Whaling Museum

The Whaling Museum blog, initiated and administered by the NBWM Department of Digital Initiatives, seeks to record museum related news and engage our readers in discussions concerning common interests. The parameters are as wide as together we make them to be: collections, education, exhibits, programs, either from the museum or of interest to the community. Comments to postings are encouraged and we look forward to the ensuing dialogue. We ask that all comments remain respectful. The museum reserves the right to control all content appearing on this blog.

If you’d like to join our list of content originators please send notification to “photoresearch(at)whalingmuseum(dot)org”, along with your first posting.

The NBWM is located in New Bedford,Massachusetts, USA. The museum, through its collections and exhibitions, tells the story of the international whaling industry and the history more generally of the “Old Dartmouth” area, the Southcoast of Massachusetts. Its collection contains over 200,000 artifacts, including 3,000 pieces of scrimshaw and 2,500 logbooks (handwritten accounts of whaling voyages), both of which are the largest collections in the world.

The Museum also houses an extensive collection of fine art, including works by major American artists who lived or worked in the New Beford area, such as Albert Bierstadt, William Bradford, and Albert Pinkham Ryder, as well as significant collections of locally produced art, glass, furniture, and other decorative arts that flourished as a result of the wealth that whaling brought to New Bedford in the 19th century.

The Lagoda, the world’s largest whale ship model, the Lagoda, is housed in the museum.

The content of this site, unless republished or otherwise credited is copyrighted by the New Bedford Whaling Museum/Old Dartmouth Historical Society.