At six feet long and crafted with period detail, this wall hanging involved 1800s research and a touch of time-travel imagination. Our goal—using a folklore-inspired whale shape, early signwriter’s lettering styles, and a weathered finish—was to create something convincing to satisfy the museum curators who asked us to collaborate on an exhibit. We envisioned this sign hanging on the front of a Nantucket or New Bedford general store when the household need for whale oil was as vital as milk and bread. For centuries, sperm whale oil and the whale’s premium spermaceti lit homes and cities around the world. It lubricated the Industrial Revolution until the 1859 discovery of crude oil in Pennsylvania, which abruptly ended the whale oil industry and the centuries-old way of life of whaling communities worldwide.

Click to read the short *Vistas* article.

To showcase how today’s artists celebrate historic American folk art signs, this Nutmegger Workshop original design and carving, along with another work by fellow sign artist Jeff Dinardo, was included in the Taverns to Trades: American Folk Art Signs exhibit at the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit, MA, September 17–December 21, 2025.

Since the conclusion of the Cahoon Museum exhibit on Cape Cod, the museum’s curator contributed a story to the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s biannual journal, Vistas, which features this sign to illustrate the allure of handmade, folk art trade signs.

This museum-quality piece is for sale. Please email to inquire.