The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

Wellesley Hills Library Hearthside historical talk: “Race to the Pole”

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The Wellesley Hills Branch Library presents “Race to the Pole,” a talk by local historian Bob Begin about Antarctica exploration in the 1900s.

In 1900, Antarctica represented the last unexplored and unclaimed region of the world.  Great Britain felt it her duty to explore and claim this region for the British Empire.  She would sponsor expeditions to achieve this goal. Other nations would also enter the race.  Learn about the explorers who risked life and limb to conquer the Antarctic: Scott, Amundsen, and Shackleton. What drove these men?

Ernest Shackleton’s men struggle to free their ship, The Endurance, from the Antarctica ice.

WHEN: Thursday, March 28, 2019, 6:30pm – 7:45pm
WHERE: Wellesley Hills Branch Library, 201 Washington St.

Beyond Wellesley: New Bedford Whaling Museum, lunch, and a winter beach visit

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It’s smack-dab middle of winter here in New England, a time when it can seem easier to just hibernate at home rather than venture out into the cold, bleak world. Let me encourage you to join the resistance to such inactivity with a road trip to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, a nearby lunch at the family-friendly Whalers Tavern, followed by a constitutional on a little-known New England beach frequented all winter long by locals and their dogs.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum

New Bedford in the early 19th century was the world’s busiest whaling port in the world’s richest city. Whaling was at the center of everything in the busy port town, a place that was populated by the Wampanoag Indian nation before Europeans landed onshore. In the early 1600s English settlers took a look around the coastal area, took note of its favorable position, and came back fifty years later to settle the area. That didn’t go well for the thousands of Wampanoag residents who soon found themselves at war with the European colonists. Significantly reduced in number by disease and ruthless war tactics, the Wampanoags were quickly pushed off land they had occupied for perhaps thousands of years.

New Bedford Whaling Museum
D.B. and I had a whale of a time at New Bedford Whaling Museum.

It’s a dramatic story, and the museum’s exhibits showcase the area’s history, the whaling industry, and its impact not only on New Bedford but globally. Not to be missed (and impossible to do so): five massive whale skeletons, the world’s largest ship model (the Lagoda), and America’s longest painting. Every room in the museum, opened in 1903, is devoted to all things whaling — paintings, costumes, ship models, maps, an astonishing number of scrimshaw arts and crafts, and more.

The whaling vessel Lagoda takes center stage in one of the galleries as the world’s largest ship model. To call it a model ship, although accurate, almost fails to give it its due. The 1/2 scale replica looks ready to set sail at a moment’s notice, and visitors are welcome to climb right aboard and imagine what it must have been like to make Lagoda both home and office for anywhere from six months to four years, just as 19th-century sailors did.

Whale hunting was deadly to whales, of course, and it also was risky business for the hunters. A small boat of about six or eight men would row within hurling distance of a  150-ton whale and let fly at least seven harpoons into whichever part of the mammal they could hit. The whales often didn’t welcome the attention, and there are several paintings in the museum that depict seriously angry whales getting their revenge on hapless sailors, most of whom were non-swimmers.

New Bedford Whaling Museum
New Bedford Whaling Museum

Which brings us to author Herman Melville, who in 1841 shipped out from New Bedford on the Acushnet. His experiences on that whaling ship helped form his great American novel Moby Dick. In chapter 20 of the 585-page tome, Melville describes The Seamen’s Bethel, a small wooden structure just across the street from the museum and included in the admission fee. Built in 1832 as a non denominational church, Melville’s narrator, call-me Ishmael himself, described how sailors bound for their dangerous work on the sea would stop in to offer up prayers before they set sail: “In the same New Bedford there stands a whaleman’s chapel and few are the moody fishermen shortly bound for the Indian or Pacific Oceans who failed to make a Sunday visit to this spot.”

New Bedford, Seamen's Bethel
New Bedford, Seamen’s Bethel

Also in the museum is the 3,000 square foot Casa dos Botes Discovery Center for kids. Don’t miss the observation deck on the top floor of the museum for a great view of the New Bedford harbor. The door out to the deck doesn’t lock behind you, even in the dead of winter. I nervously checked that out for you.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum
18 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, MA 02740
 (508) 997-0046
Hours, January through March:
Tuesday – Saturday 9 am – 4 pm
Sunday 11 am – 4 pm
Admission: Adult $17; seniors (65+) $15; students (19+) $10; Child/youth $7; under 3 free
Tickets include admission to the Mariners’ Home.

Lunch at Whaler’s Tavern, 24 North Water Street

About three-tenths of a cobblestone-street mile from the museum is a great family friendly lunch spot that likely becomes a different sort of lively with a more adult crowd come evening. The staff told us to sit anywhere, so we took a high table in the bar area and perused the menu. I started out with the excellent Quahog Chowder made with applewood smoked bacon, onions, celery, red bliss potatoes, and plenty of chopped quahogs. Next up for me was the arugula salad with sun-dried tomatoes and generously portioned sushi-grade ahi tuna, very fresh and a nice light counterpoint to the richness of the chowder.  My companion ordered the BLT on a buttered toasted bun, downed it, and left full and happy.

Whaler's Tavern, New Bedford
Whaler’s Tavern, New Bedford

Other menu items that looked tempting: Shark Bites, locally caught, breaded, and deep fried and served with Cajun remoulade; lobster quesadilla; burgers; grilled chicken sandwich; Korean BBQ pulled pork sandwich; chourico melt; soba noodle bowl; and more. Show up Monday – Friday, 3pm – 6pm for raw bar buy one, get one free littlnecks and oysters. They have a full bar, so plenty of chaser options.

