The Ribs and Terrors at the Chapel
; or, Competing Visions for New Bedford's Tribute to Melville
At the risk of making it seem as if this blog is obsessed with statues, I bring you another quick summer break post which treads on familiar ground: the ways in which we honor Herman Melville in clay, in stone, in metal alloys.
But this time there’s no mystery, no lengthy investigation, no diving into the waters of an unfamiliar discipline. Just some light gathering of information for posterity and an email to a poor devil of a public records officer for a peep into New Bedford’s forthcoming Melville monument.
The Contest
On January 1, 2024, just a few days before the 27th Annual Moby-Dick Marathon, the City of New Bedford announced some big news: “City Launches Process to Build Melville Statue.” That process began with an open call for artists to design a “long overdue” memorial to the man who has done much to keep the city on the map.
“New Bedford is the setting for what is arguably the preeminent work of American literature. The novel has had a profound influence on artists the world over and on American culture itself. As it was until recently with Frederick Douglass, honoring Melville with a statue in New Bedford is long overdue,” Mayor Mitchell said.
“Melville’s spirit still echoes throughout all of New Bedford,” said Amanda McMullen, president and CEO of The New Bedford Whaling Museum, which is hosting the annual Moby-Dick Marathon this weekend. “We applaud the City of New Bedford’s vision for a Herman Melville statue. It is a natural choice for our Whaling City and will be a wonderful addition to the bounty of terrific public art. New Bedford’s rich maritime history and connection to Herman Melville’s literary masterpiece make it the perfect home for this iconic tribute.”
Artists were asked to submit a statement of interest, resume, work samples, and an estimated budget, to be evaluated by an advisory committee “comprised of representatives from the arts and culture scene, as well as local historians.”
As the mayor mentioned, the proposed statue followed a similar process which resulted in a statue of Frederick Douglass unveiled in June 2023 in the city’s Abolition Row Park. Created by sculptor Richard Blake, the memorial shows a young Douglass sitting on a coil of rope after having escaped slavery in Maryland in September 1838 and finding refuge in New Bedford.
As an aside, it’s intrigued both Melville and Douglass scholars for many years that the two may well have encountered one another on the docks or along the town’s cobblestone streets. Melville spent nine days there in late December 1840 through early January before sailing on the Acushnet; Douglass at the time held various jobs around the wharves including loading and unloading whaling vessels and transporting oil casks. It’s entirely possible they interacted somehow, though historians on both sides readily admit it’s pure conjecture.
In any case, the 11-member selection committee comprised a wide array of New Bedford leaders and public officials including representatives from the mayor’s office, tourism board, whaling museum, historical commission, and planning commission among others — though just one Melville scholar, Robert K. Wallace. Granted, you couldn’t do much better than Wallace for an expert representative on Melville and the arts, and arguably just about everyone from New Bedford becomes a Melville scholar by osmosis, but still this was a curious choice.
By the end of the summer, the committee had received 41 applications from sculptors from around the country, to be whittled down to four finalists. Meanwhile, the city shared that the location for the statue had been finalized — set in stone, if you will. Naturally, it would be installed outside the Seamen’s Bethel where Melville attended services in December 1840, using the experience as the basis for Father Mapple’s sermon in Moby-Dick.
The Winner
Two months later the four finalists were revealed to be Meredith Bergmann, Jay Hall Carpenter, Susan Luery, and Stefanie Rocknak, all highly-accomplished artists whose previous work can be seen in parks, public spaces, and galleries around the world. Each artist was then given a stipend of $2,500 to put together formal proposals in the coming weeks.
With impressive efficiency, the city was ready to announce the winner by the following Moby-Dick Marathon in January 2025. The commission was given to Stefanie Rocknak, whose proposal was inspired by Father Mapple’s sermon on Jonah and recalls the hymn recited by the congregation, “The Ribs and Terrors in the Whale.” The proposal, which was released in full by the city with the announcement, describes her overall vision for the statue:
Father Mapple preaches that Jonah, fleeing from God’s command, tried to escape to the farthest reaches of the world: “With this sin of disobedience in him, Jonah still further flouts at God, by seeking to flee from him.” But after being swallowed by the whale and repenting, Jonah commits himself “to preach the truth to the face of falsehood!” (Moby Dick, chapter 9)
The sculpture I propose—Melville and Jonah’s Journey—captures this pivotal moment in Moby Dick. It represents the time when Melville, sitting in the Seamen’s Bethel, infused the character of Ishmael and Father Mapple’s sermon with his own reflections. Melville, like Jonah, embarks on a transformative journey—sailing to the far ends of the earth on a whaling ship and emerging as a man compelled to “preach the truth to the face of falsehood”—a journey that led him to write Moby Dick.
