In honor of the centennial of women’s suffrage in New York, The Whaling Museum & Education Center is opening a special exhibition, Heroines at the Helm, which explores the fascinating and little-known experiences of whaling wives who broke social bounds in a male-defined world.
The exhibit opens on Saturday, Sept. 22 and will remain at the museum through Labor Day 2019.
Historically, whaling was one of Long Island’s most important commercial industries. The male-dominated whaling industry relied on family members to manage life ashore during men’s long absences.
Women who remained home suddenly found themselves as lone masters of their households. They maintained their families as single parents, took care of elderly parents, paid the bills, tended to farming, and waited with wifely devotion. Some women became entrepreneurs, running inns, becoming teachers, or serving as midwives.
As time went on, some women found themselves incapable of enduring the years of separation anymore. A number of captains’ wives broke boundaries by deciding to do what no woman had done before: join their husbands at sea, enduring harsh conditions for companionship. By the 1850’s, one out of six whaleships carried the captain’s wife aboard.
Heroines at the Helm will illuminate these wives’ experiences by featuring women’s utilitarian, costume, and decorative pieces, as well as photographs and portraits. Through first-person accounts lifted from women’s letters and journals, visitors will explore what life was like for these women at sea, including where they gave birth, what they ate for dinner, how they looked after their children, how they celebrated holidays, and how they passed the time.
Alongside these artifacts, contemporary artwork by two Long Island female artists who challenged traditional artistic boundaries will be featured, including Bastienne Schmidt and Esphyr Slobodkina (1908-2002), as well as Arizona-based artist Angela Ellsworth.
Visitors will be invited to cast their vote in response to choices women faced at sea, such as would they leave their children at home with relatives, or travel as a family? Visitors will also view Victorian-era and contemporary silhouettes, and create their own silhouette craft to take home.
“Whaling wives became trailblazers by necessity,” said Executive Director Nomi Dayan. “The remarkable mental and physical endurance that they showed in spite of the many circumstances they endured — illness, seasickness, storms, mutinies, dangerous whaling grounds, long stretches of boredom, not to mention cramped, filthy conditions — offer inspiration to our lives today. Helping to arrange this exhibit was humbling.”
The museum will be closed now through Sept. 21 for exhibit installation, and will reopen on Sept 22. Exhibit development is supported by funds from Humanities New York, Suffolk County Department of Economic Development and Planning, and private contributions.
In celebration of the new exhibit, the public is invited to a family-friendly special event, SeaFaire, on Saturday, Sept. 29 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visitors will partake in creating seaworthy crafts, view demonstrations, and hear live sea shanties. Other associated programming will take place throughout the 2018-2019 seasons.
The Whaling Museum & Education Center is located at 301 Main St. in Cold Spring Harbor.
For more information, go to www.cswhalingmuseum.org.
