The Hunt for Whales, presented at the Nantucket Whaling Museum

The story of what it was like to hunt for whales in the 18th-19th centuries has been told since the 1930s when retired whaling captain George Grant became the first curator of the Nantucket Whaling Museum and shared his first-hand whaling experiences with museum visitors. That began a long-standing tradition of telling this same story passed down to each new generation of museum interpreters. Today, the "Hunt Lecture" AKA "The Hunt" is told daily in Gosnell Hall at the Nantucket Whaling Museum under the whale skeleton.

This version of "The Hunt" was created as a multi-media presentation to celebrate the opening of the new Nantucket Whaling Museum in 2005.

Presenter: Kirsten Gamble

Paintings, photographs and manuscripts: Nantucket Historical Association Collections





Additional paintings by Rodney Charman, courtesy of the Albert F. Egan, Jr. & Dorothy H. Egan Foundation, Inc.



:

Landing of the First Settler at Madaket—1659
Settlement of the Island Commenced at Madaket—1660

Whale Off Shore: Taking of the First Sperm Whale off Nantucket—1712
Great Fire of Nantucket—1846

Additional photographs:

Tarr Farm Oil Wells (1861), Courtesy of Drake Well Museum
Pannin’ for Gold!, courtesy of www.historichywy49.com




Video segments:

Sperm Whale Stock Footage courtesy of National Geographic Film Library
Right Whale Footage courtesy of Oceanstockfootage.com
Elmer Clifton’s Down to the Sea in Ships (1922)




Produced by Novation Media