
Manuel Perry after a design by Clifford W. Ashley

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. F. Gilbert Hinsdale, NBWM 1959.8.40

Houqua's Garden, ca. 1850
Oil on canvas mounted on masonite

Chinese maker once known

This painting depicts the gardens of the vastly wealthy and highly respected Chinese merchant Hou Qua (1769-1843), one of few individuals the Chinese emperor let trade with the West. A highly detailed scene, it shows an elegant Chinese domesticated landscape with several figures and to the right, a tearoom where women are playing a game. The painting was given by Gideon Nye Jr., merchant, writer, and Vice-Consul at Canton, to William Cole Nye Swift of New Bedford.

Gift of Mrs. Clarkson Hill, 1977.46

Endicott and the Red Cross, 1851
Oil on Canvas
Dimensions: 61 x 73 inches

William Allen Wall
American, 1801 - 1885

In 1851 New Bedford artist William Allen Wall painted his interpretation of a scene from colonial Massachusetts' history. It is based upon a short story of the same name by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) describing an historical event that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1634.

It portrays Massachusetts Bay Colony Governor, John Endicott, famously desecrating the English flag in protest. It foretells the independence of spirit that comes with living in America, thousands of miles away from mother England.

New Bedford Whaling Museum, 1987.19.1

View of the Acushnet River, ca. 1900
Oil on canvas

Clement Nye Swift
American, 1846 - 1918

In this moving painting a local artist presents a critical view of the industrial age in New Bedford. The former green pastures along the Acushnet River have given way to a brown, dry landscape. Broken fenceposts at left imply neglect, while the city skyline of New Bedford on the horizon is lined with smokestacks belching out lines of thick black smoke. The industrial future threatens to overtake the region's agricultural past.

NBWM 1973.10.6

The Spirit of the Age - An Allegory of Truth and Knowledge, 1839
Oil on canvas

William Allen Wall
American, 1801 - 1885

A painting of the Seamen's Bethel associated with Moby Dick:

CAPE VERDE EXHIBITS

The New Bedford Whaling Museum had a pair of special exhibits on Cape Verde:

Morabeza: Cape Verdean Community in the South Coast.
May 24, 2025 - February 24, 2026

Claridade: Cape Verdean Identity in Contemporary Art
June 13, 2025- December 7, 2025

Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) is an archipelago west of Africa that was colonized by the Portuguese and played a key role in the Atlantic slave trade. After the decline of the slave trade, its position along mid-Atlantic shipping lanes made it an ideal location to resupply ships. As a result, New England whaling ships frequented Cape Verde, as well as the Azores islands in the North Atlantic.

Partir mas ter que ficar (Leaving but having to stay), 2023
Watercolor and acrylic on canvas

Gildoca Barros
1994 -

Born and raised in Mindelo, Cabo Verde, artist Gildoca Barros is a graphic designer, painter, and muralist. Many of her large scale works can be found throughout Mindelo. She created this work for a 2023 exhibition titled "Memories and Feelings," that tied to her familial roots and stories.

Pão Pão Queijo Queijo, 2010
Digital C-print

Sandim Mendes
1986 -

Sandim Mendes is a Cape Verdean artist born and raised in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her artworks are a direct result of this upbringing, investigating the concept of identity within these various cultures. Through photography, performances, textile, drawings, printmaking, and installations, she expresses her findings.

Untitled, undated
Watercolor, ink, and graphite on paper

George Martins
1951 - 1991

Untitled, undated
Oil on canvas

George Martins
1951 - 1991

Martha's Vineyard Church, ca. 1946
Oil on canvas

Alice Silva Medina
1922 - 2005

SHIPS

While there were numerous exhibits about whaling, they didn't make for very good pictures. There were, however, several interesting ships to see:

The Lagoda is a half-scale model of the whaling bark. Built inside the Bourne Building in 1915-16, the Lagoda is the largest ship model in existence.

Figurehead from the ship Bartholomew Gosnold, 1832
Yellow pine

Maker once known

The Bartholomew Gosnold was built at Falmouth, Massachusetts to the order of whaling agent Ward Parker in 1832. Like several other whaling vessels named for colonial historical figures including the Awashonks, the Metacom and the Annawan, the Bartholomew Gosnold served as a reminder of the region's rich cultural heritage. Figureheads were rarely meant to be portraits, hence the English explorer appears like a man of the 1830s in dress and hair style.

