Kids visit the New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance craft tables during Right Whale Day 2012.

The families arrived early and came in a steady stream between 10a – 2p yesterday for Right Whale Day.  They worked their way through the right whale obstacle course created by our High School Apprentices; created origami and whale tale necklaces with New England Coastal Wildlife staff and tried on the blubber glove to test the insulating capacity of whale blubber. They were greeted by Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society staff as they entered WDCS’s 48ft inflatable right whale and learned important right whale information from NOAA education staff.  Many stayed for some tasty cake topped with a frosted right whale. We wrapped up the day with a 2pm viewing of Ocean Frontiers: The Dawn of a New Era in Ocean Stewardship, a new documentary that highlights four innovative collaborations that have led to increased protection of our ocean resources.

We thank NECWA, WDCS, NOAA, our high school apprentices and WM docents and Facilities staff for their help in making yesterday’s festivities a success.

Young visitors try to 'swim' through the propeller strike obstacle safely.

Portuguese King João V with Chocolate, dated 1720, courtesy of the Instituto Português dos Museus, Lisbon, Portugal, illustrates the importance of chocolate in the royal courts of Europe. Four lectures by chocolate historians and demonstrations of early American chocolate-making are part of "Valentine's Day II - Chocolate Day," Feb.25 (used with permission).

Mocha Dick is purported to have been a real sperm whale that terrorized whaling crews in the 1830s. Some scholars believe he was the inspiration for Herman Melville’s great white whale, Moby-Dick. Beyond this obscure reference to mocha, is there any connection between 19th century American Whaling and chocolate? It turns out there is. Chocolate will be the subject of Valentine’s Day II – Chocolate Day, with four free public lectures by chocolate experts, demonstrations in colonial chocolate-making and sampling on Saturday, February 25, 2012 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the Whaling Museum.

Chocolate became a highly regarded addition to ship’s fare on whaling and merchant vessels according to a recently published book, Chocolate: History Culture and Heritage. Three of the book’s contributing authors will present illustrated lectures and demonstrations on chocolate. Learn where chocolate comes from, how it came to colonial New England, and how cocoa was made in early America.

The day’s activities are sponsored in part by American Heritage Chocolate® – part of the historic division of Mars, Incorporated – which manufactures chocolate products using authentic colonial recipes made only from ingredients available during the 18th century, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, chili pepper, orange and vanilla. To ensure historical accuracy, Mars conducted extensive historical research on chocolate, working with the University of California at Davis. Over 150 researchers and historians from historic sites and universities across the globe contributed to the 1000-page textbook – considered a definitive reference on the history of chocolate and its development as a global industry. Edited by Louis E. Grivetti and Howard-Yana Shapiro, and published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., copies of the book, signed by the authors, will be available at the Museum store. American Heritage Chocolate will also be available for sale.

Timothy D. Walker, Ph.D., will present A History of Chocolate: Where it comes from and how it was made in early New England at 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. in the Cook Memorial Theater.

Dr. Walker is an Associate Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where he is also the Fulbright Program Advisor for faculty and students. He has served as Associate Director of the Center for Portuguese Studies and Culture, is a member of the graduate faculty of the Department of Portuguese Studies, and is an Affiliated Researcher of the Centro de História de Além-Mar (CHAM), Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal. A New Bedford resident, Dr. Walker was recently named a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow.

Christopher Kelly will present: Chocolate at Sea: Use Aboard Whaling and Merchant Ships in the 19th Century, 1:00 p.m. in the theater.

Christopher Kelly is a writer, musician, and filmmaker from southeastern, Massachusetts. A graduate of UMass Dartmouth’s History program, he spent 2006-2007 conducting research on the use of chocolate aboard nineteenth century New Bedford whaling voyages that ultimately culminated in a chapter in the book, Chocolate: History Culture and Heritage. He currently lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

Rodney Snyder will present Chocolate is American History at 2:00 p.m. in the Cook Memorial Theater.

Rodney Snyder is the Chocolate History Research Director for The Historic Division of Mars. He has been researching cocoa for Mars, Incorporated for more than 25 years. In his quest to locate the best tasting cocoa beans, he has visited all of the major cocoa growing regions such as West Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and South Asia. After having roasted every type of cocoa, he can identify the origin of cocoa beans by their flavor and aroma. He is the author of From Stone Metates to Steel Mills: The Evolution of Chocolate Manufacture, a chapter included in the book.

Admission is free to Valentine’s Day II – Chocolate Day, which takes place in the Jacobs Family Gallery and the Cook Memorial Theater. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Regular admission rates apply to the Museum galleries. Chocolate Day wraps up a week of school vacation week activities.

