Saving Seafood

MASSACHUSETTS: New Bedford’s fishing faces take their place in Library of Congress

July 3, 2019 — The American Folklife Center (AFC) is excited to be featuring “Working on the Waterfront,” a documentary display of photographs created by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center in New Bedford.

The display, which is located in Room LJ-G53 on the ground floor of the Library of Congress’s Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C., is open to the public through October.

In 2016, the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center received a prestigious Archie Green Fellowship from the American Folklife Center to document workers on the New Bedford waterfront for AFC’s Occupational Folklife Project (OFP).

The OFP is an ongoing research initiative to record the lives, careers, and experiences of contemporary workers in a wide range of trades and occupations throughout the United States.

Under the direction of NBFHC Executive Director Laura Orleans, funds from the competitive fellowship were used to hire researchers to record oral histories and photograph almost 60 workers involved in diverse fishing-related trades and occupations on the New Bedford waterfront.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Story of shoreside New Bedford business finally told locally and in Library of Congress

November 7, 2018 — No place on earth understands the fishing industry like New Bedford. So it’s no surprise the Library of Congress is using the voice of the city to share the history of fishing and its importance in the United States.

The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center used a fellowship from the Library of Congress to relay specifically the stories of shoreside businesses through the voices and images of those in the industry.

The final product sits on display in the museum. It first opened on Oct. 11. Faces of the fishing industry hang on the walls. An iPad provides a genuine interactive experience where visitors can hear the voices of those whose pictures fill the exhibit. Users can select which individual they want to hear.

The exhibit ends Feb. 4 but will live forever in the Library of Congress as part of its permanent collection.

“They were really excited,” New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center Executive Director Laura Orleans said. “They were really pleased with what we sent to them. I think they’re very excited we already have an exhibit up.”

The exhibit on display consists of 58 interviews conducted over a year and completed last July. Phil Melo, a manager a Bergie’s Seafood, snapped photos for the portraits for the exhibit while also participating as one of the interviewees.

“It’s just not the fishermen. I know people drive through the city. They just see the boats and that’s all they think about,” Melo said. “They don’t realize how many tractor trailers come through the city with fuel for the fishing industry. The groceries that are delivered to the boats, the bookkeeping that’s done. The welding shops. There’s a ton.”

The exhibit features occupations across the waterfront from processors to electric engineers to welders to benefit providers.

In capturing the faces of the interviewees, Melo also tried to capture a portrait that provided a look not only at the industry but the personalities behind it.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Fishing Heritage Center receives Library of Congress fellowship to document shore-side workers

July 15, 2016 — The following was released by the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center:

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center is pleased to announce its receipt of a prestigious Archie Green Fellowship from the Library of Congress to support a year-long effort to document shore-side workers in New Bedford/Fairhaven.

Archie Green (1917-2009) was a pioneering folklorist who championed the establishment of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, and who was awarded the Library’s Living Legend Award and honored in the Congressional Record [pdf].  Green documented and analyzed the culture and traditions of American workers and encouraged others to do the same. Archie Green Fellowships are designed to stimulate innovative research projects documenting occupational culture in contemporary America.  This year, Archie Green Fellowships went to four teams of researchers in four different regions of the country.

The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center received support for “Workers on the New Bedford Waterfront.” Folklorist and Director Laura Orleans, working with anthropologists, Madeleine Hall-Arber and Corinn Williams, oral historian, Fred Calabretta and photographer, Phil Mello will conduct a large ethnographic field project interviewing approximately 60 shore-side workers involved in the local commercial fishing industry. The project will focus on recording oral histories about rarely documented occupational skills, knowledge, and trades including: marine electronics and engine repair; fish processing, packing, and trucking; the design and manufacture of fishing gear; work in ice plants and on fuel barges; offloading of fish and scallops; the seafood auction, settlement houses; and shipyard work.

The New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center is dedicated to telling the story of the fishing industry past, present and future through exhibits, programs, and archives. For more information, contact the Center at 508-993-8894 or info@fishingheritagecenter.org