Cook, Peter, David Antram, and David Salariya. You Wouldn't Want to Sail on a 19th Century Whaling Ship! Grisly Tasks You'd Rather Not Do (one of the “You Wouldn't Want to...” series), Franklin Watts, 2004, Ages 4-8.

Carrick, Carol, and David Frampton. Whaling Days, Clarion Books, 1996 Ages 7-10, Grades 3-6

Cohen, Caron Lee, and Linda Bronson. Crookjaw, Henry Holt and Co. 1997, 40 pages, Ages 4-8. This is a fanciful tale about Ichabod Paddock, an unruly whale, and a mermaid, based on actual New England folklore. (Ichabod Paddock was a real person, one of Cape Cod’s early whalemen, and in 1690 was hired by Nantucketers to teach them how to hunt whales).

Gourley, Catherine. Hunting Neptune's Giants: True Stories of American Whaling, Millbrook Press, 1995, 96 pages, ages 9-12, Grades 4-8.

Kassirer, Sue. Thar She Blows: Whaling in the Eighteen Sixties (Smithsonian's Odyssey), Sagebrush, 1997. Ages 9-12.

Murphy, Jim. Gone A-Whaling: The Lure of the Sea and the Hunt for the Great Whale, Clarion Books, 2004, Grades 6-12.

Philbrick, Nathaniel. Revenge of The Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex,Putnam Juvenile, 2002. Based on Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea. Received a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honors award. Ages 9-12. Philrbick is the award-winning author of Sea of Glory and Mayflower.

Wolf, Bernard. Daniel and the Whale Hunters, The Adventures of a Portuguese Boy in a Whaling Town in the Azores, Random House, NY, 1972, 72 pages. Out of print. Following a few days in the life of Daniel, a fifteen year old boy living on Pico in the Azores, this is a truly lovely book built around beautiful photographs that capture as much of life in the Azores, from baking bread to plowing fields, as they do whaling. The Azores was the last place to carry on whaling by hand in open boats – now they have whale watches.

American Neptune, Pictorial Supplement XV: Photographs of Whaling Vessels, Peabody Museum, 1973.

Allen, Everett S. Children of the Light, The Rise and Fall of New Bedford Whaling and the Death of the Arctic Fleet, Little, Brown & Co, 1973.

Ashley, Clifford W. The Yankee Whaler. 1926, reprinted by Dover Publications, Inc, NY.

Bockstoce, John R. Whales, Ice, and Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic., University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1986.

Busch, Briton C. Whaling Will Never Do For Me. University Press of Kentucky, 1996.

Brewington, M. V. and Dorothy Brewington. Kendall Whaling Museum Paintings, Kendall Whaling Museum, 1965.

Brewington, M. V. and Dorothy Brewington. Kendall Whaling Museum Prints, Kendall Whaling Museum, 1969.

Church, Albert Cook. Whale Ships and Whaling. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 1938. As the whaling industry came to an end Church documented the industry along the New Bedford wharves in photographs. An essential visual reference.

Creighton, Margaret S. Rites and Passages: The Experience of American Whaling, 1830-1870, Cambridge University Press, 1995. One of the new social histories that gives a better view of the whaleman’s life.

Davis, Lance E, Robert E. Gallman, and Karin Gleiter. In Pursuit of Leviathan: Technology, Institutions, Productivity, and Profits in American Whaling, 1816-1906, University Of Chicago Press, 1997. The most recent study of the economics of whaling.

Dolin, Eric Jay. Leviathan, The History of Whaling in America, W. W. Norton Co, NY, 2007. Dolin’s book did not come out in time for us to use it for whale port, but it is the best single volume history of American whaling and an essential reference on the topic.

Dow, George Francis. Whale Ships and Whaling: A Pictorial Survey, Marine Research Society, No. 10, 1925, reprinted by Dover Publications,1985. Another essential visual reference for whale ships.

Druett, Joan. Petticoat Whalers: Whaling Wives at Sea, 1820-1920, UPNE, 2001.

Ellis, Richard. Men and Whales, Knopf, 1991. A great overview of world whaling, with lots of information on areas not covered elsewhere, especially for the 20th century.

Forbes, Allan. Whale ships and whaling scenes as portrayed by Benjamin Russell: Presenting Reproductions in Color of the Paintings of the Foremost Artist in that Field, Second Bank-State Street Trust Co, Boston, MA, 1955.

Grant, Gordon. Greasy Luck A Whaling Sketch Book, William Farquhar Payson, NY, 1932.

Goode, George Brown, ed. Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States. 5 vols. Washington, D.C.: GPO. 1887. The sections on whaling are an essential reference for whaling history.

Hall, Elton W. Sperm Whaling from New Bedford: Clifford W. Ashley's Photographs of Bark Sunbeam in 1904, Old Dartmouth Historical Society, New Bedford, MA, 1982.

