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.

Gary Jobson (photo: Billy Black)

Gary Jobson, world-class sailor and president of US SAILING will be the first of 12 distinguished speakers in a combined lecture series beginning on Thursday, February 2 at the Whaling Museum.

Gary Jobson will present “Sailing: Speed and Passion.” A world class sailor, television commentator and author, Jobson is President of US SAILING, the national governing body of sailing in the United States. He has authored 17 books on sailing, is Editor-at-Large of Sailing World and Cruising World magazines and has been ESPN’s sailing commentator since 1985. In October 2003 he was inducted into the America’s Cup Hall of Fame by the Herreshoff Marine Museum. In 1999, Jobson won the Nathanael G. Herreshoff Trophy, US SAILING’s most prestigious award. He currently races a Swan 42, Mustang, and an Etchells, Whirlwind.

Jobson’s illustrated talk is the first of 12 programs scheduled this winter and spring – February 2 through May 10 – part of the Whaling Museum’s three signature lecture series now combined: the Sailors’ Series (5 programs), Man and Whales (3 programs), and the Old Dartmouth Lyceum (4 programs). Held on Thursday evenings, all programs include a reception at 6:30 p.m. in the Jacobs Family Gallery followed by the lecture at 7:30 p.m. in the Cook Memorial Theater.

Admission to each lecture: member, $15; non-member, $20. Select any number of programs when you confirm. Subscription to the combined series: members, $165.00 for all 12 lectures; non-members, $225.00. For tickets please call (508) 997-0046 Ext. 100.

The Sailors’ Series (SS) celebrates its 22nd year with illustrated lectures presenting a wide variety of experience and adventures by individuals with lifelong commitments to sailing, boats, and the sea. Thursdays: February 2 and 16, March 22, April 12 and 19.

The Man and Whales series (M&W) examines our changing views of marine mammals with science-themed lectures that bring focus to important whale conservation topics through the expertise of those who dedicate their professional lives to these issues. Thursdays: March 1, 15 and 29.

The Old Dartmouth Lyceum series (ODL) illuminates broader historical themes with fine and decorative arts by examining significant holdings in the Museum collection, including 19th century landscape painting, ceramics and glassware. Thursdays: April 5 and 26, May 3 and 10.

Schedule:

February 16 – John Rousmaniere: “The Golden Pastime,” an illustrated history of American yachting history. (SS)

March 1 – Dr. Peter Capelotti: “The Whaling Expedition of the Ulysses 1937–38.” (M&W).

March 15 – Dr. Stephen Godfrey: “When Whales Walked the Earth: Fossil Whales and Olfactory Evolution.” (M&W)

March 22 – Douglas Adkins: “Dorade; the History of an Ocean Racing Yacht.” (SS)

March 29 – Capt. Stacy Pedrozo, USN, C.O., Naval Justice School, and Capt. Tom Fetherston, USN Retired, “Whose Homeland Security? Protecting Marine Mammals While Protecting National Security.” (MW)

April 5 – Stuart P. Feld, Hirschl & Adler Galleries: “Museum acquisitions during the tenure of Director and Curator Richard Kugler.” (ODL)

April 12 – Capt. Sean S. Bercaw: “Full Sail into Cuba on the Amistad.” (SS)

April 19 – Rich Wilson: “Race France to France, Leave Antarctica to Starboard.” (SS)

April 26 – Kirk J. Nelson: “New Bedford Glass and Its Context.” (ODL)

May 3 – Keith Kauppila: “Visual Culture of the Civil War,” (ODL)

May 10 – Chris Gustin: “Finding Form.” (ODL).

The 2012 lecture series is presented by BayCoast Bank, and sponsored in part by C. E. Beckman, and Hampton Inn Fairhaven/New Bedford.

A capacity crowd gathers in the Jacobs Family Gallery to hear the conclusion of Moby-Dick

The 16th Annual Moby-Dick Marathon is now one for the history books, in so many ways. High media interest and unseasonably warm weather for January encouraged record numbers of visitors to drop in for a look-see. Over the course of the weekend (January 6-8, 2012) more than 2,900 visitors came to the Museum. Many stayed and listened longer than ever before to the book often described as the greatest work of American literature.

