New Bedford Whaling Museum

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New Bedford Whaling Museum

New Bedford Whaling Museum and New Bedford Harbor
Location within Massachusetts Show map of Massachusetts New Bedford Whaling Museum (the United States) Show map of the United States
Established	1903 (1903)
Location	18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, Massachusetts
Coordinates	41°38′07″N 70°55′23″W / 41.63530°N 70.92318°W / 41.63530; -70.92318
Collection size	750,000 items
President	Amanda D. McMullen[1]
Website	www.whalingmuseum.org

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is a museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States that focuses on the history, science, art, and culture of the international whaling industry, and the colonial region of Old Dartmouth (now the city of New Bedford and towns of Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, and Westport) in the South Coast of Massachusetts. The museum is governed by the Old Dartmouth Historical Society (ODHS), which was established in 1903 "to create and foster an interest in the history of Old Dartmouth."^[2] Since then, the museum has expanded its scope to include programming that addresses global issues "including the consequences of natural resource exhaustion, the diversification of industry, and tolerance in a multicultural society."^[3] Its collections include over 750,000 items, including 3,000 pieces of scrimshaw and 2,500 logbooks from whaling ships, both of which are the largest collections in the world, as well as five complete whale skeletons.^[4] The museum's complex consists of several contiguous buildings housing 20 exhibit galleries and occupying an entire city block within the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, although operated independently.^[5]

The museum also houses a collection of fine art, including works by major American artists who lived or worked in the New Bedford area, such as Albert Bierstadt, William Bradford, and Albert Pinkham Ryder, as well as a collection of locally produced decorative art, glassware, and furniture associated with the rise of New Bedford as a whaling port in the 19th century.

The museum's Bourne Building houses the Lagoda, a half-scale model of a whaling ship that was commissioned in 1916 and is the world's largest model whaling ship.