Hawes, Charles Boardman. Whaling. 1924.

Hedges, James B. The Browns of Providence Plantations: Colonial Years, Brown University Press, 1968. Includes a chapter on the manufacture of spermaceti candles and the relationship between the manufacturers and the whalemen of Nantucket.

Hegarty, Reginald B. Birth of a whaleship, New Bedford Fre Public Library, 1964.

Hegarty, Reginald B. Returns of Whaling Vessels Sailing from American Ports: A Continuation of Alexander Starbuck’s "History of the American Whale Fishery" 1876-1928, Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1959.

Hegarty, Reginald B. Addendum to "Starbuck" and "Whaling Masters." New Bedford Customs District. New Bedford: New Bedford Free Public Library, 1964.

Hohman, Elmo P. The American Whaleman. Longmans, Green, NY, 1928.

Ingalls, Elizabeth. Whaling Prints in the Francis B. Lothrop Collection, Peabody Essex Museum, 1987.

Jackson, Gordon. The British Whaling Trade, Shoe String Press Inc, 1978.

Kugler, Richard C. New Bedford & Old Dartmouth: A Portrait of a Region's Past, Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1976.

Kugler, Richard C. The Whale Oil Trade, 1750-1775, Old Dartmouth historical Society, 1980.

Lund, Judith Navis. Whaling Masters and Whaling Voyages Sailing from American Ports: A Compilation of Sources. New Bedford Whaling Museum, Kendall Whaling Museum, and Ten Pound Island Book Co, 2001.

Martin, Kenneth R. Whalemen's Paintings and Drawings: Selections from the Kendall Whaling Museum Collection, University of Delaware Press, 1982.

Melville, Herman. Moby Dick, Harper Brothers, NY, 1851. Numerous reprint editons.

Murphy, Robert Cushman. A Dead Whale or a Stove Boat, New York, 1967. Photographs of whaling taken during Murphy’s voyage to the Antarctic on the New Bedford whaleship Sunbeam, 1913-1914.

Murphy, Robert Cushman. Logbook for Grace, Time-Life Books reprint, 1982. Murphy’s account of his trip to the Antarctic on the whaleship Sunbeam, 1913-1914.

Norling, Lisa. Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720-1870, The University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Philbrick, Nathaniel. In the Heart of the Sea, Viking, NY, 2000. Philbrick’s page-turner recounting the sinking of the whaleship Essex by a whale and the survivors’ harrowing trip from the central Pacific back to the coast of South America in open whaleboats.

Scammon, Charles Melville. Marine Mammals of the Northwestern Coast of North America, San Francisco, 1874, Reprinted by Dover, NY. Scammon was both whaling captain and naturalist and this is a classic on whales and whaling, with particular information on the lagoon whaling for the grey whale that Scammon pioneered (fortunately the grey whale has recovered).

Stackpole, Edouard A. The Charles W. Morgan, The Last Wooden Whaleship, Meredith Press, NY, 1967.

Stackpole, Edouard A. The Sea-Hunters, The Great Age of Whaling, J. B. Lippincott Company, 1953.

Stackpole, Edouard A. Whales and Destiny: The Rivalry Between America, France, and Britain for Control of the Southern Whale Fishery, Dial Press, 1962.

Starbuck, Alexander. History of the American Whale Fishery, from Its Earliest Inception to the Year 1876. Report of the U.S. Commission on Fish and Fisheries, Part IV, Washington, D.C., 1878. Reprints generally available.

Stevenson, Charles H. Whalebone, Its Production and Utilization, Government Printing Office, 1903.

Stevenson, Charles H. Aquatic Products in Arts and Industries; Oils, Fats, and Waxes, Fertilizers from Aquatic Products, Government Printing Office, Washington, DZC, 1903.

Tripp, William Henry. "There Goes Flukes"; The Story of New Bedford's Last Whaler, Being the Narrative of the Voyage of Schooner John R. Manta on the Hatteras Grounds, 1925... Reynolds Printing, 1938.

Watson, Arthur C. Whaling Exhibits Of The Old Dartmouth Historical Society, New Bedford, MA.

Whipple, A. B. C. The Whalers, Time Life, Washington, DC, 1979.

Webb, Robert Lloyd. On the Northwest: Commercial Whaling in the Pacific Northwest 1790- 1967. Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press, 1988.

African Americans

I return to these books over and over again:

Bolster, W. Jeffrey. Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail, Harvard University Press, 1998. Essential reading for African Americans in maritime America.

Douglass, Frederick, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave Written By Himself, many editions available.