Among the more than 150 readers, many notables particpated, including Congressman Barney Frank, Congressman William Keating, Mayor Jon Mitchell and several former New Bedford Mayors, as well as Peter Whittemore, the great, great grandson of Herman Melville.

Nearly 100 guests enjoyed the ticketed buffet dinner in the Jacobs Family Gallery on Friday evening (January 6), which kicked off a weekend of activities surrounding the Marathon.

Following dinner, a lecture titled “Moby-Dick in American Popular Culture,” presented by the Melville Society’s Dr. Timothy Marr (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), was attended by 187 Melville fans in the Cook Memorial Theater.

Melville Society scholars were kept busy with questions throughout the event, holding court in the Wattles Family Gallery, discussing all matters Moby-Dick and Melville. With much good humor, they were also peppered with perplexing queries of the widest sort, posed by the public in the Stump the Scholars II program on Saturday morning. General order and alacrity of the proceedings were ably kept by the moderator, Michael Dyer, Maritime Curator, with laughs aplenty throughout.

Congressman Barney Frank

One highlight of the weekend was a performance at the Seamen’s Bethel by the critically acclaimed tenor, Jonathan Boyd. He performed the hymn from Chapter 9 to music by Philip Sainton, penned for the film score for John Huston’s 1956 film. Boyd will star as “Greenhorn” in Jake Heggie’s new opera, “Moby Dick,” set to premiere at the San Diego Opera in February. A contingent of museum trustees and members will travel to the West Coast to see it.

Rev. Dr. Edward R. Dufresne delivered an inspired reading of Father Mapple’s sermon on Jonah and the Whale in the Bethel.

And again, this year’s Marathon was live streaming on the museum’s website and was viewed by unprecedented numbers; more on that in another post.

Cesária Évora (1941-2011)

A book of remembrance will be available at the Museum on Wednesday, December 21 for the public to express condolences to the family of Cesária Évora, who passed away on Saturday, December 17, at São Vicente, Cape Verde.

News of the death of the internationally acclaimed vocalist was issued by the Cape Verdean Embassy, which also announced a period of national mourning, noting “Cape Verde lost its greatest Ambassador, the “barefoot diva,” as she was known in the world stages.” She was a frequent visitor to New Bedford, performing at the Zeiterion, the Verdean Vets Hall and other regional venues.

The artist was buried in her native city of Mindelo on December 20.

At the request of the consulate, the Cesária Évora Memorial Book of Remembrance will be available to sign in the Jacobs Family Gallery during museum hours, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, December 21. Donated by the Aubertine-Lopes Funeral Home of New Bedford, the book will be forwarded to the consulate for presentation to the family.

Cesária Évora was 70 years old and is survived by a son and a daughter.

The 16th annual Moby-Dick Marathon celebrates the 160th anniversary of Herman Melville’s literary masterpiece with a 25-hour nonstop reading of the book during a weekend of activities and events, January 6 – 8, 2012, including a performance by the critically acclaimed American tenor, Jonathan Boyd. Admission is free.

On Friday, January 6 at 5:30 p.m. the weekend kicks off with a ticketed buffet dinner and cash bar in the Jacobs Family Gallery. For tickets to the dinner ($25), call (508) 997-0046 ext. 100.

Dinner will be followed by a free public lecture titled “Moby-Dick in American Popular Culture,” presented by Dr. Timothy Marr, at 7:15 p.m. in the Cook Memorial Theater. Co-editor of “Ungraspable Phantom: Essays on Moby-Dick,” Professor Marr teaches American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He serves as an executive member of the Melville Society Cultural Project and is a contributor to the Melville and the Digital Humanities project of the Melville Electronic Library.

On Saturday, January 7 at 10:00 a.m., “Stump the Scholars II,” returns by popular demand – a free program in which the audience is invited to pose questions to Melville Society scholars on all matters Moby-Dick in the Cook Memorial Theater. Patterned after NPR’s popular quiz show, “Wait, wait, don’t tell me,” prizes will be awarded to those who can stump the scholars.

At 11:30 a.m. in the Bourne Building, Melville Society members will read many of the 80 brief Extracts related to whales and whaling, which Melville included before Chapter 1.

