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Walk Through an 1800s Town

on August 1, 2010 – 10:52 am

Drop anchor in the former whaling town of New Bedford, Massachusetts. In the past, when candles and oil lamps served as light sources, New Bedford became known for “lighting the world,” since the creatures hunted by the townspeople supplied wax and oil. Today, New Bedford remains an enlightening place to visit.

The town, which makes up the national historical park, tells a focused and fascinating story from America’s past. The Whaling Museum, historic buildings such as a whaling merchant’s mansion, and living history presenters bring to life the New Bedford of the 1800s. The now-prohibited economic activity from which the town prospered drew people from around the world, and the cultural heterogeneity that developed in New Bedford appears today in festivals and in the town’s restaurant scene.

[Photo: Nathan and Polly Johnson House. Photographer: NPS]

Every second Thursday of the month year round from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. AHA! (Art, History, Architecture) nights enliven the national park and downtown area with exhibit openings, music, performances, and much more.

[Photo: Seamen's Bethel and Mariner's Home. Photographer: John Robson]

In 1851 the average length of a voyage was 46 months. Most of the men on shipboard were young and single, but for captains, almost all of whom were married, the separation from wives and children became a great hardship. Eventually, the vessel owners allowed captains to bring their families with them on long voyages. Each tried to create a home for her family in the cabin of a ship, surrounded by men with whom she would never have associated on shore. The women who traveled with their captain-husbands were not, for the most part, extraordinary women. They were ordinary women who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances.  Unique cultures were developed on shipboard and ashore.

[Photo: Rodman Candleworks. Photographer: James Mahaney]

The lives of whalemen were filled with creative outlets on shipboard. Sailors practiced a surprising number of handicrafts with the bones and teeth of whales, spare pieces of rope, and objects found on their occasional visits ashore (including coconut shells), seamen fashioned working tools, souvenirs of the voyage, and gifts for loved ones back home. The most important handicraft was scrimshaw, the decorative etching of pictures on whale skeletal bone and sperm whale teeth.

While in New Bedford, explore the domestic side of whaling riches at the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Garden Museum, a whaling merchant’s mansion that preserves the transition from Quaker simplicity to the romantic flowering of the Victorian family. Located on a full city block of gardens, this national landmark was built for whaling merchant William Rotch, Jr. in 1834. Designed by Richard Upjohn, the House is one of the finest surviving examples of residential Greek Revival architecture.

[Photo: The Rotch-Jones-Duff House preserves a whaling merchant’s mansion and gardens. (NPS/John Robson)]

For more information visit New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park.

Victorian Christmas

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