Object number1979.86
Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum
DescriptionKennedy Collection (cntd.)Overview: The Kennedy Collection of the New Bedford Whaling Museum consists of approximately 150 photographs compiled, and primarily taken, by Charles D. Kennedy in 1886 while serving aboard the U.S. Revenue Cutter Bear in the Arctic. Photograph subjects include the Bear and her crew, Alaskan landscapes, Eskimos and Eskimo settlements, and vessels encountered by the Bear.
Context: Little biographical information is available for Charles D. Kennedy. Kennedy joined the United States Revenue Cutter Service as a cadet in 1880. He was made a third lieutenant in July of 1882 and a second lieutenant in February of 1888. Kennedy resigned from the Revenue Cutter Service in May of 1888. The photographs in the Kennedy Collection were taken in 1886, when Kennedy was stationed aboard the Bear, a cutter based in San Francisco that cruised off Alaska in the Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean. In addition to the Bear, Kennedy served aboard the bark Chase based in New Bedford, the steamer Dexter based in Newport, the steamer Rush based in Alaska, and the steamer Wolcott based in Port Townsend, Washington.
There are four images in the Kennedy Collection that were not taken by Lieutenant Kennedy: a photograph of Gideon Nye Bartlett in Arctic costume, a photograph of the whaling bark Thomas Pope, a photograph of the whaling steamer Belvidere, and a photograph by C.J.K of the bark Legal Tender. All of these photographs were taken in 1878, long before Kennedy's first trip to the Arctic. It is not known when Kennedy acquired these photographs.
On View
Not on view1725-1960
Alexander (Steam Bark)
Dexter (Cutter)
1929/07/27