Grover, Kathryn. The Fugitive's Gibraltar: Escaping Slaves and Abolitionism in New Bedford, Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts Press, 2001. A really, really great history of New Bedford’s African American and Abolitionist communities. Essential reading for those interested in whaling history and New Bedford.

Piersen, William Dillon. Black Yankees: The Development of an Afro-American Subculture in Eighteenth-Century New England, University of Massachusetts Press, 1988.

Native Americans

Philrbick, Nathaniel. Abram's Eyes: The Native American Legacy of Nantucket Island, Mill Hill Press, 1998.
Also see articles by Elizabeth Little on Nantucket Native Americans in Historic Nantucket and the Algonquian Series and Grover’s Fugitive’s Gibraltar, above. Most quality works on shore whaling and 18th c. whaling will also have information on Native Americans.

Maritime Trades

Ansel, Willits Dyer. The Whaleboat: A Study of Design, Construction and Use from 1850-1970, Mystic Seaport Museum,1983. Great information, great images.

Horsley, John E. Tools of the Maritime Trades, International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press, 1978. Based on English maritime trades but very applicable to America and elsewhere – the only book we know of that tries to include all the maritime trades in one volume. It was essential for us.

Kenneth, Kilby. The Cooper and His Trade, Linden Publishing,1990. Great book on all aspects of the history and craft of coopering. Essential for us since coopering was essential for whaling.

Lytle, Thomas G. Harpoons and Other Whalecraft, Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1984. Essential for those interested in harpoons and other tools whaling, though the focus is on the tools and their development rather than how they were made. Based on the collection of the New Bedford Whaling Museum. Now out as a paperback in a second edition.

Ronnberg, Erik A.R. To Build a Whaleboat: Historical Notes and a Modelmaker's Guide, Model Expo Co,1985. Though intended for model makers, Ronnberg is a scholar and the book also has great information and great images.

Salaman, R. A. Dictionary of Woodworking Tools, Astragal Press, 2nd edition, 1997. An essential classic. Based mainly on England, but entirely relevant to the United States and includes many maritime or maritime related trades, from coopering to mast-making.

Women

There are now many, many books on women who went to sea with husband-whaling captains, too many to list here, but Druett’s is the only one-volume summary and Norling’s book – a great one – is the only book on women in the whaling ports

Druett, Joan. Petticoat Whalers: Whaling Wives at Sea, 1820-1920, UPNE, 2001. The best book on women who went to sea in the age of whaling.

Norling, Lisa. Captain Ahab Had a Wife: New England Women and the Whalefishery, 1720-1870, The University of North Carolina Press, 2000. A book on this topic is long, long overdue and, while intended for the academic community, this is a great book and it will be many, many years before there is a better one. The focus of the book is women in Nantucket and New Bedford in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Alaska

Bockstoce, John R. Whales, Ice, and Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. 1986.

California

Bockstoce, John R. Whales, Ice, and Men: The History of Whaling in the Western Arctic. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press. 1986.

Mayhew, Lloyd Custer. Salted Stories, The Story of the Whaling Fleets of San Francisco, Marine Historical Association, Inc, Mystic, CT, 1960.

"Whale Hunters on Western Shores", Mains'l Haul, A Journal of Pacific Maritime History, Vol. 37, No. 1, Winter 2001. The whole issue is dedicated to shore whaling on the California and north west coasts in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Connecticut

Colby, Barnard L. For Oil & Buggy Whips; Whaling Captains of New London County, Connecticut, Mystic Seaport Museum, 1990

Decker, Robert Owen. The Whaling City: A History of New London, Pequot Press, 1976.

Decker, Robert Owen. Whaling Industry of New London, Liberty Caps Books,1973.

Delware

Martin, Kenneth R. Delaware Goes Whaling, Hagley Museum, 1974.Maine: Martin, Kenneth R. Whalemen and Whaleships of Maine, Marine Research Society of Bath, Maine, 1975.

Massachusetts

Cape Cod:

Much of Cape Cod’s whaling history remains buried in the local histories of the towns and of Barnstable County published in the late 19h and early 20th. Following are exceptions:

Braginton-Smith, John, and Duncan Oliver. Cape Cod Shore Whaling: America's First Whalemen, The History Press, 2008. The first book specifically on Cape Cod whaling and the only book specifically dedicated to the first period of American whaling – whaling from the shore.

Ruckstuhl, Irma M.. Old Provincetown in Early Photographs, Dover Publications, 1987

Smith, M, Woods Hole Reflections. Woods Hole Historical College, 1983. Includes an excellent chapter on whaling out of Woods Hole by Jim Hain, Woods Hole scientist and right whale authority.

Fairhaven:

A Picture History of Fairhaven, Spinner Publications, 1986.

Nantucket. There are many, many books on Nantucket – here are a few we used:

Byers, Edward. The Nation of Nantucket: Society and Politics in an Early American Commercial Center, 1660-1820, Northeastern University Press,1987.