The hymn will be engraved on a base of gray granite, surrounding a 7-foot-tall bronze Melville. The bronze will feature a light grayish blue-green patina, evoking the ocean. The sea swirls around his feet, and from the water emerge three towering whale ribs, representing Melville’s own journey into and out of the whale (the number three symbolizing the three fictional days it took to hunt the white leviathan). Yet, Melville rises above them, his mouth open, as though beginning to speak—to tell the story of Moby Dick, his truth.
He will be calm and composed, standing at peace within a temple of ribs. His right hand will rest gently on the middle rib in a gesture of reverence. This temple echoes Chapter 104 of Moby Dick, where Ishmael recounts the tale of John Leo: “They keep a whale’s rib of an incredible length for a miracle, which lying upon the ground with its convex part uppermost, makes an arch, the head of which cannot be reached by a man upon a camel’s back. This rib (says John Leo) is said to have layn there a hundred years before I saw it. Their historians affirm, that a prophet who prophesy’d of Mahomet, came from this temple, and some do not stand to assert, that the Prophet Jonas was cast forth by the whale at the base of the temple.”
A mockup of the final sculpture, using a 16” clay model superimposed onto a photo from beside the chapel, shows Melville approximately how he looked in 1861 amid a swirl of waves and three enormous whale ribs.
The base of the statue will also incorporate the words of the hymn in five stanzas.
The statue will be installed sometime in 2026, funded by a mix of private and public funds, including a generous contribution from the New Bedford Port Society (operators of the Seamen’s Bethel) of 20 percent of the final cost. That said, the Port Society would be glad to receive donations from anyone who would like to chip in.
The Also-Rans
But why am I writing about this? All of this information comes from readily available press releases by the City of New Bedford, including a public Google Drive with Rocknak’s final proposal and high-resolution images of her design.
Rocknak is certainly an accomplished artist and deserving winner. If you’ll allow me to simply rewrite the press release, she recently completed a life-sized statue of Edgar Allan Poe in Boston and her work has been shown at the Smithsonian and other museums around the world. Her statue will be a wonderful addition to the grounds of the chapel and a reason to revisit New Bedford once it’s installed next year.
And yet… don’t you kind of want to see the proposals from the other three finalists? Just for its own sake? Presumably to not distract from the announcement of the winner, the design proposals from the three also-rans were never released to the public. But now that we’re eight months removed from Rocknak’s selection and the artist well on her way in its creation, I thought it would be interesting to look at some alternative timelines for what could have been.
What could be easier than sending a public records request to the City of New Bedford? This was, after all, a city-sponsored project and should be responsive to inquiries from nosy bloggers. Two weeks later I had them all in my inbox, so let’s take a look at some metal Melvilles.
Jay Hall Carpenter
The first runner-up proposal we’ll look at is from Jay Hall Carpenter, whose previous work includes the Virginia Patriots in Leesburg, Virginia; the Jim Henson Memorial at the University of Maryland; and the Frederick Douglass Memorial in Easton, Maryland. He was also the former sculptor for the Washington National Cathedral for 20 years, contributing a number of pretty awesome gargoyles.
Perhaps with such credentials Carpenter decided to go with a leaner overall proposal, including just a few photos of a clay model and a concise artist’s statement in what I guess is in the form of a poem?
Raised in privilege then tragedy, seeking purpose,
Proud to don the garb of the common, green hand sailor
And excited to help load supplies aboard a new ship, the Acushnet,
The lean 22 year old stands and pauses a moment,
Gazing out across the harbor and envisioning
The adventure of a lifetime.
The next 45 months would inspire and inform
His writing for the rest of his life.
Here in New Bedford, 1841,
The lanky lad who would become Herman Melville begins.
More concretely, Carpenter ends with a paragraph explaining that the monument is “designed to celebrate the life of Herman Melville and to enhance and harmonize with the Seamen’s Bethel” with “allusions to the 1840s… found throughout the design.” Maybe these were meant to be added in a final design, but I don’t really see them in the proposal, which only states that he would deliver a seven-foot bronze statue of Melville holding a harpoon and a book with a “bronze cartouche bearing the likeness of Herman Melville as we know him in his later years at the height of his success.”
