Exhibit Status: Past

In 1848, New Bedford artists Benjamin Russell and Caleb Purrington announced to the world they had completed their Grand Panorama of a Whaling Voyage ‘Round the World. Russell was an emerging artist and bankrupt whaling investor who had just spent 42 months (1841-1844) on a whaling voyage to the Indian Ocean and North Pacific aboard the ship Kutusoff. When he returned, Purrington joined him in creating this massive painting as a commercial enterprise for public entertainment. Performed as a moving panorama, this 1,275-foot long and 8-foot high painting was separated onto four alternating spools, which were mounted in a theater or public hall for a paid performance. It toured the East, transported by train, ship, and wagon to Boston, New York and as far West as St. Louis.

In an era before the age of cinema, the Panorama is a rare extant example of commercial enterprise, designed to exploit the panorama craze of the 19th century with tales of the high seas. This era’s popular entertainment was dominated by illusion and spectacle, the exotic and the unknown. This was the age of the traveling circus, public theater, pantomimes, the height of popularity of the curiosities sideshow, and the birth of grand World’s Fairs.

The Panorama, which is owned and preserved by the New Bedford Whaling Museum, depicts in fascinating detail the voyage of a typical mid-19^th century New Bedford whaleship on its journey ‘round the world’ in pursuit of whales. Along the way, it depicts scenes (some from Russell’s experience, some historic, and some imagined) in such far-flung places as the Azores, Cape Verde, Brazil, Tahiti, and Hawaii. People, places, vessels, wildlife, and events spring to life as they were seen from a 19^th-century perspective.

 

During the conservation of the artifact in 2017, the entire painting was digitized for reproduction and then exhibited in New Bedford. It now appears at Mystic Seaport Museum, one 30-foot scene at a time, in companion with a 34-minute narrated digital film that depicts the entire painting much as it would have been seen in 1848.

Making a cameo appearance is the last wooden whaleship in the world — the Museum’s Charles W. Morgan. The Morgan is one of more than 100 vessels to appear in this painting, and most likely the only one still afloat. Its first voyage coincided with the time that Russell was on the Kutusoff, and he probably saw it in the Azores, where it appears in the Panorama.

Visitors are encouraged to pick up their free Grand Panorama Passport. The Museum will be issuing stamps for each port of call and each scene — there are 15 over the course of the exhibition. Awards will be given to those with multiple stamps and a special prize for those who collect all 15.

Don’t miss this opportunity to join a whaling voyage “’round the world” through the eyes of a Yankee whaler!

Scene Change Schedule

New Bedford (May 29)
New Bedford East (June 17)
Azores (July 8)
Fayal, Azores (July 29)
Cidade Velha, Cape Verde (August 19)
Fogo, Cape Verde (September 9)
Rio de Janeiro (September 30)
Rio de Janeiro (October 21)
Cape Horn (November 11)
Juan Fernandez Island (December 2)
Society Islands and the Essex (December 16)
Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii (January 6, 2022)
Lahaina, Maui (January 27, 2022)
Northwest Pacific Whaling (February 17, 2022)
Fiji (March 10, 2022)

A SPECTACLE IN MOTION: THE GRAND PANORAMA OF A WHALING VOYAGE ‘ROUND THE WORLD IS A COLLABORATION BETWEEN MYSTIC SEAPORT MUSEUM AND THE NEW BEDFORD WHALING MUSEUM, WHICH OWNS AND PRESERVES THE PANORAMA.

The Collins Gallery in the Thompson Exhibition Building is the host of the exhibition A Way with Wood: Celebrating Craft. The show introduces visitors to the many ways people transform one of nature’s most malleable materials to objects of utility, art, and beauty.

At the core of the exhibition is a boat-restoration and boat-building demonstration staffed by the Museum’s shipwrights. At times, their work in the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard, at the other end of campus, can be hidden from public view or can only be observed at a distance. For this exhibition, the shipwrights take center stage and are carrying out different projects over the course of the show. The first is a restoration of Afterglow, the tender to the Museum’s schooner Brilliant. Little to no power tools will be used; the focus will be on work using hand tools.

Complementing the shipwrights’ work is a section where outside artisans will be invited in for periods of time to set up shop to practice and share their craft with the public. This changing stable of craftsmen might feature a variety of different disciplines: wood carving, furniture making, sculpture, and model making are some of the possibilities.

Throughout the gallery, there will be displays of objects from the collections, such as rare tools, unique carvings, small boats, photographs, and other artifacts that illustrate the wide range of ways wood has been shaped by the artisan’s hand.

The displays in A Way with Wood will change as new projects, artisans, and objects rotate in and out. The exhibition is intended to evolve over time and provide different views into the world of craftsmanship and wood.

“Warm, renewable, flexible, strong – the remarkable qualities of wood have appealed to countless generations, making it the traditional go-to material for crafting boats, buildings, docks, and furniture,” says Director of Exhibits Elysa Engelman. “We’re excited to be using our largest and newest gallery to show-off our staff skills and collection connections, by celebrating woodcraft and the craft of woodworking in a maritime setting.”

When sailors went to sea in the 19th century, they faced difficult working conditions, cramped personal space onboard ship, and voyages that at times could stretch for months or even years. Sailor Made: Folk Art of the Sea, a new exhibition in Mystic Seaport Museum’s C.D. Mallory Building, explores the art that emerged out of this working world, reflecting sailors’ connections to shipboard life, their thoughts about culture on shore, and the souvenirs they created to remember and share the experiences of their travels.

The second of four new exhibitions funded by the Henry Luce Foundation, Sailor Made highlights more than 200 objects from the Museum’s collection, many of which have long been hidden from public view. Each artifact has its own story, and through the work of exhibition curator Mirelle Luecke, Ph.D., much new information has been uncovered about the objects in the show.

“When stuck in the difficult, dangerous, and sometimes monotonous environment of the ship, sailors used art to express themselves. The designs they inscribed on scrimshaw, the types of household items they made, and the ways they used different materials were all intentions, and tell us something about the sailors themselves, their experiences, and the world they lived in,” said Luecke.

These stories show how creating art enabled sailors to differentiate their labor and leisure time in the otherwise all-consuming work environment of the ship.

To do this sailors turned to art, carving scrimshaw, drawing in journals, sewing intricate embroidery, and creating intricate knot-work, to name but a few of the media on display. Highlights include:

• Personal items that spoke to sailor-makers professional life and skills, such as knives, needle cases, clothing, and elaborate macramé bags
• Household items such as bowls and boxes fashioned out of exotic materials
• A child’s hammock decorated with scenes from the circumnavigation voyage of the USS Columbia, made by one shipmate for another
• Examples of tattoo flash (sample drawings from which sailors could choose their tattoo)
• Numerous pieces of scrimshaw, including engraved teeth, jagging wheels, bodkins, and a knitting swift
• A coatrack constructed of narwhal tusks
• A cribbage board in the shape of the nuclear submarine USS Hartford

As self-taught artists, sailors engaged with the working world of the ship, imagined their ideal lives on shore, and created objects to commemorate their experiences at sea. This exhibition is a view into the world of the 19th-century sailor, with a few modern examples to show how those impulses and activities continue today in some naval and merchant mariners.

The exhibition is made possible by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to support the curation and development of four new collections installations and related programming at Mystic Seaport Museum. These projects will provide new perspectives on the art and ensure the continued preservation and refinement of the collections while also promoting public access.

Access to Sailor Made is included in the Museum’s general admission.