The Wider World & Scrimshaw (New Bedford)

The Wider World & Scrimshaw takes the Museum’s scrimshaw collection (objects carved by whalers on the byproducts of marine mammals) and places it in conversation with carved decorative arts and material culture made by Indigenous community members across the Pacific and Arctic.

This interdisciplinary, community-driven, and collections-focused project engages questions about identity, place, and material. It considers how exploration and whaling impacted the production of material culture in this diverse region between 1700 and today. The exhibition showcases over 300 objects, particularly highlighting ones that indicate cultural and material exchanges.

Opens June 14- November 11, 2024