New Bedford Whaling Museum

The second in the series of Irish-themed lectures at the Whaling Museum is scheduled for February 11 at 8 p.m. as part of AHA night.

Don Cuddy, a native of Dublin and a staff writer at the Standard-Times in New Bedford will be this month’s guest speaker. Combining a love of the sea with a strong interest in history, particularly Irish history, Don joined the crew of the Irish Tall Ship ‘Jeanie Johnston’ in October 2003 for its return voyage to Ireland, departing from St. John’s, Newfoundland. The trip across the stormy North Atlantic took two weeks.

New Bedford, Massachusetts – The Moby-Dick Marathon kicks off at noon on Saturday, January 9, 2010 and concludes around 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 10, 2010. The event will take place in the Jacob’s Gallery at the New Bedford Whaling Museum located at 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, with the exception of the chapter nine sermon scene which will be read in the Seamen’s Bethel, the actual setting of the scene in the novel. The reading of this chapter is estimated to take place at 1:30pm on Saturday. The Seamen’s Bethel is located across the street from the Whaling Museum at 15 Johnny Cake Hill.

What: Presentation of $1.5 million in federal funding to restore the historic Bourne Building at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

When: Monday, November 30, 2009 at 10:00am

Where: The Bourne Building
New Bedford Whaling Museum
18 Johnny Cake Hill
New Bedford, Massachusetts

Who: Senator Paul G. Kirk, Congressman Barney Frank, Mayor Scott W. Lang, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park Superintendent, Jennifer T. Nersesian and the Trustees of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

The New Bedford Whaling Museum has many diverse goals, not all of which are devoted to the specifics of whaling history.  Part of the institution’s mission is to promote the local history and heritage of the city and region, and there are many programs devoted to this specific cause.

Needlework as an art, craft, and industry has played a significant role in the history of New Bedford and its environs.  The plying of needle and thread – whether domestic or commercial, for ornamental or utilitarian purposes – symbolizes the impact of whaling both as a source of wealth and a means of subsistence.  The lives and work of merchants’ and captains’ wives and daughters; seamstresses, dressmakers, and tailors; embroiderers and knitters; sail- and flag-makers; and the whalemen who carved exquisite scrimshaw needlework tools for the women in their lives, demonstrate the complexities and contradictions inherent in the domestic ideal and working realities of needlework.

As you may or may not know, the Whaling Museum’s president and CEO Anne Brengle will be leaving the her position after 13 years at the institution.  She has accepted a wonderful opportunity to become president of the Coast Guard Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports the United States Coast Guard through a variety of means.

Museums are often looked upon as bastions of the “old.”  They are home to items, both natural and man-made, that can date back millions of years.

Cultural institutions across the state (and the country for that matter) depend greatly on outside sources for support, and recently, both the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the Zeiterion Theatre became recipients of some wonderful news.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum, like many of the cultural organizations in New England (and the rest of the world for that matter), has much more to it than meets the eye.  For every object on display there are 50 in storage.  For every elementary or high school that visits, there are dozens of students.  And for every story contained within its walls, there are thousands more yet to be told.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum welcomes over 100,000 visitors through its doors each year.  These guests are treated to ship models, whale skeletons, beautiful scrimshaw pieces, photographs, weaponry, household items and thousands of other objects that, together, tell the story of whaling in New Bedford.

On Saturday, August 18 from 7-11 p.m., the New Bedford Whaling Museum will hold its second annual summer party, Over the Top – Under the Stars.  Like last year’s Over the Top, this event will be held in the most unique space on the South Coast – the Museum’s plaza and Jacobs Family Gallery, under the hanging bones of the blue whale.

Last week, the Whaling Museum hosted the annual teacher institute, Portraits of a Port, in which educators from New Bedford Public schools gathered at the Whaling Museum’s Research Library to explore, learn, and share ideas about incorporating aspects of local history into their curriculums. The focus this year was on the people and places of New Bedford during the time of the Civil War, 1860-1865.