The Nantucket Whaling Museum is a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 located in Nantucket

Nantucket, Massachusetts

Nantucket is an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the United States. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and the coterminous Nantucket County, which are consolidated. Part of the town is designated the Nantucket...

, Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, dedicated to the history of whaling

History of whaling

The history of whaling is very extensive, stretching back for millennia. This article discusses the history of whaling up to the commencement of the International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986....

. It is run by the Nantucket Historical Association.

Exhibits

The museum houses a large collection of whaling artifacts and memorabilia, including longboat

Longboat

In the days of sailing ships, a vessel would carry several ship's boats for various uses. One would be a longboat, an open boat to be rowed by eight or ten oarsmen, two per thwart...

s, harpoon

Harpoon

A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument used in fishing to catch fish or large marine mammals such as whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the target animal, allowing the fishermen to use a rope or chain attached to the butt of the projectile to catch the animal...

s, and scrimshaw

Scrimshaw

Scrimshaw is the name given to handiwork created by whalers made from the byproducts of harvesting marine mammals. It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth of sperm whales, the baleen of other whales, and the tusks of walruses...

, but the centerpiece is the complete skeleton of a 46-foot (14 meter) bull Sperm whale

Sperm Whale

The sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus, is a marine mammal species, order Cetacea, a toothed whale having the largest brain of any animal. The name comes from the milky-white waxy substance, spermaceti, found in the animal's head. The sperm whale is the only living member of genus Physeter...

 suspended from the ceiling. True to its original use as a candle factory, the museum also has exhibits regarding that trade as well. The exhibited beam press (used to extract oil from the spermaceti

Spermaceti

Spermaceti is a wax present in the head cavities of the sperm whale . Originally mistaken for the whales' sperm , spermaceti is created in the spermaceti organ inside the whale's head and connected to its nasal passage...

 to make candles) is the only one in the world still in its original location.

Other exhibits include an 1849 Fresnel lens

Fresnel lens

A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...

 used in the Sankaty Head Light

Sankaty Head Light

The Sankaty Head Light is a lighthouse located on Nantucket island. It was built in 1850, was automated in 1965, and is still in operation.In 1987, the Sankaty Lighthouse was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as the Sankaty Head Light, reference number 87002028.According to the...

 and the restored workings of the Nantucket 1881 town clock.

History

The building which currently houses the Whaling Museum was originally a candle factory, built by the Mitchell family shortly after Nantucket's Great Fire of 1846. Two years later, it was purchased by local businessmen William Hadwen and Nathaniel Barney, who continued to use it in the manufacture of candles. Following the decline of whaling in the mid-19th century, the building was converted to warehouse space in 1860 before being reconverted into offices for the New England Steamship Company in the 1870s. In 1919, the building was again used for storage and also housed an antiques shop. In 1929, the museum was created and then fully restored in 2005. In 2008, the museum became accredited by the American Association of Museums

American Association of Museums

The American Association of Museums is a non-profit association that has brought museums together since its founding in 1906, helping develop standards and best practices, gathering and sharing knowledge, and advocating on issues of concern to the museum community...

.

See also

• Nathaniel Philbrick
  Nathaniel Philbrick
  Nathaniel Philbrick is an American author and a winner of the National Book Award for his 2000 work of maritime history In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. He is member of the Philbrick literary family.-Life:...
  
  , author and research fellow at the Nantucket Historical Association