Though I’m thankful for learning the word cartouche, and with much respect and awe for his other projects, the proposal is a little lackluster especially compared to the depth offered by the others about their vision, intent, and research.
I also have to imagine that Carpenter lost points in a few areas. For one, Melville as depicted on his voyage aboard the Acushnet probably has no business leaning against a harpoon — even if it is more dramatic than the implement he would actually have had in his hands during a hunt, a measly oar. One also gets the sense that he didn’t spend much time studying the only image we have of Melville from his youth, a hunch supported by how closely the likeness on the cartouche matches the 1871 Joseph Oriel Eaton painting. To put it more bluntly, this really doesn’t look much at all like Herman Melville even if it does capture the realistic look of a young whaler in period clothing.
Susan Luery
Next we have a proposal from Susan Luery, whose sculptures have honored athletes like Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken Jr. and historical figures from George Washington to Sen. David Levy Yulee, the first person of Jewish descent elected to Congress.
Luery portrays Melville as a young man prowling New Bedford’s cobblestone streets, explicitly referencing the chinstrap beard in Twitchell’s painting. The figure also carries a carpetbag and a map of the city, which she writes in her creative statement she hopes will draw in visitors to take a closer look.
Herman Melville, portrayed as a young man, is heading to the New Bedford waterfront to begin his voyages as a seaman. Because many of Melville’s greatest works were inspired by his journeys at sea, this statue honors that significant time in his life when he began his great adventure and was inspired to write his classics. Further, this statue establishes his connection with New Bedford. Walking upon the cobblestone “street”, Melville carries with him a seabag slightly open, revealing such items that would serve him on his voyage. He also carries a map of the New Bedford waterfront.
On the front of the pedestal would be the title of the statue “Herman Melville, The Young Author Goes to Sea”. Etched into the sides of the stone pedestal would be some of the titles of his greatest works. […]
When viewing the statue, I hope that visitors would seek out the interesting artefacts Melville carries with him and hopefully be as intrigued by this rich history as I have been.
Luery’s clay model, which is of course only a rough mockup, certainly looks more like a young Melville than Carpenter’s design and the faux cobblestone is also a nice touch. I do wonder, however, if the detail of the map wouldn’t be lost on most viewers — or whether Melville would have arrived with one at all. He certainly wouldn’t have had a hard time finding the docks; he arrived from Manhattan in 1840 by steamship.
Luery’s vision is squarely focused on the ‘Melville in New Bedford’ angle, long before he would have ever had an oar in his hand, spotted a whale from the mast-head, or written anything beyond some short stories published in a local newspaper. For this reason, one might also take issue with the title of the statue, “The Young Author Goes to Sea,” proposed to be etched into the pedestal. And while Melville in this moment might have been called directionless, or lost spiritually, maybe a map isn’t the right item to put in his hand.
In other words, while it’s a bit closer to his likeness, it’s a depiction of Melville not as a whaler nor as an author, and the statue omits any obvious signifiers of who its subject would become (e.g., whales, whaling, books) and I’m not convinced the public would know who they’re actually looking at in a quick glance.
Meredith Bergmann
The final runner-up design was submitted by Meredith Bergmann, whose previous work includes the FDR Hope Memorial on Roosevelt Island in New York City; the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument in Central Park showing Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton; and the Boston Women’s Memorial on Commonwealth Avenue honoring Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone, and Phillis Wheatley.
Like Carpenter and Luery, Bergmann depicts Melville as “the young man, the incipient writer, yearning for the sea and aware of its power to bring tragedy as well as adventure.” (In reality, his voyage was prompted as much by his being a jobless nuisance to his family as it was by adventure, but I digress…)
Instead of the more straight-forward and uncomplicated style of the others, however, Bergmann opted for an all-in approach, packing her six-foot-six statue to the gills with details upon details, allusions within allusions everywhere you look.
He is gazing out to sea and the wind stimulates his imagination.
Pages of what will become his masterpiece flutter behind him and become the sails of the Pequod.