Whaler’s Tavern
24 N Water St, New Bedford, MA 02740
(774) 206-6303

Walk it off at West Island Town Beach

About eight miles away via cottage-lined Sconticut Neck Rd. (plug in West Island Town Beach, Fairhaven, MA into GPS) you can find a little-known beach overlooking Buzzards Bay. During the off season you can just pull into the lot, a casual and muddy affair when we stopped by, and join the locals and their dogs as they enjoy the general solitude.

West Island Town Beach, Fairhaven, MA
West Island Town Beach, Fairhaven, MA

I probably wouldn’t plunk my family down there for a summer day. The sand was covered with seaweed, and the swimming area was quite rocky. But for beach walking a couple miles in either direction on firm footing you can’t beat it, and the sunsets must be amazing. Avoiding the Cape Cod bridge traffic is also another plus that locals swear by.

West Island Town Beach

MORE:

Beyond Wellesley: sneak peek at the renovated Hood Museum at Dartmouth College

Beyond Wellesley: Family fun at Versus arcade in Boston

Beyond Wellesley: a visit to a North End restaurant in Boston

More pictures from our New Bedford adventure:

[Read more…]

Wellesley Historical Society celebrates Tea with Jeanie

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The Wellesley Historical Society and friends got cozy on Sunday following the latest batch of snow with a special event called Tea with Jeanie.

The sold-out tea time was hosted by former Wellesley High School English teacher Jeanie Goddard, her husband Brooks, plus tea Co-chairs Marcia Doiron and Judy Harrington, Key Club volunteers, and the Society’s Events Committee.

Attendees sampled 10 teas, plus cookies.

If you missed out or want to come back for seconds, know that Jeanie has donated another tea experience as a silent auction item at the Historical Society’s upcoming Swing into Spring event.

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Photo of Jeanie GoddardTea tasting photoTea tasting photo

Clean start for Wellesley-Needham football rivalry

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The Wellesley High School vs. Needham High School football rivalry, the oldest among public schools, didn’t end so well for the WHS Raiders this past Thanksgiving day.

Wellesley still holds a 62-60-6 all-time edge over the Rockets, but perhaps the hometown team could use a little extra magic when the game returns here later this year. What might do just the trick is shining up that curious Washington Street boulder adorned with a football and commemorating the Needham-Wellesley rivalry.

football boulder
It’s a dirty job, but someone needs to clean that Wellesley-Needham football rock

 

Wellesley history stalwart Tory DeFazio is spearheading an effort to restore the rock, with the cost to be split between the Needham and Wellesley Rotary clubs.

The boulder, which is located not far from the Wellesley police station along Rte. 16, was dedicated in 1982 to mark the 100th anniversary of the football rivalry. Gov. Edward King attended the event.

In the intervening years, the boulder has darkened and the wording has become harder to read.

“Hopefully in the Fall we can have a photo of the schools’ team captains around the refurbished memorial,” says DeFazio, fresh off efforts to restore Memorial Grove to honor those residents who died in World War I.

Such an event could fit nicely as part of a larger recognition of Wellesley High School celebrating what’s believed to be its 150th anniversary this year.

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Wellesley viewing of PBS documentary Race: The Power of an Illusion

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World of Wellesley, Race...The World of Wellesley in partnership with the Wellesley Free Library will present a community viewing of the 3-part PBS documentary Race: The Power of an Illusion. Everyone is invited to view and discuss the series that investigates race in society, science, and history.

What is this thing we call race? Where did the idea come from? Race: The Power of an Illusion compels viewers to examine some of their most fundamental beliefs about concepts of race. Check out the preview or read more about the series below. Attend one, two or all three parts: February 27, March 6, March 13.

Part 1, The Difference Between Us, February 27, 7pm

Episode one in this three-part series follows a dozen students, including African American athletes and Asian American string players, who sequence and compare their own DNA. The results surprise them—and us—when they discover their closest genetic matches are as likely to be with people from other “races” as their own. Much of this episode is devoted to understanding why. Looking at skin color differences, disease, human evolution, even genetic traits, we learn there’s not one characteristic, one trait, or even a single gene that distinguishes all members of one “race” from another. One by one, our myths about race—including “natural” superiority and inferiority—are taken apart.

2. The Story We Tell, March 6, 7pm

The second episode in this series questions the belief that race has always been with us. Ancient peoples stigmatized “others” based on language, customs, and especially religion, but they did not sort people into “races.” This episode traces the race concept to the European conquest of the Americas, including the development of the first slave system, where all slaves shared a physical trait: dark skin. Ironically, it was not until slavery was challenged on moral grounds that early prejudices—emboldened by the need to defend slavery in a nation that professed a deep belief in freedom—crystallized into a full-blown ideology of white supremacy. By the mid-19th century, race had become the “common sense” wisdom of white America, explaining everything from individual behavior to the fate of whole societies.

3. The House We Live In, March 13, 7pm

This final episode focuses not only on individual behaviors and attitudes, but also on how our institutions shape and create race, giving different groups vastly unequal life chances. Who is white? In the early 20th century, the answer was not always clear. Often, the courts had to decide, and they resorted to contradictory logic to maintain the color line. After World War II, whiteness increasingly meant owning a home in the suburbs, aided by discriminatory federal policies that helped whites and hindered nonwhites. European “ethnics,” once considered not quite white, blended together as they reaped the advantages of whiteness—including increased equity as property values rose dramatically—while African Americans and other nonwhites were locked out. Forty years after the Civil Rights Movement, the playing field is still not level, and “colorblind” policies only perpetuate these inequities.