Friday, August 16, 2013

The New Bedford Whaling Museum ~~ A "Sepia Saturday" Post

  
I'm ignoring this week's Sepia Saturday prompt, unfortunately, because I'm going to post the one I would have posted two weeks ago, if the library computer had cooperated with me. Make sense? No? Welcome to my world.

I've written a few posts about my love for Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. Mr. Melville (whose August 1st birthday just passed) wrote a story which I've loved since childhood. More -- much more -- on that here.

I've decided to make this a very short post. Therefore, instead of sepia photographs and long-winded explanations for same, I've chosen a handful of postcards as illustration. The following three were bought several years apart, during three successive visits to the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

This first one was somewhere in the mid-1960s, probably less than five years after that photo of the NBWM at the top of this post.


During my second visit to the museum, I decided to buy a second postcard. (And frankly, I'm amazed that I still have the first one after so many years!) This was somewhere in the early to mid-1990s.


My third postcard was purchased during the early years of this century.


And the following photo is how the New Bedford Whaling Museum looks today!


Thanks for your time!


45 comments:

  1. New Bedford? So I guess the bedford here is old bedford? lol


    they changed a bit over the years, but the first two surely had the same theme, third one a tad different.

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    1. Wonder where the original Bedford is. Probably England. Just like Massachusetts is in New England.

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  2. Love any pictures that have old cars in them, the first picture did! I also like the whaling pictures too, however, I thought the story of Moby Dick a sad one for both of the characters....just saying.

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    1. Yeah, I love the old cars in that postcard, too.

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  3. sounds like a pretty cool museum...its a bit sad all the whales that have been killed though...

    pat, i teach in bedford...there are no whales there though, probably would not survive in the lake here....

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    1. Yeah, it was different when I was a kid. We didn't really think in terms of whales being hunted to the brink of extinction.

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    2. We have a Bedford, too! No whales. Do Filet-o-Fish sandwiches count? haha....

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    3. Filet-o-Fish sandwiches always count.

      Haven't thought of hush puppies in years... assuming you mean the food and not the shoes.

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  4. Ah but you do have a meal of sorts, though it was no picic for those poor whalers I'm sure!

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  5. I love New Bedford's historic section, and I've spent a lot of time in the Whaling Museum. They have some great William Bradford paintings (says the former marine art gallery director).

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  6. I think quite a few whalers from that region ended up in the South Pacific. There are still the remains of blubber boiling parts and other whaling paraphernalia at several locations dotted around our coastline. Great postcards and, I'm sure, a fascinating museum.

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  7. Great postcards and information here. Loved your post, good combination of art and history. Many thanks.

    Greetings from London.

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  8. I agree - a picnic of sorts - for the whales.
    Glad you persisted with the post that wouldn't go a few weeks back - interesting reading.

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    1. I've had limited computer time lately, and all of it's been at local public libraries. I'm so behind in following the latest Sepia Saturday posts, it's awful.

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  9. Fascinating postcards for a story which I have always loved too.

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  10. One of these days I am going to visit there. Who cares about themes when you have good images.

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    1. If you ever make it to New Bedford, you'd darn well better contact me. :)

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  11. I enjoyed the postcards and their connections. Good post!

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  12. The three postcards are quite similar in style and composition. I have some old art museum postcards I bought in the 1960s, and they aren't much different from the ones being sold now.

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    1. I believe the first two were even done the same artist. Not sure.

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  13. Thanks for featuring my friend, Herman.

    Love,
    Janie

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  14. these are lovely post cards I love old postcards sometimes I find here,
    and love whales, we have a lot in the south because we have a "Whale Sanctuary" (Im not sure is ok the Word) because years ago japaneses hunted whales here, and still they try sometimes!

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  15. How wonderful that you purchased a card every visit and retained them. If I visit a second or third time, I rarely purchase a souvenir as I already have one!

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    1. I have a large postcard from my fourth visit, but I can't locate it at the moment.

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  16. Themes don't need to be followed cheek to cheek, especially like your post here! Very delightful, especially for me is the street scene and all those old cars!

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  17. Moby Dick is one of my favourite books. There is a Bedford in England. Great postcards. Having eaten whale meat during my time in Norway I have to say I would not recommend it to anyone.

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    1. Hm. I'd have mixed feelings about eating whale meat, but part of me would like to try out of curiosity.

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  18. Interesting how all three postcards purchased so many years apart seem so very similar. Were they done by the same artist?

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  19. I read a terrific book on whaling last year: Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America by Eric Jay Dolin. The whalers had a rough life with very dangerous work on incredibly long voyages. I'll add this museum to my travel list.

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    1. Yes, they were separated from friends and family for a year or two or three...

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  20. They are all really interesting postcards, but I love the action in the third.

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  21. In the first postcard, is that a mother whale trying to save her baby from the whalers? Very cool.

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