Selected works from the Eliot Stetson Knowles Collection.

Maya textiles from the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology (Brown University) and the weaving collective Oxib’ B’atz (New Bedford).

This exhibit highlighted the broad international and chronological compass of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Abstract paintings using visual elements from Moby-Dick depicting the turbulent nature of the seas.

Whaling history featuring Museum classics and the finest examples of scrimshaw anywhere.

What do scallop shells, a girl on a swing, people working in a sail loft and in the Pairpoint glass factory have in common? They were each at one time or another, 'sitting' in New Bedford.

The Museum’s Davis Observation Deck provides one of the best views in New Bedford.

Augustus Saint-Gaudens' models of the famed Massachusetts 54th Regiment.

First public showing of a series of  city’s harbor and working waterfront paintings by Dora Atwater Millikin.

 Cross-section of John Stobart’s work. Paintings and sketches form a comprehensive retrospective.

Aristides Pereira was the first President of the Republic of Cape Verde, after the former Portuguese colony achieved independence in 1975. 

Old Master paintings and prints, sumptuous decorative arts, exquisite navigation instruments and rare natural history specimens.

A splendid array of paintings, prints, illustrated shipboard journals, and scrimshaw.

An exhibition of contemporary art inspired by Herman Melville’s novel, “Moby-Dick”  includes works by Rockwell Kent, Leonard Baskin, and Richard Ellis.

Illustrating Herman Melville's language

Peruse the diversity and take in the richness of some of our finest paintings.

Photographs reveal the dynamic changes in the port over the last 150 years.

This exhibition is an opportunity to view seldom-seen ceramics, including pottery from the Roman Empire, "creamware" from New Bedford, and modern Japanese artifacts.

Photographs by Phil Mello focusing on local shoreside workers and their jobs: from fish cutter to purveyor, from welder to auctioneer, from lumper to inspector, as well as fishermen. ​

Charmed by the Sea celebrated not simply the power of the sea , but the complex and exciting relationship that exists between fine arts and the traditional arts of the mariner.


This exhibit traced the most important and influential pictorial images of whaling through four centuries.

The photographic world of Norman Fortier.

Showcasing a 45-ton sperm whale skeleton, found beached on Nantucket in 2002.

This exhibit examines the roles that such work played in the social, economic and cultural lives of New Bedford's men and women between the late 18th and early 20th centuries.

Photographers Henry W. Kendall and Nicholas Whitman record the geographically isolated sites of former shore whaling operations.

In celebration of the 150th anniversary of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, the museum showcased one of the novel’s most compelling sources of inspiration – Russell and Purrington’s 1,300-foot-long panorama.

This exhibition was comprised of 68 oil paintings -- many shown in public for the first time -- as well as drawings, prints, sketchbooks and photographs.

A diverse collection representing the major styles of Mount Washington, Blackmer, Pairpoint, Smith Brothers, and Gunderson art glass.