NBWM 1910.2

Awashonks Half-Figurehead, 1830
Wood

Maker once known

Awashonks (fl. 1670s) was a female sachem (chief) of the Sakonnet tribe and lived near what is today Little Compton, Rhode Island. She was known for her diplomacy between Sakonnets and colonists during the War, but was often caught between Native and settler interests. Her legacy is complicated. She was revived in the mid-1800s as a settler colonialist fantasy of Native assimilation and appears in official records of New England more than any other Native woman. This figurehead co-opts historical Awashonks as maritime decoration.

NBWM 1970.5

Figurehead of the Ship Sachem

The medium clipper Sachem was built in East Boston in 1875. After 28 years of service, mostly in the Far East trade, she was condemned as unseaworthy in 1903.

Eagle figurehead from the bark Wanderer, 1878
White pine, non-ferrous metal

Attributed to Henry J. Purrington
American, 1825 - 1921

Oil refiner, William A. Robinson of New Bedford, who had invested in the final voyage, salvaged the figurehead from the wrecked ship. It was donated to the museum upon his death in 1959. Purrington was a noted shipcarver working in the shipyards of Mattapoisett through the great shipbuilding days of that port. He specialized in eagles but he also carved the billethead on the bow of the Lagoda behind you.

NBWM, Gift of Elliott R. Hedges, 1959.16

Model of the Dartmouth, 2013

Richard Glanville

The Dartmouth, the first ship built in New Bedford in 1767, was one of the three vessels in the Boston Tea Party, December 16, 1773. This 1:48 scale model was commissioned by the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Lego model of the ship Endurance

Built by Ross Hunter, 2024

The final voyage of the ship Endurance started with an Irish explorer's plan to cross Antarctica. In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton led the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition south of the Atlantic and into the Weddell Sea. However, ice trapped and crushed the Endurance, and the crew abandoned the vessel. After dangerous journeys across icy land and sea, the crew was eventually saved. However, the Endurance sank. Remarkably, marine archaeologists discovered the wrecked ship on the sea floor in 2022. This Lego representation shows how the story of the ship's voyage has endured in popular culture.

Gift of Ross and Catherine Hunter

NEW BEDFORD HISTORY

There was a lot of information about local (New Bedford) and regional (New England) history. There was a reasonable amount of reflection on the negative impact of colonialism on Native American tribes and how subsequent movements have tried to romanticize the time period or whitewash the consequences.

Map of New England, 1677

John Foster
1648 - 1681

A map of New-England, being the first that ever was here cut, and done by the best pattern that could be had, which being in some places defective, it made the other less exact; yet doth it sufficiently shew the scituation of the countrey, and conveniently well the distance of places

(Uses obsolete wording and spelling)

Reproduction courtesy of Boston Public Library, Levanthal Map & Education Center

Topographical map illustrating watersheds:

The Old Dartmouth Historical Society exhibit which shows artwork and furnishings from New Bedford's past:

18th century kitchen:

Boston Massacre, 1856
Lithograph by J.H. Buford, Boston, after a drawing by W. Champney

This print depicts the death of Crispus Attucks, a mixed Wampanoag and African American mariner, and was issued just before the Civil War as an abolitionist symbol.

Gift of Mrs. David Kempton, 1918.2

DISCLAIMER WARNING!

The next section includes some images that may be racially offensive. However, the museum exhibit specifically addresses anti-black stereotypes and the complicated past of New Bedford and New England.

Anti-Black Stereotypes

Racism is a belief system that is learned and permeates every facet of American life. These items visualize common anti-Black stereotypes popularized in the 1800s and drawn from minstrelsy shows, cartoons, and other forms of racist entertainment. Racist imagery, from games and books to advertising and music sheets, circulated widely in U.S. popular visual and material culture well into the 1900s.

Caricatures exaggerate physical characteristics like thick lips and very dark skin, and present Black men and women as unintelligent, animalistic, base and vulgar. Women are shown as matronly or sexually aggressive, while men are presented as sub-human, violent, and dangerous.

Such images support White supremacist values and racist beliefs. Because of the ideological work that stereotypes and caricature convey, such items also supported political and cultural agendas, like Jim Crow laws, segregationist policies, and racial terror campaigns. More insidiously, dolls and other items aimed at children taught anti-Black racism and racial hatred to younger generations.