Dec. 9, 2002
The Melville Society Archive makes its long-awaited debut at the Kendall Institute of the New Bedford Whaling Museum at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 4, 2003.

One year ago the Melville Society voted to affiliate with the newly established Kendall Institute, the academic studies and research division of the Whaling Museum. Established in 1946, the Melville Society is one of the oldest author societies in America. It has an international membership of approximately 700. This affiliation has resulted in the creation of the Melville Society Cultural Project in New Bedford, under whose auspices the Archive will function.

"This is an unprecedented event for an American author," said Elizabeth Schultz, professor emerita of the University of Kansas, Melville scholar and former Melville Society president. "There have been few instances when an academic society has sought to affiliate with the institutions in a community in the interests of encouraging understanding of an author. Melville may have lived and written about New York City, but we are here in New Bedford because his best-known work, Moby-Dick, is about whaling and because New Bedford is a diverse community with a rich history and supportive institutions."

New Bedford's museums, libraries, schools and National Park provide a community committed to celebrating whaling and maritime culture. Joint programs between the Melville Society Cultural Project and the Whaling Museum, New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, New Bedford Historical Society and New Bedford Free Public Library will allow scholars, teachers, students and visitors to explore this internationally acclaimed writer whose works continue to resonate today.

Under the terms of the affiliation with the Melville Society Cultural Project, the Kendall Institute would accept, on the basis of a three-year renewable loan, the Melville Society's collection of more than 1,200 volumes, catalogue it, provide for its care and make it available on a circulating basis to Melville scholars and the public in the Institute's first-floor reading room.

The opening of the archive immediately follows the conclusion of the Whaling Museum's 7th annual nonstop reading of Moby-Dick that begins at noon, Friday, Jan. 3, 2003. The event commemorates the anniversary of the departure from the whaling port of New Bedford of the Fairhaven ship Acushnet with 21-year-old Herman Melville aboard.