This April, the Nantucket Historical Association opened an exciting new Featured Exhibition in their Nantucket Whaling Museum that is designed to take visitors on a trip around the globe.
The traveling exhibition The Wider World & Scrimshaw is expansive and culturally far-reaching. Surveying carving traditions that emerged along whaling routes in the Pacific world, the exhibition showcases more than 300 objects and set scrimshaw—the folk art made by whalers on the body parts of whales—in conversation with carved decorative arts and material culture made by Indigenous community members from across Oceania, the Pacific, and the Arctic.
The Nantucket Whaling Museum is the first venue to host this traveling exhibition organized by the New Bedford Whaling Museum and supported by Art Bridges, an organization that creates and supports projects that share works of American art across the United States and its territories. The Wider World & Scrimshaw will be on display there through November 1, 2026.
“The Nantucket Historical Association is pleased to work with our colleagues at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in order to share this exhibition and important research,” said Niles Parker, Gosnell Executive Director of the NHA. “By applying a wider lens to our understanding of whaling, exploration, and artistic creativity, we can better understand the cultural exchange taking place which inf luenced disparate societies around the world.”
The Wider World & Scrimshaw emphasizes the work of Native communities, many of whom have beliefs, myths, and traditions related to whales, distinctive maritime traditions involving marine mammals, and vibrant carving styles.
Engaging in questions about identity, place, and material, it considers the impact of exploration and whaling on the production of material culture in the Pacific world between 1700 and today. The exhibit also explores how Native communities in the Pacific world were impacted by commercial whaling ventures in the 1800s and the external pressures of colonialism and Western empire-building.
“The NHA’s Whaling Museum interprets the history of 19th century American whaling, where whale-hunting voyages from New England headed to all corners of the Pacific world. The Wider World & Scrimshaw exhibition will bring non-New England perspectives into our museum and help our visitors understand the cultural interactions that resulted from this commercial activity,” said Michael Harrison, NHA Chief Curator and Obed Macy Research Chair. “The NHA is excited to share this significant exhibition with our visitors and to open up our interpretation of whaler’s scrimshaw to new and broader perspectives.”
An interdisciplinary, community-driven, and collections-focused exhibition, The Wider World & Scrimshaw connects the historical and contemporary through cultural products ranging from Oceanic material culture and Arctic carvings to engraved sperm whale teeth. Several short documentaries and animated films as well as tactile displays of carving techniques and natural materials provide additional opportunities to engage with exhibition themes that include: paddles, dance wands & clubs, busks, fids, needle cases, totem poles, and trade goods.
Summer season programming for The Wider World & Scrimshaw will begin with a member reception and opening celebration in May, followed by an exciting slate of gallery activities and public programs, special events, and workshops inspired by themes found in the exhibition. A free lecture series at the Whaling Museum will feature talks by scholars and artists, while family-friendly crafts— inspired by whale ecology and scrimshaw—will be offered in the children’s Discovery Center. A new family tour will be offered each week, guiding guests through the featured exhibition and other areas of the museum before concluding with a craft in the Discovery Center.
Community programs, classes, and events will include scrimshaw-focused Mindful Memories and NHA on the Road programs, as well as maritime craft and carving-focused Decorative Arts workshops at the 1800 House. Other events include The Wider World & Scrimshaw Community Day in August, with hands-on activities and engaging opportunities for families to learn more about exhibition content; while in October, the Whaling Museum will host a final celebration of the exhibition, with gallery tours and interactive experiences across the Museum. To book a visit and learn more about museum hours, visit NHA.org.