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Berkshire Historical Society Something Old, Something New: 200 Years of Berkshire Brides | BHS @ Melville's Arrowhead
  • mellville
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Berkshire Historical Society exhibitions
News
  • 2010 Exhibit at Arrowhead- “The Man Who Lived Among the Cannibals”
    2010 Exhibit at Arrowhead- “The Man Who Lived Among the Cannibals”
  • Something Old, Something New: 200 Years of Berkshire Brides
    Something Old, Something New: 200 Years of Berkshire Brides
News
  • 2010 Exhibit at Arrowhead- “The Man Who Lived Among the Cannibals”
    2010 Exhibit at Arrowhead- “The Man Who Lived Among the Cannibals”
  • Something Old, Something New: 200 Years of Berkshire Brides
    Something Old, Something New: 200 Years of Berkshire Brides
News
  • Library / Archives
    Library / Archives
  • Berkshire Local history
    Berkshire Local history
  • Arrowhead Collection
    Arrowhead Collection
News
  • Herman Melville and Arrowhead
    Herman Melville and Arrowhead
  • The Restoration of Arrowhead
    The Restoration of Arrowhead

June 7 -

2010 Exhibit at Arrowhead- “The Man Who Lived Among the Cannibals”

2010 Exhibit at Arrowhead- “The Man Who Lived Among the Cannibals”
In 1840, 21-year-old Herman Melville decided to go to sea for the second time. The family was left destitute by the bankruptcy and subsequent death of Herman’s father when Herman was 13. Taken out of school to work, he was erratically educated after that. By 1837, the nation was in a severe depression; what few jobs might have been available to him prior to then, now disappeared completely. In June of 1839, with the help of his older brother Gansevoort, Herman signed on as a “greenhand” (novice) on the merchant ship St. Lawrence for a round trip from New York to Liverpool. On his return, nothing came of his efforts to find work. Thus, December of 1840 found him in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Known as “the city that lights the world”, it was the center of the U.S. whaling industry. On Christmas Day, Melville signed on as a “greenhand” on the whaler “Acushnet”, a new ship under Captain Valentine Pease. Nothing from his past—not his earlier voyage, not his father telling tales of seven voyages to Europe, not stories from his several mariner cousins— could have prepared him for the world he was about to enter. Melville returned to his family after 31/2 years away. His life as a whaler, runaway, beachcomber, and Navy seaman inspired him to tell tales of beautiful, tattooed natives,strange taboos, and dangerous cannibals.Encouraged by his family to write and publish these stories, he did so, gaining immediate success as well as notoriety. He was, indeed, known as “the man who lived among the cannibals”. The exhibit invites you into the fierce, dangerous world of whaling and the wondrous, alien cultures of Polynesia through maps and photographs, as well as tools, weapons and objects from the BHS collection.

May 23 - June 8

Something Old, Something New: 200 Years of Berkshire Brides

Something Old, Something New: 200 Years of Berkshire Brides

Our collaborative summer exhibition, opens at Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum, Lenox, and Naumkeag with the recreation of a wedding breakfast held there. In collaboration with Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum, and Naumkeag, the Berkshire Historical Society will show a variety of gowns and accoutrements from its incredible collection of wedding apparel and all things bridal, spanning the late 18th century through the mid 20th century. These will be displayed in two newly renovated rooms at Ventfort Hall. Naumkeag, the Gilded Age Mansion of the Choate family, now owned by the Trustees of Reservations, will recreate a wedding breakfast held there. At Arrowhead, a gown belong to the Melville family will be on display.

Ventfort Hall Mansion and Gilded Age Museum
104 Walker Street, Lenox, MA 01240
(413) 637-3206 http://www.gildedage.org

Naumkeag
5 Prospect Hill Road, Stockbridge MA 01262
(413) 298-3239 http://www.thetrustees.org

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