Tickets
General Ticket: $10
Member Ticket: $5
Help us give Pari Stave, Head Curator at the National Gallery of Iceland in Reykjavík, a warm Sag Harbor welcome as she illuminates the Iceland chapter in the life story of Sag Harbor whaler Thomas Welcome Roys (1816-1877). From the remote fishing village of Seyðisfjörður, in Iceland’s East Fjords, Roys transformed whaling industry with his discoveries and his audacious (and ultimately failed) experiments in industrialized whale hunting and processes. Following the discussion, Stave welcomes questions from the audience.
In his Sag Harbor ship Superior, Roys sailed through the Bering Strait and into the Arctic Ocean, where he discovered an abundance of “new-fangled monsters,” the Western Arctic bowhead whale. This discovery would open the door to new travel patterns and new hunting grounds for whalers from all over the world. Roys also developed and patented whaling rockets to hunt faster and more powerful species that had until then eluded European whalers.
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PARI STAVE is Head Curator at the National Gallery of Iceland in Reykjavík. Prior to joining the museum, she worked as director of the Skaftfell Art Center in Seyðisfjörður, in Iceland’s East Fjords. Before moving to Iceland in 2022, Stave worked as Senior Manager of Administration, Collections, and Curatorial Programs in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum.