The Last Voyage of the Whaling Bark Progress

<p> The whaling bark <I>Progress</I> was a New Bedford ship transformed into a whaling museum for Chicago's 1893 world's fair. Traversing waterways across North America the whaleship enthralled crowds from Montreal to Racine. Her ultimate fate however was to be a failed sideshow of marine curiosities and a metaphor for a dying industry out of step with Gilded Age America. This book uses the story of the <I>Progress</I> to detail the rise fall and eventual demise of the whaling industry in America. The legacy of this whaling bark can be found throughout New England and Chicago and invites questions about what it means to transform a dying industry into a museum piece.</p>