Museum Opens "A Taste for the Exotic" Showcasing Collections Brought Back from Around the World

The Museum is bringing visitors on a trip back in time to far regions of the world with its newest exhibition. A Taste for the Exotic: Mementos from Around the Globe, opening May 24^th, explores the different geographic regions visited by Vineyard mariners in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The objects they brought home serve as documents of encounter, but also documents of cultures irrevocably changed by sailing and whaling.  

Maritime industries of the 19th and early 20th centuries took Vineyarders to distant reaches of the planet. Chasing whales and shipping goods, they traveled the world’s oceans from the Atlantic to the South Pacific and the frigid Arctic, stopping at nearly every island along the way. Often sailors and whalers would bring home souvenirs from the far-flung ports they visited. “We have such a rich history of Vineyard mariners traveling the world and an incredible ethnographic collection to support it” says Assistant Curator Anna Carringer. “These objects, and the stories they tell, are fascinating and we’re very excited to share them.”

A Taste for the Exotic will focus on three regions of the world where Vineyarders ventured: East Asia, the Pacific Islands, and the Far North. Objects brought back from the Pacific Islands often were chosen because they were different from anything Islanders had ever seen before. From China and Japan, sailors and whalers carried home mementos that reflected and influenced popular tastes in the decorative arts. Objects such as mittens and snow goggles brought back from the Far North served useful purposes in addition to being souvenirs.

Oral histories in the exhibit attest to the power of these objects to evoke memories. A painting of the steam whaler Belvedere is featured in the exhibit. Edgartown native Ellsworth West was in the crew of the ship when it overwintered at Herschel Island, Alaska in 1895. West’s daughter Doris West Nevin remembers his stories in oral histories gathered by Oral History Curator Linsey Lee.

The exhibit will extend into the 18^th Century Cooke House parlor when it opens for the season at the Museum’s Summer Opening Party on Friday, June 14^th. It will also be the theme of this year’s Evening of Discovery taking place on Saturday, June 29^th. The exhibit will open on Friday, May 24^th with a reception in the Museum Galleries from 5 to 7pm. Admission is free to members, and $7 for non-members. The exhibit will be open through April 2014.