Next message: Frank Reed: "Re: Lunars for dummies like me"
I wrote earlier:
"Three museums in New England have large collections of logbooks from Yankee
whalers: Mystic Seaport, the New Bedford Whaling Museum (Kendall Whaling
Museum), and the Nantucket Whaling Museum. Only a percent or two of the thousands
of logbooks have so far been digitized."
Trevor K replied:
"That's four museums, Frank.
The New Bedford Whaling Museum is in the city: on Johnnycake Hill, right
across from the Seaman's Bethel that Melville wrote about. The Kendall Whaling
Museum is in Sharon, Massachusetts (not far south of Boston). Odd location for a
maritime museum but that's where it is."
Only THREE. One now lives in the belly of its former equal.
I think that 'odd location', as you put it, was eventually seen as a
liability for the Kendall Whaling Museum. The museums formally merged nearly three
years ago, and the collection of the Kendall is now in New Bedford along with a
much streamlined staff. The name of the old museum has been preserved in the
"Kendall Institute" which is the research library at the New Bedford Whaling
Museum.
I should note that beyond those three museums there are small museums,
smaller museums, and tiny museumlets scattered about New England and the wider
northeast which have token collections of whaling logbooks.
A brief article on the merger:
http://www.archaeology.org/0211/reviews/whaling.html
Frank R
[ ] Mystic, Connecticut
[X] Chicago, Illinois
