I visited the New Bedford Free Public Library in Massachusetts earlier this year. It was January 6, 2024, to be exact—the day of the annual Moby-Dick marathon at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. I hadn’t planned on visiting this library, but after a few hours of sitting and reading Moby-Dick with a couple of hundred others, I wanted to stretch my legs and get some fresh air before getting back into the car for the 2 to 3-hour drive home to Connecticut.

Historic New Bedford is one of my favorite places in New England. It’s a fantastic neighborhood to take a stroll. I walked along the waterfront, just behind the New Bedford Whaling Museum, before heading inland. It was a lovely surprise to run into the library, a little over 1/2 mile from the waterfront.

The photo above was my first glimpse of the library. I stopped in my tracks to take a photo.

Facade detail.

The Library Entrance.

Through this door is a small foyer within which hangs this historic sign:

Beyond the foyer is the circulation desk, where I asked the librarian if it was okay to take photos as long as patrons weren’t in them. She responded with a happy ‘yes’. It was a late Saturday afternoon, and the first-floor rooms were busy with people reading and researching.

This is the view as you turn left from the circulation desk. Note the paintings. There are so many throughout the building. You could spend a day here focused just on them.

Along the first-floor hallway are four grand rooms, two on each side.

This is the opposite end of the hallway from circulation. Note the yellow marble staircase.

Commemorative plaque and books for sale. Over my left shoulder, up a few stairs, is a large nook with more books for sale.

This historic plaque commemorates Slyvia Ann Howland’s gift to the city. Sylvia was the daughter of Hetty Green. Hetty was born into a wealthy New Bedford whaling family and built upon that wealth. During the Gilded Age, she was known as “the richest woman in America” and the “Queen of Wall Street.”

The book sale nook. I took this photo a few steps up the yellow marble staircase, a twin to the one shown several photos ago.

Looking up through the stairwell.

Looking down the stairwell from the top floor. The glow of the blue lighting pairs nicely with the yellow marble.

The source of the blue light.

Approaching the second floor. There’s so much to look at from this angle — the tile floor, the lamp base, the chandelier, the gigantic wooden door frame, and more yellow marble.

The second-floor hallway offers this stunning columned view. The rows of public computers, often a focal point in a library, look puny in comparison.

The doorways match those on the first floor. I wonder if this bold carpet is a historic pattern.

A focus on the beautiful doors.

Close-ups of a push plate. The outer ring of the seal reads, “Nova Bedfordia Condita, AD. 1787, Civitatis Regimen Donata 1847.” The writing inside the ring is New Bedford’s motto, “Lucem Diffundo.” It means, “I diffuse light.”

Looking back toward the hallway, through it, and into another room. Note the fireplace to the left.

Another view of the fireplace.

Back in the hallway, I believe that’s the reference desk to the left. I was so stunned by the beauty of the place that I did not pay much attention to the library’s working layout.

Looking up. There are two more levels to explore.

Dr. Martin Luther King display with an “I Have a Dream” 50th Anniversary Commemoration Doll.

Old soldiers, ready for action!

Heading to the third floor via a more modern stairwell.

Looking down onto the second floor.

In the stacks.

Midcentury vibes frame a view from further back in time.

On the fourth floor. More art and the History Room. This was the moment when I realized I must return for a more leisurely visit.

This solid marble circular railing is part of a system that allows natural light from the skylights above to stream light to the floor below.

Art in the Library

There’s just so much to see here! The New Bedford Free Library has so much beautiful art and history on display. According to their website, it has “the third largest collection worldwide of American Whaling materials, early 19th-century Quaker materials, museum-quality art, and an extensive genealogy collection.” Below are a few highlights.

There is art to explore on the library grounds as well.

I’m pretty sure this is the east side of the library, what looks to be the grand original entrance. This sculpture of a harpooner in action is quite striking—no pun intended. It is by Bela Lyon Pratt (1867–1917). The writing on the granite below the seagulls is from Chapter 36 in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick: “A dead whale or a stove boat.”

Just across from the harpooner is a sculpture honoring Lewis Temple (1800-1854), a Black man who was a blacksmith, abolitionist, and inventor of the iron toggle harpoon tip, often called Temple’s Toggle.

The reddish/brown building at the back of the above photo is the former home of the Library. It occupied the upper floors there from 1857 to 1910. The building the library now calls home was built in the 1830s as City Hall. After a fire gutted the inside of the building in 1906, librarian George H. Tripp floated the idea of City Hall and the Library swapping buildings.

The article below is from the Fall River Daily Evening News, December 18, 1906, page 5. The fire occurred just seven days prior. Mr. Tripp wasted no time devising his plan. I wonder who this library expert was.

According to the New Bedford Preservation Society, the building was designed by Russell Warren (1789-1860) in the Greek Revival style circa 1838. Nathaniel Smith (1866-1943) designed the renovations after the 1906 fire. He added the marble staircases, tile floors, and rotunda.

Knowing this makes so much sense. As beautiful as the interior of the building is, some design elements seem out of harmony, such as the size of the wooden surround of the fireplace and even the grand door frames.

I’ll end this post with an un-dated but obviously pre-1906 photo postcard that shows both City Hall (now the Library) on the left and the Library (now City Hall) on the right.

The New Bedford Free Public Library is a treasure. If you’re in the area or just passing through, it is definitely worth a visit.

Main Library
613 Pleasant Street
New Bedford, MA 02740
Website

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Check out more library visit posts here.

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