New Bedford Whaling Museum facts for kids
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New Bedford Whaling Museum and New Bedford Harbor
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| Established | 1903 |
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| Location | 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, Massachusetts |
| Collection size | 750,000 items |
The New Bedford Whaling Museum is a cool place in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It teaches you all about the history of whaling, which is hunting whales. It also shows you the art, science, and culture connected to this industry.
The museum also explores the history of the local area called Old Dartmouth. This area now includes New Bedford and nearby towns. The museum wants to help people understand important global topics. These include how using too many natural resources affects us. It also looks at how different industries grow and how different cultures can live together.
The museum has a huge collection of over 750,000 items. This includes 3,000 pieces of scrimshaw, which are carvings made on whalebone or ivory. It also has 2,500 logbooks from whaling ships. These are the biggest collections of their kind in the world! You can also see five full whale skeletons. The museum is made up of many buildings with 20 exhibit galleries. It takes up a whole city block inside the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.
The museum also has a great collection of fine art. These are by famous American artists who lived or worked in the New Bedford area. You can see beautiful paintings by Albert Bierstadt and William Bradford. There is also decorative art, glass, and furniture. These items show how New Bedford became a rich whaling port in the 1800s.
One of the most amazing things to see is the Lagoda. This is a half-scale model of a whaling ship. It was built in 1916 and is the largest model whaling ship in the world!
Contents
Museum History
The idea for the museum started on January 7, 1903. A news reporter named Ellis L. Howland said that New Bedford needed a historical society and a museum. He felt it was important to save the city's history. He worried that old logbooks from whaling ships were being lost or destroyed.
On July 22, 1903, the Old Dartmouth Historical Society was formed. William W. Crapo, a local lawyer, became its first president. At first, the museum rented rooms to show its artifacts. By 1904, it had almost 700 members and 560 items in its collection.
In 1906, a generous person named Henry Huttleston Rogers donated a building. This building became the home of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. It officially opened its doors one year later, in 1907.
The museum grew a lot in the 1910s and 1920s. In 1914, Frank Wood became the first full-time staff member. In 1915, Emily Bourne donated the Bourne Building. She also gave money to build the half-sized model of her father's ship, the Lagoda. This amazing model was built inside the Bourne Building in 1916.
Interest in whaling history grew even more with the 1922 film Down to the Sea in Ships. This movie was filmed in New Bedford. Many local people dressed up in old clothes to be extras!
By the 1930s, thousands of visitors came to the museum each year. In 1936, the museum got its first whale skeleton. It was a three-year-old humpback whale named Quasimodo. The curator, William Tripp, was very happy. He said, "We are no longer a whaling museum without a whale!"
In 1996, the museum helped create the New Bedford Whaling National Historic Park. This national park includes many historical places in New Bedford. The museum also shows a short film called The City that Lit the World. This year also saw the first annual Moby-Dick Marathon Reading. This is where people read the famous book Moby-Dick out loud.
In 1998, the museum worked with the Azorean Maritime Heritage Society. They built the Azorean Whaleman Gallery. This exhibit shows how sailors from the Azores islands helped the US whaling industry. In 2000, the Jacobs Family Gallery was built. The humpback whale skeleton, Quasimodo, was moved there. A new skeleton of a young blue whale, named KOBO, was also added.
In 2001, the museum merged with the Kendall Whaling Museum. This added about 70,000 more items to the collection! To hold all these new artifacts, the museum got another building. In 2002, the museum also partnered with the Melville Society. Now, the museum's library holds their large collection about Herman Melville, who wrote Moby-Dick.
More whale skeletons were added over time. In 2002, a sperm whale skeleton joined the collection. In 2008, the museum got a North Atlantic right whale skeleton. This whale was pregnant when it died.
Permanent Exhibits
The Lagoda Ship Model
The museum's Jonathan Bourne Building is home to the amazing Lagoda. This is a half-scale model of a real whaling ship. It was built in 1916. The Lagoda is 89 feet (27 meters) long. Its main mast is 50 feet (15 meters) tall. This makes it the largest model whaling ship in the world! It shows you what a whaling ship looked like and what supplies were needed for long trips.
Azorean Whaleman Gallery
This exhibit in the Bourne Building explores the big impact of people from the Azores islands. Many Azorean people came to live in Southern New England, especially New Bedford. This exhibit has many items related to whaling in the Azores. It also tells the story of how islanders traveled to the US on whaling ships. You can see a half-scale model of an Azorean whaleboat. There is also a vigia, which was an Azorean whaling lookout post.
Skeletons of the Deep
The museum has five complete whale skeletons! These include a blue whale, a humpback whale, a sperm whale, and a mother and baby North Atlantic right whale. None of these whales were killed by whaling. They all died naturally or from accidents.
The first skeleton was a 37-foot (11-meter) humpback whale named Quasimodo. He died in 1932. The blue whale is a 66-foot (20-meter) young male named KOBO. The sperm whale is a 48-foot (15-meter) male. The right whales are a 49-foot (15-meter) female named Reyna and her unborn baby. Reyna was ten months pregnant when she died.
Harbor Hope in Old Dartmouth
This exhibit looks at the history of the Old Dartmouth region. It starts from when English explorer Bartholomew Gosnold landed there in 1602. It goes up to when New Bedford became the most important whaling city. It shows how religion, geography, and trade helped New Bedford grow. New Bedford became bigger than Nantucket as the top whaling center around 1827.
See also