Farnham, Joseph E. C. Brief Historical Data and Memories of My Boyhood Days in Nantucket, Snow and Farnham, 1923.

Lancaster, Clay. The Architecture of Historic Nantucket, McGraw-Hill Book Co, 1972.

Lancaster, Clay. Nantucket in the Nineteenth Century, Dover Publications, Inc, 1979.

Nathaniel Philbrick. Away Off Shore: Nantucket Island and Its People, Mill Hill Press, Nantucket, MA, 1993.
Historic Nantucket, Nantucket Historical Society, Nantucket, MA

Macy, Obed. The History of Nantucket, Being a Compendious Account of the First Settlement of the Island, 1880. Reprints available.

Starbuck, Alexander. History of Nantucket County Island and Town, 1924. Reprints available.
Vital Records of Nantucket, Massachusetts to the Year 1850, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1932

New Bedford:

Ellis, Leonard Bolles. History of New Bedford and its Vicinity, 1602-1892.

Boss, Judith A, and Joseph D. Thomas. New Bedford: A Pictorial History, by Spinner Publications, Inc,1983.

Burt, Tamia, Joseph D. Thomas, and Marsha L. McCabe. Moby-Dick: A Picture Voyage: An Abridged and Illustrated Edition of the Original Classic by Herman Melville, Spinner Publications, 2002.

McCabe, Marsha, and Joseph D. Thomas Not Just Anywhere: The Story of W.H.A.L.E. and New Bedford's Waterfront Historic District, Spinner Publications (October 1995

Pease, Zephaniah W. ed, Life in New Bedford a Hundred Years Ago, Old Dartmouth Hist. Soc/Geo H Reynolds, New Bedford, MA, 1922

Pease, Zephaniah W, New Bedford, Massachusetts: Its history, industries, institutions, and attractions,1889.

Ricketson, Daniel. History of New Bedford, Bristol County, Massachusetts, 1858.

Sammarco, Anthony, and Paul Buchanan. New Bedford (Images of America series), Arcadia Publishing, 2003.
Vital Records of New Bedford Massachusetts to the Year 1850. 3 Volumes, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1932.

Whitman, Nicholas, A. Window Back: Photography in a Whaling Port, Spinner Publications, 1997. A beautiful photographic portrait of New Bedford from historic sources, including much on the waterfront and whaling.

Salem:

National Park Service. Salem, Maritime Salem in the Age of Sail, National Park Service Publications, 1987. This is the guide to Salem’s National Park – nothing on whaling but great information and illustrations of maritime life in the period.

Robotti, Frances Diane. and Henry Beetle Hough, Whaling And Old Salem: A Chronicle Of The Sea, Newcomb & Gauss,1950. Old but the only book on whaling out of Salem. Reprints readily available.

New Hampshire

Martin, Kenneth R. "Heavy Weather and Hard Luck": Portsmouth Goes Whaling, The Portsmouth Marine Society, Portsmouth, NH, 1998.

New Jersey

Lipton, Barbara. Whaling Days in New Jersey, The Newark Museum Quarterly, Spring/Summer, 1975.

New York

Amagansett:

Edwards, Everett Joshua. "Whale off!": The story of American Shore Whaling, 1932. Edwards was one of the last, perhaps the last, of the shore whalers. This is his account of the history of Long Island shore whaling and his own experiences of shore whaling after the Civil War.

Cold Spring Harbor:

Schmitt, Frederick P. Mark Well the Whale! Long Island Ships to Distant Seas, Associated Faculty Press, Inc, 1971.

East Hampton:

Breen, T. H. Imagining the Past, East Hampton Histories, University of Georgia Press, Athens, 1996. Focuses on Long Island in the 17th and 18th centuries – one of the few books to look at shore whaling, America’s first phase of whaling.

Hudson:

Schram, Margaret B. Hudson's Merchants and Whalers: The Rise and Fall of a River Port, 1783-1850, Black Dome Press, 2004. The only book on Hudson’s whaling with information not previously published.

Sag Harbor:

Finckenor, George A. Sag Harbor History, 1980. Pamphlet available at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum.

Finckenor, George A. Tales of Sag Harbor, 1975. Pamphlet available at the Sag Harbor Whaling Museum.

Finckenor, George A. Whales and Whaling, Port of Sag Harbor, New York, George A. Finckenor, 1975. This is a compendium of all known whaling voyages from Sag Harbor.

Sleight, Harry D. Sag Harbor in Earlier Days: A series of historical sketches.., Hampton Press, 1930

Washington

Webb, Robert Lloyd. On the Northwest: Commercial Whaling in the Pacific Northwest 1790- 1967. Vancouver, B.C.: University of British Columbia Press, 1988.