The back of the base on which he stands is transformed by his author’s imagination into the finale of Moby Dick: the ship sinking while figures of the three harpooneers Queequeg, Daggoo, and Tashtego, cling to her topmasts. The corners of the base itself curl up into stylized waves that beat upon the ship.
Moby Dick shows his mighty tail and flukes as he plunges into the sea. […]
Melville stands leaning forward into the wind at the edge of a dock, looking towards the harbor with his quill pen in one hand, while the other hand attempts to keep his papers from blowing away from the top of the piling he’s using as a writing-desk.
Melville’s clothing, hair, and quill are ruffled and blown by the sea-wind into wave-like forms.
His pose is activated by his yearning— he twists slightly in a spiral motion that moves upwards to the slight turn of his head toward the water, into the wind. The spiral continues downward through the windblown papers that have already escaped his hand. They scatter behind him around the back of the statue, turning into the squaresails of the sinking Pequod.
Ishmael appears as a shipwrecked figure at Melville’s feet, clinging to a paper on which is written: Call me Ishmael.
Other papers bear quotations from Moby Dick. The quotations will be inscribed into the bronze sheets of paper in italics, as are the verses on many of the marble cenotaph plaques on the Seaman’s Bethel walls.
Here are a few angles and close-ups of the model to get a sense of the level of detail:
Bergmann’s proposal also included a sketch of Ishmael climbing onto a piece of paper at Melville’s feet reading “Call me Ishmael.”
Is it a little busy? Sure, but I appreciate that it approximates Melville’s “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to Moby-Dick, leaving no corner of the book unadorned with facts, poetry, citations, tangents, and more.
But is it unmistakably Melville from, say, twenty feet away? I’m still not sure. In an imaginary sculpture garden of great authors, a whale’s flukes are probably all you need to identify young Melville among his peers. But in New Bedford… put it this way: this won’t even be the only whaling statue on this street. A closer inspection of the pages and details will clearly reveal who you’re looking at, but that does put some expectations on passers-by.
Still, of the three runners-up, and maybe even including the winning design, it might be the one that would sell the most souvenir replicas to Melville fans.
Set in Stone
It’s just a guess, but I suspect the selection committee’s decision came down to Bergmann and Rocknak who offered two distinct but equally thoughtful and integrated designs, one focusing on the connection between Melville’s whaling voyages and Moby-Dick, the other on the book’s connection to the specific parcel of land where it’ll be installed and the invented hymn imagined to be sung there.
I admit it took me some getting used to, but I think if I were on the committee I would have made the same choice between the four options. Rocknak’s design is undoubtedly the most attention-grabbing even from a fair distance. The scope of the ribs jutting out is unusual and maybe even divisive, but it’s a composition that can’t be ignored. There’s even something more unconsciously tactile about the ribs, perhaps literally drawing people in toward it to touch it and take pictures.
What’s more, Rocknak’s statue more than the others stirs the imagination and maybe (one hopes) invites further investigation. While the others celebrate Melville and Moby-Dick, Rocknak’s design with the inscription of Father Mapple’s foreboding hymn should elicit questions from those unfamiliar with the book. Why is Melville is standing inside a giant set of ribs? What do the ribs have to do with this strange inscription? And what does any of it have to do with the Seamen’s Chapel beside it? Maybe it’s worth checking out this weird book after all? The whole approach evokes not just the ‘sense of adventure’ but also the terrifying dimension of leviathan and the dread felt by those who went to hunt him.
Just as importantly, the three ultimately losing ‘young Melville’ designs faced an inherent problem: if the average person recognizes him at all, it’s unquestionably as he looked long after his brief visit to New Bedford. The Melville as imagined by Carpenter, Luery, and Bergmann tends to look like just any young man without further inspection. To make matters worse — and excruciatingly pedantic — when he arrived in New Bedford Melville didn’t even have the chinstrap beard that would at least identify him to those in the know, having recently shaved clean and looking “more like a Christian than usual” per his older brother. In other words, I’m not sure anyone would recognize Melville as he looked in December 1840.
I’m not sure there are any rules for memorial sculptures, but making the subject recognizable as they appear in the public imagination seems like a good place to start. And a good piece of public art should not be easily ignored or fade into the background of dozens of other statues like it. Ultimately, Melville’s most notable connection to New Bedford came in 1851, not 1839, and while there’s much to commend about the other designs, it seems that only the Rocknak really appreciated that key difference.
This is like being in the room while the committee deliberated.