About the Archive

The Melville Society Archive, housed in the Research Library of the New Bedford Whaling Museum, was dedicated in 2002. Maintained by the Melville Society Cultural Project, it is a growing collection of rare editions, scholarly books and papers, and artworks. The Archive consists of five major book collections, as well as several smaller ones, papers of The Melville Society, collections of the papers of Jay Leyda, Walter Bezanson, and Joyce Sparer Adler, and an ever-growing art collection, augmented each year by a piece of contemporary Melville art created by a living artist.

To use the materials in the Melville Society Archive, please contact the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library, by email at researchroom@whalingmuseum.org or by telephone at (508) 997-0046 x180, to arrange a time for your visit. You can also contact Mary K. Bercaw Edwards of the Melville Society Cultural Project at mary.bercaw_edwards@uconn.edu.

Donations of duplicate books are put into the Book Donation Program, which sends Melville texts, biography, and criticism to libraries, universities, and institutions abroad. The Book Donation program was instituted after the first international meeting of the Melville Society in Volos, Greece, in 1997, and has since sent collections to Russia, India (two institutions), China (two institutions), Palestine, Ukraine, Algeria, Iran, Argentina, Iraq, and Uruguay.