Table of Contents

Historical Note

Scope and Content Note

Information for Researchers

Separations List

Administrative Information

Description

Subject Headings

Inventory of the John R. Bockstoce Papers

In the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library

Historical Note

John R. Bockstoce is a prominent Arctic historian and archaeologist who worked as Curator of Ethnology at New Bedford Whaling Museum from 1974-?, and as the Director of Development from 1986-?. A Yale graduate, Bockstoce received his PhD from Oxford in January 1974. In his career, he served ten seasons on an whaling crew in Point Hope, Alaska, traversed the Northwest Passage, and participated in a series of excavations on the Bering Strait. From 1970-1971, he was the field director of the Cape Nome excavations for Museum of University of Pennsylvania. In 1973, he carried out archaeological excavations with five assistants at an old whaling village on Herschel Island in 1973. These excavations focused on the impact that the whaling industry had on native populations.

As Director for the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s Bowhead Project beginning in 1978, Bockstoce oversaw the compilation of data regarding historical bowhead whale populations. This grant-funded project required researchers to pull raw data from logbooks for analysis by subcontractors at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. In addition to the collections of the New Bedford Whaling Museum and the New Bedford Free Public Library, materials from assisting institutions were also utilized, including Providence Public Library, Mystic Seaport, Harvard University, Peabody Museum of Salem, Whaling and Marine Manuscript Archives, the Kendall Whaling Museum, Dukes County Historical Society, and the New London County Historical Society.

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Scope and Content Note

This collection contains the research papers of Arctic researcher and historian John R. Bockstoce, and includes correspondence, research notes, excavation reports, newspaper clippings, ship logs and crew lists, scholarly articles, government reports, maps, charts, thesis manuscripts, and other associated research materials. The collection begins with papers relating to the research of Herschel Island, an island in the Beaufort Sea off the Yukon coast that was a popular wintering destination for Arctic whalers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These papers are separated into series by topic and then into subseries by material type. Topics include the Herschel Island excavations, the trial of Arctic whaling Captain John A. Cook, and animal meat consumption by whalers on the island. The final series in the sub-group consists of additional Herschel Island research material separated by topic into subseries.

The next sub-group consists of research material relating to whaling in the Western Arctic, separated into series by topic, and into subseries by material type. A series of note is the research materials regarding whaling ship disasters in the West Pacific from 1840-1920. Other topics include whaler’s gravestones, the actions of the Confederate wrecker Shenandoah in the Western Arctic, the Okhotsk Sea whale fishery, the rise of steam whaling in the region, and shore-based bowhead whale catching in Alaska. The final series in this sub-group consists of associated topical materials relating to Western Arctic Whaling arranged by item and includes poems, literature, ship logs, and scholarly articles.

Associated Bockstoce research materials make up the final sub-group in the collection, and are arranged into series by topic, and subseries by material type. Topics include wintering whaling voyages, whalebone manufacture, whaling in various other cultures, and the end of the Arctic fishery.

Arrangement of Collection

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Information for Researchers

Access to Collections

Unrestricted. Consult librarian for an appointment.

Preferred Citation

New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library Mss 154, [sub-group, series, sub-series, folder/volume as appropriate], [item]

Copyright Notice

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. The Privacy Act of 1974 (5 United States Code 552a) governs the use of materials that document private individuals, groups, and corporations.

Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a reproduction if the document does not infringe the privacy rights of an individual, group, or corporation. These specified conditions of authorized use include:

If the researcher later uses a copy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," the researcher is personally liable for copyright, privacy, or publicity infringement and agrees to indemnify the New Bedford Whaling Museum from any legal action as a result of the error. Permission to obtain a photographic, xerographic, digital, or other copy of a document does not indicate permission to publish, exhibit, perform, reproduce, sell, distribute, or prepare derivative works from the document without permission from the copyright holder and from any private individual, group, or corporation shown or otherwise recorded.

Permission to publish, exhibit, perform, reproduce, prepare derivative works from, sell, or otherwise distribute the item must be obtained separately in writing from the holder of the original copyright (or if the creator is dead, from his/her heirs) as well as from any individual(s), groups, or corporations whose name, image, recorded words, or private information (e.g. employment information) may be reproduced in the source material. The holder of the original copyright is not necessarily the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The New Bedford Whaling Museum is not legally liable for copyright, privacy, or publicity infringement when materials are wrongfully used after being provided to researchers for "fair use."

This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if fulfillment of the order is judged in violation of copyright or federal or state privacy law. This institution also places restrictions on the use of cameras, photocopiers, and scanners in the research room.

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Separations List

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Administrative Information

Provenance

Materials in this collection were donated by John R. Bockstoce in 2016. Accession #2016.40.

Processing Information

Processed by: Sara Rose, 2017

Encoded by: Kristi Mukk, 27 September

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Description

Please Consult Research Library for Detailed Description of Collection

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Subject Headings

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Vessel Names

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