I Went There: Nantucket Whaling Museum

The Nantucket Historical Association boasts 24 properties that they manage ranging from a fountain/boulder/bench to the Whaling Museum, which just reopened this past weekend after a major renovation. The last time I was at the museum, pre-expansion, I noted that they had an amazing number of artifacts, but that they were laid out in such a manner that they were hard to take in. The lighting wasn’t especially good, and the labels in the galleries were not always well written.

The change in the museum is quite dramatic. The rabbits and I were encouraged to go right in, as a short movie was beginning in a central hall that links the two older buildings and houses a whaleboat set up as it would be in a Nantucket Sleigh Ride (the part of a whale hunt where the animal drags the boat behind it as it swims along the surface at high speeds), and above it is the whale skeleton from a sperm whale that washed ashore at Great Point in June of 2002. Having the skeleton above the whaleboat is an excellent illustration (as it is meant to be) of how large the animals were that the whalemen were dealing with. The movie talks about how the NHA and the community responded to the whale that washed up, which is a great way to introduce you to the notion of whaling, which to our 21st century marine mammal protection act sensibilities can be a difficult thing to do. People don’t want to believe that there was an entire enormous industry based on the slaughter of marine mammals. So they talk about one that was already dead, and in doing so, can address the tools of the trade and the economy without being offensive. The best part about the movie is that it doesn’t go on too long, and it isn’t at all hokey.

The spermaceti candle factory that had been chockablock full of unlabeled artifacts is now a well lit area dedicated to instructing about that part of the industry. The building itself has been renovated to reveal the structure, as it would have looked in 1847, when it was built. They have the beam press for producing wax from oil set up with excellent descriptions of the different seasonal pressings and examples of lamps and candles throughout the room. Upstairs are revamped exhibit galleries that showcase NHA’s superior collection of scrimshaw, Nantucket baskets, oriental artifacts collected from whaling ships, and the like. The top floor opens out to a patio that allows you to look down upon the town and harbour as you might if you had one of the homes with captain’s walks that are so prevalent in town.

There are a surprising number of interpreters at the museum. Each gallery has at least one, and there seemed to be more roaming. Whether this had something to do with the new opening, or this is standard practice, I can’t say. What I can say is that not a single one tried to engage any visitor in conversation. For the most part, they don’t need to; the labels are informative, and many of the artifacts speak for themselves. There are also scheduled talks, where an interpreter will give a topical presentation, such as on the whale hunt. Although I didn’t receive a schedule when I arrived, the talks are broadcast over a public address system that allows all visitors to be notified.

All in all, for a history museum, the new Whaling Museum gets high marks – open spaces keep visitors from feeling crowded in; good labels give appropriate information without being verbose; and the new galleries allow for the display of far more of the museum’s artifacts than were showcased before the renovation.