In Cabo Verde
The exhibition in São Vicente, opened in 2016 in the heart of Mindelo at the Museu do Mar and encompasses two of its four floors.
The exhibition in the recently inaugurated Museu da Pesca in Tarrafal, São Nicolau, opened in 2019.
Opened: February 12, 2016
Exhibitions in Cabo Verde
The New Bedford Whaling Museum and the City of New Bedford have established a major, long-term, collaboration with Cabo Verde aimed at celebrating the cultural and industrial connections between them.
In 2016, the Museum traveled with City delegates to Cabo Verde and formed a partnership with Mr. Mario Lucio de Sousa, Cabo Verde’s Minister of Culture, and Humberto Lima, President of the Office of Cultural Patrimony in Cabo Verde. Curators from Cabo Verde (Ligia Timas, Senior Advisor to the Cabo Verdean Ministry of Culture, and Ana Samira Silva, Institute of Cultural Patrimony) worked with curators at the Whaling Museum for three months preparing this major trans-Atlantic partnership.
Two exhibitions were planned: one in São Vicente and one in São Nicolau. The Whaling Museum gifted and loaned artifacts, which included models of the C.W. Morgan and the Ernestina, along with examples of harpoons, scrimshaw, prints, and photographs.
Exhibition in São Vicente
The exhibition in São Vicente, opened in 2016 in the heart of Mindelo at the Museu do Mar and encompasses two of its four floors.
The Museu do Mar overlooks the port from which the Ernestina departed in 1982. Poignantly, many “Packets” departed from there too, bringing Cabo Verdean emigrants to the U.S. The exhibition tells the story of Yankee whaling and the important role played therein by Cabo Verdeans.
Curators from Cabo Verde worked with curators at the Whaling Museum to prepare and mount this exhibition, which tells the story of Yankee whaling and the important role played therein by Cabo Verdeans.
Exhibition in São Nicolau
The exhibition in the recently inaugurated Museu da Pesca in Tarrafal, São Nicolau, opened in 2019.
The exhibition, titled A caça à baleia nos mares de Cabo Verde (Whaling in Our Cape Verdean Seas), explores the introduction of whaling to São Nicolau by British whalers and the subsequent full-fledged involvement of Cape Verdeans in the global whaling industry with the introduction of Yankee whalers to Cape Verdean shores. Curator of Social History, Akeia de Barros Gomes traveled to Tarrafal in 2019 to assist with the installation of the exhibition.
