Special Features
- Photo Gallery: Depictions of Whaling in America
- Audio: Whale Vocalizations
- Bonus Video: Author Interview: Nat Philbrick
- Interview: Tim Smith
- Map, static: Whaling Ports of the 1850s
- Audio: Whaling Shanty: Bonnie Ship the Diamond
The history of the American whaling industry from its 17th-century origins in drift and shore whaling off the coast of New England and Cape Cod, through the golden age of deep ocean whaling, and on to its demise in the decades following the American Civil War.
My American Experience
Share Your Story
What impact do you think the whaling industry had on America and its economy? How do you think it shaped us as a nation? What do you believe is currently the industry that epitomizes the identity of America?
Series Blog
Cannibalism Ranks High on "Manliest Ways to Die" List
We stumbled upon the blog of one of our Facebook friends, Mac Engel, who yesterday posted an article called "Top 5 Manliest Ways to Go Out..." The blog post was inspired by the recent news of a man being mauled by a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park. The staff here was amused to find that three of the five "manliest ways to die" were the subjects of AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentaries.
Lost in the Grand Canyon
John Wesley Powell's epic journey into the unknown Grand Canyon was filled with adventure as his team mapped the Colorado River for the first time.
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Wild By Law
Robert Marshall, Aldo Leopold and Howard Zahniser dedicated their lives to protect the shrinking American wilderness.
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The Civilian Conservation Corps
The New Deal program CCC put three million young men to work in camps across America.
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Views of a Vanishing Frontier
The journey of Prince Maximilian, German naturalist, and artist Karl Bodmer, who explored the Mississippi River area from 1832-1834.
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Alone on the Ice
In 1934, American polar explorer Richard Byrd became the first to experience winter in Antarctica's interior.
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Ansel Adams
The life of the legendary photographer, known best for his black and white images of the wilderness of the American West.
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The Greely Expedition
A daunting story of shipwreck, starvation, mutiny and cannibalism amongst a group left abandoned in the high Arctic.
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The Johnstown Flood
When an earthen dam broke without warning, a small city in Pennsylvania was swept away in a wall of water over 30 feet high.
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