New Bedford Free Public Library

Art
books
and
whales
The New Bedford library is a massive edifice but not particularly beautiful or aesthetical pleasing. Huge blocks of granite piled together and some powerful looking pillars in the front.
However since this is New Bedford, the land of Moby Dick, several very interesting statues about whaling grace the front of the library. Actually rather stern and brutal looking but then I guess whaling was never a pleasant vocation.
The inside of the library is stunning. Lovely and graceful staircases and wonderful lights and windows. This is definitely one of those libraries that is more art museum that a place for books.
But along with the art and antiques this library does have books. A whole lot of books. All the usual best sellers and useful modern books but also an amazing collection of very, very old books.
A very cool library that is definitely that is a lot more than just a place to go for a book. A beautiful place that is fascinating to prowl around even if you don’t want to read.

I love this old building as I’m a fan of old architecture (sp?). It is certainly a New Bedford icon with the whaleman’s statue out front.

A beautiful old building on the outskirts of the Whaling Historical Park. It boasts the Whaleman statue on one corner and the Lewis Temple statue on the other, so a good spot for photo ops in NB. As far as collections go, most of the books here are really old, older than I’ve seen in most libraries in Massachusetts, and a lot of them with faded covers and in need of repair. The stacks are decently organized, with a microfiche room to the right of the entrance, which I haven’t seen in a lot of modern libraries in a while.
Where this library really excels is their whaling and historical collections. I only can get away to come here on the weekends, when their NB Historical room is closed, but the website lists some excellent old map and geneology resources for NB and the Dartmouth/​Acushnet area. They’ve also got a magnificent collection of general books on whaling available in the regular non-​fiction section for checkout, a lot of stuff which is considerably out of print and which you can’t even find on
.
If you go to the fourth floor, you can walk through a mini-​gallery of whaling and South Mass related art, all of which is worth the time!