HISTORIC DAY IN NEW BEDFORD

New Bedford was founded by English Quakers in the late 17th century, and the town was officially incorporated in 1787. The city was once the capital of the 19th century whaling industry, earning it the nickname "City that Lit the World".   Our day starts with a guided tour of the Rotch-Jones-Duff House and Historic Rose Gardens. Built by shipwrights in 1834 for whaling merchant William Rotch Jr., the home epitomizes the “brave houses and flowery gardens” described by Herman Melville in Moby-Dick.  After our luncheon at a private club founded in 1866 for the affluent members of New Bedford's community, and always visited by President Kennedy, we will enjoy a Park Ranger presentation at the NBVC with a film and stories from whaling, the textile industry, the working waterfront and the Underground Railroad. These stories are filled with people who are as fascinating as Melville’s fictional Captain Ahab who battled Moby Dick; and include Frederick Douglass who found his freedom and his voice in New Bedford, the activist Paul Cuffee, the great American artists Albert Bierstadt, William Bradford, all the immigrants who labored in the textile mills and waterfront to build a life for their families. New Bedford is definitely the destination for history and culture.