RESOURCES continued

The Museum is governed by a Board of Trustees, a professional executive director, and a staff of highly qualified professionals who are unusually active in the museum field, in education, and in related areas of historical and humanities research. Additionally, eighteen renowned scholars and experts in America and abroad serve as Advisory Curators in a variety of specialized fields; trustee committees advise on finances, collections, education, programs, public affairs, and other aspects of museum operations; and there is a corps of highly motivated volunteers who participate in virtually every facet of the museum’s activities, including educational services, programming, special events, photography, photo-processing, cataloguing, curatorial operations, collections documentation, exhibitions, and research.

The museum conducts a full spectrum of programs, services, research, and educational activities both on and off premises, including exhibits, tours, lectures, films, publishing, art documentation, connoisseurship, authentication, consultation, and a educational outreach. Approximately 3,500 Members are enrolled from across America and all over the world. In addition, the Institute hosts a renowned annual Whaling History Symposium, held each October since 1975, and a Scrimshaw Collectors’ Weekend, held in June–events of international significance that draw audiences from across the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan. The museum publishes a quarterly newsletter containing articles about the museum, its collections, and programs; two Monograph Series featuring scholarship on its collections and subject-fields; and various books about history, art history, literature, folklore, music, bibliography, and public policy. Temporary and occasional exhibitions are frequent, loans are made to other institutions worldwide, and scholarly use of museum resources is extensive.

The museum is located three blocks from the Acushnet River waterfront in the historic district of New Bedford, Massachusetts; there are some fifteen galleries, classroom and meeting facilities, theater, photo lab, conservation lab, collections storage facilities, curatorial processing rooms, and a view out to sea. The administrative offices are located in the Sundial Building next door. The Kendall Institute, comprising the library, manuscript, photography, and archival collections, the Herman Melville Society archive, a modest photography station and unique Scrimshaw Forensics Laboratory, collections processing rooms, and a residence for Interns and visiting scholars, is located three blocks west of the Museum, at 791 Purchase Street in downtown New Bedford. The Park Service Visitor Center, Seamen’s Bethel, Mariners’ Home, Customs House, Ernestina wharf, various civic organizations, shopping, and the renowned New Bedford Free Public Library are located nearby, within a couple of blocks of the Museum buildings. The New Bedford Whaling Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums, has been cited for excellence by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the City of New Bedford for community service. The Museum is an active member of the American Association of Museums, the New England Museum Association, the International Congress of Maritime Museums, the Council of American Maritime Museums, and various other professional organizations, and maintains close and active ties with the National Park Service and other institutions locally, and with many other museums and education associations in America and abroad–notably in Europe, the West Indies, Australia, and Japan. New Bedford Whaling Museum staff have held executive offices in several national and international organizations and on the editorial boards of several scholarly journals, and have received individual awards and citations for contributions to the profession, to the community, and to scholarship.

To learn more about the museum please visit our web site: www.whalingmuseum.org. (The former Kendall Whaling Museum and items posted on its web site <www.kwm.org> became part of the New Bedford Whaling Museum in November 2001.)