At noon, the Moby-Dick Marathon begins with “Call me Ishmael” – the most famous opening line in American literature. With more than 150 scheduled readers, the marathon will continue through the night, ending early Sunday afternoon. All reading slots have been booked. The public is cordially invited to come and go at any time during the marathon, or stay for the entire 25 hours and win a prize.

On Saturday at approximately 1:30 p.m., marathon participants will walk next door to the historic Seamen’s Bethel (est. 1832) – located at 15

Tenor Jonathan Boyd will sing at the marathon, Jan. 7. Boyd stars in Jake Heggie's new opera, Moby-Dick, which premieres at the San Diego Opera in February. (photo: www.uzanartists.com)

Johnny Cake Hill for the reading of Chapters 7, 8, and 9, titled “The Chapel,” The Pulpit,” and “The Sermon” – all three chapters take place in the original “Whaleman’s Chapel.” This segment will feature a performance by Jonathan Boyd, the critically acclaimed American tenor starring in the San Diego Opera’s co-production of Jake Heggie’s “Moby-Dick,” a new opera hailed “a triumph” by the Dallas Morning News. Boyd has made recent notable debuts at Opéra de Nice and Opéra de Toulon, and has performed with opera companies throughout the United States. He will sing the hymn from Chapter 9.

Readers and guests are also invited to “Chat with a Melville Scholar” from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Wattles Family Gallery or take a guided tour of the “Imagining Moby!” exhibit with Dr. Robert Wallace, Northern Kentucky University.

Chapter 40, “Midnight, Forecastle” will be performed in the Cook Memorial Theater by members of Culture*Park, a theater and performing arts collaborative.

The Museum’s website www.whalingmuseum.org will provide live streaming of the marathon throughout the weekend. Tweet the marathon with hashtag #MDM16.

Three related exhibits during the marathon include, “Imagining Moby!,” “Visualizing Melville” and the 1956 Moby-Dick publicity panels. “Imagining Moby!” showcases the collection of Melville scholar, Dr. Elizabeth A. Schultz, including works by Leonard Baskin, Richard Ellis and Rockwell Kent in the Centre Street Gallery, Level 2. “Visualizing Melville” pairs items from the Museum’s collections with Melville’s vivid text, including “Quakers with a vengeance” and “a heathenish array of monstrous clubs and spears” in the Changing Gallery, Level 2. The 1956 Moby-Dick publicity panels feature movie memorabilia displayed in the windows of the Research Library.

Images related to the book will also be projected in the Cook Memorial Theater throughout the marathon, presented by the Museum’s youth apprentices.

A midwinter tradition, attracting hundreds of Melville fans from around the world, the marathon marks the anniversary of Melville’s January 1841 departure from the port of New Bedford and Fairhaven aboard the whale ship, Acushnet.

Refreshments will be available throughout the Marathon.

This year’s marathon is a program of MOBY! – a partnership of the New Bedford Whaling Museum, the Zeiterion Performing Arts Center and New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park to celebrate the iconic tale of the ‘Great White Whale’ and is funded 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.

Moby-Dick Marathon Weekend Schedule of Events

Friday, January 6

5:30 p.m.: Ticketed buffet dinner and cash bar, Jacobs Family Gallery.

7:15 p.m.: Public lecture, “Moby-Dick in American Popular Culture,” with Dr. Timothy Marr, Cook Memorial Theater.

Saturday, January 7

10:00 a.m.: Stump the Scholars II, Cook Memorial Theater.

11:30 a.m.: Moby-Dick “Extracts,” Bourne Building.

12:00 noon: Moby-Dick Marathon begins, Bourne Building.

1:30 p.m. (approx.): Chapters 7– 9 in the Seamen’s Bethel with tenor Jonathan Boyd.

2:30 p.m. (approx.): Marathon continues, Jacobs Family Gallery.

3:00-5:00 p.m.: Chat with a Melville scholar, Wattles Family Gallery.

3:00-5:00 p.m.: “Imaging Moby!” tour with Dr. Robert Wallace, Centre Street Gallery.

7:00 p.m. (approx.): Chapter 35 to Chapter 40. “Midnight, Forecastle” performed by Culture*Park, Cook Memorial Theater.

8:00 p.m. (approx.): Marathon continues, Jacobs Family Gallery.

Sunday, January 8

1:00 p.m. (approx.): Marathon concludes with the Epilogue.

