The Two New Bedfords: Spatial and Social Analysis of the City, 1800-1870

1850s: The Whaling Capital of the World

By the 1850s, New Bedford was the epicenter of the whaling industry. Surpassing Nantucket and other cities in size and tonnage of their fleets, New Bedford accounted for over half of the American whaling industry. Though a clear wealth disparity emerged between the upper and lower classes, the various shoreside industries and the city itself prospered from whaling's success. 

The once small town looked like an entirely different landscape. Up on the hill, wealthy whaling families and city leaders built lavish homes and opulent gardens for themselves. Below, powerful merchant capitalists established buildings to reflect the city's prosperity: banks, schools, and similar public buildings. And down on the waterfront, a host of shoreside industries supported the whaling industry: shipbuilding, outfitting, cordage manufacturing, and spermaceti candle manufacturing, to name a few. Filled with shops, warehouses, factories, and boardinghouses, dynamic New Bedford offered a wide range of economic opportunities. 


This map is part of the Harvard Map Collection.
 

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