Preserving Whaling's Legacy

In 1915, in the waning light of whaling's final decade, Emily Howland Bourne financed the construction of a museum building to honor her whaling merchant father, Jonathan Bourne, Jr., marking the first steadfast effort to preserve New Bedford's whaling legacy. Housed there today are the world's largest collections of whaling art and artifacts, spanning seven continents and seven centuries. The museum reflects the skill, industry, craftsmanship, and artistry inspired by whaling; within its walls are whalebones, whale products, harpoons, replica whaling ships, and whalemen's journals and art. Though the whaling age has passed, its memories live on in scrimshaw, created when whalemen used a knife or a sailmaker's needle to etch intricate figures or scenes into whalebone and then rubbed in black ink, tar, soot, or tobacco juice to highlight the designs. Hunting the hugest monster of the oceans, which brought fame and fortune to New Bedford, has long since ceased, and after more than a century in which this hill was at the heart of the city's intensive life, it became a place of memories whose preservation was seen as important.

Fairhaven, Massachusetts · United States