Abe Lincoln, played by Arthur Bennett, hands out his portrait - a penny - to school children at the Annual Presidents' Day Birthday Celebration

Abraham Lincoln came to New Bedford in 1848 and will make a return trip – accompanied by George Washington – to visit with children and enjoy birthday cake at the Museum’s Presidents’ Day Birthday Celebration on Monday, February 20,from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. in the Jacobs Family Gallery.

Explore how the Founding Fathers influenced New Bedford history, participate in a scavenger hunt, create sailors’ valentines, learn how to make origami whales, and more. Children will have the opportunity to dress as their favorite president and have their photograph taken beside the famous Resolute desk, created from the same ship’s timbers as the one used in the Oval Office. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Presidents’ Day events are free. Regular admission rates apply to the museum galleries.

Presidents’ Day schedule includes crafts and activities for children, 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.; storytelling with President Lincoln, 11:00 to 11:30 a.m.; scavenger hunt, 11:30 to 12:30 p.m.; dress like a president beside the Resolute Desk, noon to 1:00 p.m.; add your face to Mount Rushmore alongside Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt and Jefferson, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.; storytelling with President Washington, 1:00 to 1:30 p.m.; and Happy Birthday sing-along and cake with the Presidents, 1:30 to 2:00 p.m.

Presidents’ Day kicks off a week of events for school vacation week that includes special tours and hands-on activities each day, culminating with Chocolate Day on Saturday, February 25.

School vacation week activities

Tuesday-Friday, February 21-24, 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.: Museum highlights tours led by docents that include the opportunity to go below decks on the Lagoda. Regular admission rates apply.

Tuesday, February 21, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.: Moby-Dick highlights tour. Herman Melville’s great American novel comes to life on this tour of the Museum’s collection. The tour will leave from the front desk. Regular admission rates apply.

Wednesday, February 22, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.: Make your own scrimshaw, learn to draw a whale, learn to make origami whales, and more. Free.

Thursday, February 23, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.: Create your own Sailors’ Valentines and take them home as a keepsake. Free.

Friday, February 24, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.: All aboard the Lagoda! Join the crew of Capt. Calvinilius (C.) Weade on board the Lagoda for an adventure on the high seas. Travel the world, interact with foreign people, learn the ropes of the whaleship, and go a-whaling. Regular admission rates apply.

Saturday, February 25, 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.: Valentines Day II – Chocolate Day! Learn where chocolate comes from, how it came to colonial New England, and how cocoa was made in early America. Did New Bedford whalers drink chocolate at sea? Free lectures and demonstrations of colonial-style chocolate making with free samples from American Heritage Chocolate. Authors Christopher Kelly, Dr. Timothy Walker (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth), and Rodney Snyder (Mars, Inc.) will discuss the history of chocolate, and the chapters they contributed to Chocolate: History, Culture and Heritage. Copies, signed by the authors, will be available for sale in the Museum store.

Demonstrations will show how to make origami whales and reveal how other elaborate and elegant creations emerge from a simple sheet of paper. No prior skills are required to learn this art. Admission is free to demonstration and film.

Recognized by several international film festivals, Between the Folds, was written produced and directed by Vanessa Gould. Presented by Green Fuse Films, “Between the Folds” chronicles the stories of 10 fine artists and intrepid scientists – all forging unconventional lives as modern paper-folders. The film paints an arresting portrait of the remarkable artistic and scientific creativity that fuels this ever-changing art form, fusing science and sculpture, form and function, ancient and new.

Dance to a swinging jazz quartet, listen to a classical trio, enjoy some rock ‘n roll – or do all three.

Russell Morin Fine Catering will provide an array of petit open-face sandwiches, hors d’oeuvres, seasonal pasta, and sweet pastries – served with freshly brewed Colombian coffee, decaf, gourmet teas and a cash bar.

Tickets: $50 per person (children: $15, under 18 years), includes entertainment, food, and kids activities. Call Alison Smart: (508) 997-0046 ext. 115.

At 8:30 p.m., view the city’s fireworks display from inside the Museum’s newly restored Bourne Building. The evening includes a silent auction of wonderful gifts and keepsakes.

Proceeds of New Year’s Swingin’ Eve will support the education programs of the orchestra and the museum.

"Ahab" by Leonard Baskin, from his "Moby Dick Suite" of lithographs, 1970.

MOBY! – The New Bedford Whaling Museum and the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center come together to celebrate the iconic tale of the great white whale November 3-5.

Imaging Moby!, an exhibition of contemporary art inspired by Herman Melville’s novel, “Moby-Dick” opens at the Museum on Friday, November 4 at 5:00 p.m. and includes works by Rockwell Kent, Leonard Baskin, and Richard Ellis. Admission is free to the exhibit.

