Sag Harbor Whaling Museum is dedicated to the port town's past within the American whaling industry. It houses the largest collection of whaling equipment in the state of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

.
Whaling Museum Operators Want site Shipshape," Debbie Tuma, June 7th 1999, The Daily News.

Building

The building that now houses the museum was built in 1845 by prosperous merchant whaler Benjamin Huntting II at the height of the town's maritime prosperity. Designed by

Minard Lafever Minard Lafever (1798–1854) was an American architect of churches and houses in the United States in the early nineteenth century. Life and career Lafever began life as a carpenter around 1820. At this period in the United States there were no ...

, the house is an elaborate

Greek revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

structure with a temple-front portico and fluted Corinthian columns. In an unusual homage to the source of Huntting's fortune, Lafever edged the roof line with a row of decorative crenellation in the form of alternating

flensing Flensing is the removing of the blubber or outer integument of whales, separating it from the animal's meat. Processing the blubber (the subcutaneous fat) into whale oil was the key step that transformed a whale carcass into a stable, transport ...

knives and

blubber Blubber is a thick layer of vascularized adipose tissue under the skin of all cetaceans, pinnipeds, penguins, and sirenians. Description Lipid-rich, collagen fiber-laced blubber comprises the hypodermis and covers the whole body, except for pa ...

spades. An enormous pair of

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

jawbones frame the front door. Inside, an elegant staircase spirals upward toward a domed skylight. The ''AIA Architectural Guide'' calls it "Long Island's finest example of high style Greek revival architecture."American Institute of Architects,''AIA architectural guide to Nassau and Suffolk counties, Long Island,'' Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, Courier Dover Publications, 1992. building # 208."Whaling Museum; Sag Harbor Preserves Its Seafaring Past." June 18, 1961, ''New York Times''. The house is "enormous in scale" compared to the usual American

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

houses of the era, and the architect embellished it with some eclectic touches. Talbot Hamlin,, "The Rise of Eclecticism in New York", ''Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians'', Vol. 11, No. 2 (May 1952), pp. 3-8.

In 1907 the house was purchased by philanthropist

Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage, known as Olivia Sage (September 8, 1828 – November 4, 1918), was an American philanthropist known for her contributions to education and progressive causes. In 1869 she became the second wife of robber baron Russel ...

(Mrs. Russell Sage), who lived there in the summers until her death in 1918. It then became a

Masonic Temple A Masonic Temple or Masonic Hall is, within Freemasonry, the room or edifice where a Masonic Lodge meets. Masonic Temple may also refer to an abstract spiritual goal and the conceptual ritualistic space of a meeting. Development and history In ...

in 1920. In 1945 the building was bought by the Whaling Museum; the upper floor is still used by the

Freemasons Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

.Bill Bleyer, "Around the Island / Community Life / The Talk of Sag Harbor: Whaling Museum Tries To Weather Rough Seas". ''Newsday'', April 14, 2000, . The building has been open to the public since 1945 as the ''Sag Harbor Whaling Museum.''

Whaling museum

The museum is filled with the equipment of the

whaling ship A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

s: guns,

try pot A try pot is a large pot used to remove and render the oil from blubber obtained from cetaceans (whales and dolphins) and pinnipeds (seals), and also to extract oil from penguins. Once a suitable animal such as a whale had been caught and killed ...

knives,

spades,

figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a person who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet ''de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that they ...

s, and a large collection of

scrimshaw Scrimshaw is scrollwork, engravings, and carvings done in bone or ivory. Typically it refers to the artwork created by whalers, engraved on the byproducts of whales, such as bones or cartilage. It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth ...

carvings etched on whale ivory. In the Harpoon Room,

harpoon A harpoon is a long spear-like instrument and tool used in fishing, whaling, seal hunting, sealing, and other marine hunting to catch and injure large fish or marine mammals such as seals and whales. It accomplishes this task by impaling the t ...

s line the walls along with whale vertebrae and

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

tools. Elsewhere are paintings of 19th-century whale hunts. The museum owns the entire building, allowing the Masonic Lodge to meet upstairs.

References

External links

Sag Harbor Whaling Museum website
{{authority control Whaling in the United States Whaling museums Whaling Museum Greek Revival houses in New York (state) Masonic buildings in New York (state) Houses completed in 1845 Maritime museums in New York (state) Museums in Suffolk County, New York Industry museums in New York (state) History museums in New York (state)

Building

Whaling museum

See also

References

External links