Concerning Whales and Museums^ 



By A. E. Parr 



Senior Scientist, The American Museum of Natural History 



[With 8 plates] 



Whales have always been a problem and a challenge to exhibitors. 

 Gargantuan size provides a readymade source of excitement. But op- 

 tical uniformity of environment offers little opportunity for visual 

 enrichment of setting. 



Stranded whales have probably drawn crowds of curious or hungry 

 spectators before written history began. Wlien somebody first got the 

 idea of claiming ownership and charging admission to the spectacle 

 is not recorded. But it undoubtedly happened a long time ago. 



In the early days, problems of size and decay confined the show to 

 the spot where the whale had reached its doom under its own power. 

 When we learned to delay the state of repulsiveness by icing and em- 

 balming, it became possible to take time to move the disconsolate 

 carcass to more favorable locations for mass attendance. The wake 

 of the whale might cover long distances and much time before dust 

 returned to dust. The traveling corpse of a minor behemoth of the 

 seas could be admired in New York as late as in 1954, upon payment of 

 a proper tribute to the dead. 



Much as one may now criticize the tedium of endless rows of stuffed 

 specimens on shelves, even the earliest museums of the 18th century- 

 obeyed the cardinal principle that a living species must be restored 

 to the posture of life before it is shown. This was even true of the 

 thousands of birds on the tiresome T-perches we now despise so much. 

 Wlien whales in the round finally followed their skeletons into the 

 museums, their dejected appearance of death and imminent decay was 

 properly deemed to offer a completely unacceptable image of the 

 elegant bodies that glide so easily through the waters. 



Since whales do not perch, the problem of presenting them in their 

 living form was a good deal more complicated than the difficulties of 

 bird taxidermy. In consideration of their normal environment, it was 

 recognized that the specimens should have as little contact with other 



1 Reprinted by permission from Curator (the American Museum of Natural History), 

 vol. 6, No. 1, 1963. 



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