Imaging Moby! is drawn from the collection of Elizabeth Schultz, scholar, poet, professor emerita at the University of Kansas, and author of “Unpainted to the Last”: Moby-Dick and Twentieth-Century American Art (1995). Dr. Schultz has been collecting art inspired by Moby-Dick for decades. A member of the Melville Society, she donated her collection of twentieth-century paintings, prints, and other graphic works to the museum earlier this year.

Dr. Schultz noted, “the special joy of having the collection at the Whaling Museum is that, along with the Melville Society Cultural Project, I imagine working with many committed groups to develop new ways of using these visual images to present Moby-Dick and the stories of whales to diverse audiences – children and adults, Americans and people from other cultures.”

A reception in the Jacobs Family Gallery in honor of Dr. Schultz will follow the exhibit opening.

The Imaging Moby! exhibit is part Moby! – a series of related programs in art, on screen, in the community and on stage to mark the 160th anniversary of Melville’s classic – in partnership with the Zeiterion Performing Art Center, the New Bedford Whaling Museum and New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.

Paul Cuffe (1759-1817) was the free-born son of an African father and a Native American mother. A skillful mariner, he was also a successful merchant, philanthropist, community leader, civil rights advocate and abolitionist. In 1780 he petitioned for the right to vote as a landowner and taxpayer. He established the first integrated school in America and became an advisor to President James Madison.

More than 120 guests and the public joined in the dedication ceremonies under a tent on the upper terrace of the Whaling Museum campus overlooking the park, which is sited on the southwest corner of the Museum grounds. The site is also adjacent to the location where Cuffe once kept a store in New Bedford, Cuffe & Howards.

Guests included many Cuffe descendants and numerous Native Americans representing several tribes in Southern New England. A traditional Native American smudge ceremony was performed by the members present to bless the park before local and state officials cut a ribbon opening the new park.

Native American song began the program with the Nettukkusqk Singers – Wampanoag and Nipmuc women from Rhode Island and Massachusetts  – performing women’s drumming and singing traditions from their tribal communities.

Students of the Paul Cuffee Maritime Charter School of Providence, Rhode Island, read brief essays on the life and work of the Captain.

Cuffe descendant Robert Kelley, Esq., was keynote speaker on behalf of the Cuffe family.

The Rev. Pam Cole offered an opening prayer and reflected on the faith of the Quakers – the Society of Friends – the of tenets of which Cuffe and his family practiced

Other speakers included: James Russell, President & CEO, New Bedford Whaling Museum; James Lopes, Esq., Vice President, Education & Programming; Daniel Dilworth, Acting Superintendent, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park; Lee Blake, President, New Bedford Historical Society; and New Bedford Mayor Scott W. Lang.

The Dedication was the concluding event of “Old Dartmouth Roots,” a free two-day genealogy and local history symposium at the Museum, funded in part by Mass Humanities.

The Rhode Show team broadcasted live from the Museum early this morning from the “Sitting in New Bedford” exhibit in Rinehart Gallery. Thanks, Fox Providence and Cardi’s for promoting the Museum!

CLICK HERE to view the two segments.

Shell Fossil. From NBWM collections.

The Museum’s Teen Apprentices would like to invite you to week three of their six-week Science Tuesday program. This week’s focus is fossils. Apprentices Robert Krupa and John Antunes have created a program focused on fossils. Several fossils will be on display and activities have been set up to allow kids to make their own fossil.

All Science Tuesday programs are free and take place from 1:00pm – 3:00pm in the Jacobs Family Gallery.

Storyteller Len Cabral

Internationally acclaimed storyteller Len Cabral comes Museum on Thursday, July 28 at 7:30 p.m. for a free public program in the Cook Memorial Theater, titled “From Chasing Whales to Picking Cranberries; Stories of a Cape Verdean Raconteur.”

Cabral has been enchanting audiences with his storytelling performances at schools, libraries, museums and festivals since 1976. A great grandson of a Cape Verdean whaler whose grandparents immigrated to America from the islands off the coast of West Africa, Len’s strong Cape Verdean ancestry comes alive in his exuberant retelling of African, Cape Verdean, and Caribbean folktales as well as original stories and tales from around the world.

This performance is part of the Whaling Museum’s a yearlong focus on Cape Verdean American history and culture and its critical role in the American whaling industry throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in New England. The Cape Verdean Maritime Exhibit opened July 5 in the museum’s Bourne Building.

Len’s performance is free. Admission to museum galleries after 5:00 p.m. is “buy one get one free.” The galleries are open until 8:00 p.m. on July 28.

This program is funded in part through a grant from the Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations (ECHO), administered by the United States Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement.