Nantucket: What to See & Do: Museums & Galleries: Whaling Museum

Whaling Museum

Entrance fees to the Whaling Museum are expensive—at $15, almost the equivalent of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art—but the exhibits, both entertaining and educational, are worth it. Reopened in 2005 after a $13-million renovation, the museum tells the story of the island’s whaling industry through paintings, photographs, ship logs, journal entries, letters and life-size displays of hunting gear, weapons and boats. The pièce-de-résistance is the awe-inspiring skeleton of a forty-six-foot sperm whale, which is suspended above the main hall and is particularly popular with kids. The tale of the seafaring men (and women) is fascinating, as is the lecture on whale hunting, included in the price of admission. You’ll learn a lot about the island and its intrepid inhabitants, such as that captains were allowed to bring their wives on whale hunts, which could take up to five years (when local waters were overfished, ships sailed as far as the South Pacific). Don’t miss the journal of Susan Veeder, a courageous soul who traveled with her husband and sons on board the Nauticon from 1848 to 1853.