Local History databases

New Bedford High School Yearbook Collection across the years 1905 to 2023

New Bedford Free Public Library Special Collections emerged to preserve materials of historical and aesthetic value for future generations.

New Bedford records in the Digital Public Library of America

New Bedford Whaling Museum owns the world’s most comprehensive collection of whaling history and also collects in maritime and local history. The online collections include objects across a broad range of categories: photographs, objects, paintings, etc. 

New Bedford Whaling Museum digitized collection of whaling logbooks, manuscripts, and journals.

New Bedford Whaling Museum Nautical Charts Collection Nineteenth century nautical charts held in the New Bedford Whaling Museum's collection. Some consist of hand-drawn manuscripts plotting movements along specific whaling grounds, while others include annotated voyage tracks of a given whaling voyage with notations of whales taken.

Virtual Melville Exhibition - Teaching Melville Society In Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, the whale is many things: a mysterious, even God-like, creature, a scientific curiosity, and a source of endless philosophical speculation. Not least of all, the whale is an animal hunted for sustenance and monetary profit. In Melville’s gifted hand, this creature comes to symbolize the human attempt to master the forces of nature. This virtual exhibition will highlight the ways that whales and Melville are present and accessible in the Museum.

Lost Fishermen of New Bedford remembers fishermen who died at sea and lost fishing vessels by presenting photographs and information associated with the Port of New Bedford and nearby towns.

Explore historical collections from libraries, museums, and archives, across Massachusetts.

Mass Moments is a daily almanac of Massachusetts history.