Guided Walking Tours

Lighting the Way offers two different tours in July!

New Bedford Women of Action

Thursdays 2:30 – 3:20pm | Free

July 8 & 22, 2021
Aug 5 & 19, 2021
Sept 2, 16 & 30, 2021

Join New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park Rangers and Whaling Museum docents to explore New Bedford history through the stories of four women of action. Meet fishing industry advocate Harriet Didriksen, Civil War nurse Martha Bush Gray, philanthropist Sarah Rotch Arnold, and international translator Lydia Grinnell Brown. Discover a side of history that you might not have known before.

This one hour tour begins and ends at New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Women Making A Difference on Spring & Seventh Streets

Thursday, July 29 10:00 AM | Free

Hear stories about the lives of historic women who lived and worked on Spring and Seventh Streets in New Bedford. This one-hour tour with experts from the “Lighting the Way Historic Women of the SouthCoast” project focuses on women such as champion of historic preservation Sarah Ashley Delano, community leaders such as Archangela Fortes and peacemaker Rachel Howland, educator and labor leader Margaret Ryckebusch, abolitionists Polly Johnson and Amelia Piper, entrepreneur Phebe Mendall, and brilliant business woman and financier Hetty Green.

Meet at New Bedford Whaling Museum; the tour ends at 43 Seventh Street—the birthplace of Hetty Green.

For the most up-to-date listing of Lighting the Way tour dates and times, please visit the Whaling Museum’s online calendar.