Ongoing related exhibits: “Imagining Moby!,” “Visualizing Melville” and the 1956 Moby-Dick publicity panels. Moby-Dick slide show, Cook Memorial Theater.

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.

A silhouette of Captain Paul Cuffe (c.1812) and his compass (c.1800) will be part of a new exhibit at the Museum recognizing his life and accomplishments, opening Sept. 23 at 5:30 p.m. A new park will be dedicated in his honor on Saturday, Sept. 24. Lectures on Cuffe are also part of a two-day free public program, "Old Dartmouth Roots, a Genealogy & Local History Symposium, Sept 23-24.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum and its partners proudly present four free public programs over two days recognizing the life and accomplishments of Captain Paul Cuffe at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, September 23-24, culminating with the dedication of a park in his honor.

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.

On Friday, September 23, a genealogy presentation titled “The Cuffes and the Wainers,” will be offered by George Wortham, a Cuffe/Wainer descendant, at 1:45 p.m. in the Cook Memorial Theater.

At 5:30 p.m., the museum will open a new exhibit, the “Cuffe Kitchen Gallery.” The multi-media exhibit will highlight the gallery, which recreates an 18th century kitchen, the wooden panels of which came from Cuffe’s home in Westport. Funded in part by Mass Humanities, the exhibit will provide an opportunity to ponder the social and racial issues faced by Cuffe. A reception will follow in the Jacobs Family Gallery.

The evening will conclude with a keynote lecture, “Paul Cuffe, His Life and Times,” presented by award-winning Cuffe biographer, Lamont D. Thomas at 6:30 p.m. in the Cook Memorial Theater.

On Saturday, September 24, dedication ceremonies for Captain Paul Cuffe Park will begin at noon at Union Street and Johnny Cake Hill. Located on Whaling Museum property, the park is adjacent to the site where Cuffe operated his store, Cuffe & Howards.

The park’s designer, Nan Sinton, is a nationally recognized landscape designer, horticulturist and former director of public programs for Harvard University’s Arnold Arboretum. The president and co-founder of Sinton & Michener Associates, Inc., Sinton has designed gardens throughout North America and Europe.

The new park incorporates a large compass rose within an elaborate terrace of brick, bluestone, granite and Belgian paving blocks that recall Cuffe’s own ship’s compass – part of the museum collection. Plantings include boxwood; bayberry and sea roses donated by Sylvan Nursery, Inc., Westport, Mass. Construction and plantings were executed by G. Bourne Knowles & Company, Inc., Fairhaven. The park will include new interpretative wayside panels on Cuffe’s life, produced by New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. The Cuffe commemorative plaque and new lighting were funded in part by a grant from the City Works Community Improvement Program, administered by the City of New Bedford Community Development Block Grant Program.

The park site previously included 20th century whaling equipment including a 1936 harpoon cannon now on exhibit in the museum plaza, and a small garden given by the Garden Club of Buzzards Bay in 2003. Club members will continue to oversee the new planting.

All events are free to the public and will be held at the Whaling Museum as part of “Old Dartmouth Roots: A Genealogy & Local History Symposium,” which is funded 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.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum Apprenticeship program offers an opportunity to high school students with an interest in a variety of topics, who excel academically and express interest in gaining work and college readiness experience, while earning a competitive wage. The Apprenticeship program will use museum resources as well as those of regional academic and scientific institutions to increase the knowledge base and practical experiences of high school students in New Bedford while enhancing their preparedness to continue their studies in these topics upon entering college. Full text of the descriptive letter can be found below.

NBWM Apprenticeship Letter Fall_2011

2011_2012 NBWM Apprentice Application

The program takes place during two sessions during the academic year and one summer session. The school year sessions will run from September – January and February – May. Students will work from 3:00 – 5:00 during these sessions, four days a week. The summer session will take place over eight weeks from July – August, with students working from 10:00 – 4:00.

Interested students should fill out an application form and return it, and a copy of the most recent report card, by Sept 21, to:
Robert Rocha, Science Director, New Bedford Whaling Museum, 18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740, or to the
Dean of Students / Co-op Coordinator / College and Career Advisor at your school

For further information contact Mr. Rocha, (508) 717-6849 or rrocha@whalingmuseum.org