About the Exhibition
The Nantucket Whaling Museum will be the first venue to host the traveling exhibition The Wider World & Scrimshaw, organized by the New Bedford Whaling Museum with support provided by Art Bridges.
The Wider World & Scrimshaw will survey carving traditions that emerged along whaling routes in the Pacific world, showcasing over 300 objects and setting scrimshaw—the folk art made by whalers on the body parts of whales—in conversation with carved decorative arts and material culture made by Indigenous community members from across Oceania, the Pacific, and the Arctic.
“The Nantucket Historical Association is pleased to work with our colleagues at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in order to share this exhibition and important research,” said Niles Parker, Gosnell Executive Director of the NHA. “By applying a wider lens to our understanding of whaling, exploration, and artistic creativity, we can better understand the cultural exchange taking place which influenced disparate societies around the world.”
The Wider World & Scrimshaw will foreground the work of Native communities across Oceania, the Pacific, and Arctic, many of whom have cosmologies related to whales, distinctive maritime traditions involving marine mammals, and vibrant carving styles. It will also explore how Native communities in the Pacific world were impacted by commercial whaling ventures in the 1800s and the external pressures of colonialism and Western empire-building. Engaging in questions about identity, place, and material, The Wider World & Scrimshaw will consider the impact of exploration and whaling on the production of material culture in the Pacific world between 1700 and today.
“The NHA’s Whaling Museum interprets the history of 19th century American whaling, where whale-hunting voyages from New England headed to all corners of the Pacific world. The Wider World & Scrimshaw exhibition will bring non-New England perspectives into our museum and help our visitors understand the cultural interactions that resulted from this commercial activity,” said Michael Harrison, NHA Chief Curator and Obed Macy Research Chair. “The NHA is excited to share this significant exhibition with our visitors and to open up our interpretation of whaler’s scrimshaw to new and broader perspectives.”
Exhibition Themes
An interdisciplinary, community-driven, and collections-focused exhibition, The Wider World & Scrimshaw will connect the historical and contemporary through cultural products ranging from Oceanic material culture and Arctic carvings to engraved sperm whale teeth. Short films and touchable samples of natural materials and carving techniques will provide additional opportunities to engage with exhibition themes that include:
- Paddles, Dance Wands & Clubs
- Busks, Fids & Needle Cases
- Coconut Dippers & Containers
- Whale Cosmologies
- Totem Poles & Trade Goods
- The Nome School & Inuit Print Collectives
Organized in consultation with a diverse advisory board of artists, scholars, and culture bearers, The Wider World & Scrimshaw is a sweeping exhibition that will explore the rich cultural traditions, carving forms, and material exchanges that emerged in cultural contact zones across the Pacific world and which continue to shape artistic practice and communities today.
Related Events and Programming
Summer season programming for The Wider World & Scrimshaw will include a free lecture series at the Whaling Museum and family-friendly crafts in the children’s Discovery Center. A new family tour will be offered each week, guiding guests through the exhibition and other areas of the museum before concluding with a craft in the Discovery Center, and maritime craft and carving-focused Decorative Arts workshops will be offered at the 1800 House. Public events will include Community Day in August and a exhibition celebration in October.
Exhibition support
The Wider World & Scrimshaw was organized by the New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts.
The exhibition was curated by Naomi Slipp, Melanie Correia, and Ymelda Rivera Laxton, in partnership with an Advisory Board of scholars, artists, and culture bearers.
Generous support provided by:
Banner Image: Arctic maker once known (Inuit Nunaat), model qajaq on sledge with driver, ca. 1900. Walrus ivory, seal gut, sinew, and thread, 1 1/4 x 3/4 x 7 3/8 in. New Bedford Whaling Museum, 2001.100.1865.