Moby-Norfolk

By early next week this black whale may have a name. Norfolk Public Library has accepting nominations for names for the whale, which may become a permanent fix­ture

in the library. A decision is expected soon. Popular nominees include Willie and Ishmael.

Members of Junior Friends of the Norfolk Public Li­brary made the whale in anticipation of Norfolk Reads, a month-long community-wide event centering on a single book, Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (2001), which is about the voyage that inspired Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick. Discussions of Philbrick’s book and related events have been taking place at the library much of the month of February. Most of the whale (pictured above and left) is made of paper-mache. The skeleton is a box for a flat-screen tele­vision. The curved whale rib (bel0w) lying on the floor is real, on loan to the library.
Photos by Matt McDonald