Sharing Collections

A very real benefit to the ECHO members lies in the opportunity the partnership provides to share collections. This is especially important because three of the museums -- the New Bedford Whaling Museum, Bishop Museum, and the Peabody Essex Museum -- house massive collections from both Alaska and Hawai'i. They are therefore in the happy position of being able to allow those whose ancestors produced the objects to see and experience their own cultural patrimonies. At the same time, the museums learn more about the objects as a result of the consultations and comments that arise out of the sharing. 

The receiving institutions are equally fortunate. The Alaska Native Heritage Center, for instance, has a small and very focused collection of objects that are primarily contemporary. It has been able to borrow older historic pieces that would otherwise have been unavailable.

Similarly, the Inupiat Heritage Center in Barrow, Alaska, has a relatively small collection related to whaling and other life ways of the Inupiaq people; but its partnership with the New Bedford Whaling Museum has enriched its exhibits with the experiences of not just the indigenous and shore-based whalers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, but also those of the whaling ships that brought so much change to the region.