Last updated: February 20, 2022
Place
New Bedford Whaling Museum
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Location:
18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740
Significance:
Museum
Designation:
Legislative Park Partner
MANAGED BY:
Amenities
13 listed
Accessible Rooms, Accessible Sites, Amphitheater, Gifts/Souvenirs/Books, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Information, Restroom - Accessible, Restroom - Family, Scenic View/Photo Spot, Tactile Exhibit, Theater/Auditorium, Ticket Sales, Wheelchair Accessible
About
New Bedford Whaling Museum is a world-renowned museum that offers visitors the opportunity to explore the rich history of the whaling industry and New Bedford. Located in the heart of New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, the Museum features interactive exhibits, including the world’s largest whaling ship model; displays of fine and decorative arts; collections of cultural artifacts, rare antiquities, scrimshaw and logbooks; and five whale skeletons including the rare blue and northern right whale.
History
Formed by the Old Dartmouth Historical Society, the New Bedford Whaling Museum opened in 1903 to display and store artifacts relevant to the whaling industry and local history. The museum collection contains more than 750,000 items, including 3,000 pieces of scrimshaw and 2,500 logbooks, both of which are the largest collections of these items in the world. The museum also maintains a significant collection of fine art and crafts by local artisans from the whaling era. The museum hosts popular educational programs for school children.
The Whaling Museum quickly outgrew its first home in the Masonic Building at Pleasant and Union Streets. In 1907 the museum moved into the Bank of Commerce, the first of what is now a six-building complex, on Water Street. In 1916 Emily Howland Bourne presented the Bourne Building to the Society. Named in honor of her father Jonathan Bourne, one of New Bedford’s most successful whaling merchants, the large, central building was built to house a half-scale model of Bourne’s favorite ship, the Lagoda, and other whaling artifacts. Sited across the street from the Seaman’s Bethel, the museum’s the 1916 building displaced brothels and taprooms on the eastern side of Johnny Cake Hill and overlooked littered streetscapes toward the harbor.
Today the museum sits on a full city block campus of multiple structures. Since the 1916 addition of the Bourne Building, the museum has constructed the Wood Building (1934), the Cook Theater Complex (1973), the Jacob Wattles Education Center (2015). The museum has also incorporated the following existing buildings into its campus – the Sundial Building (1820) and the Eben Hirst Building (c.1820).