MIT Museum

Major collection: Hart Nautical
Named collection: Allan Forbes Collection
Object type: engraving
Maker: Stewart, James; Lizars, William Home
Place made: United Kingdom, Scotland, Edinburgh
Date made: 1837
Materials: ink; paper; mounted
Measurements: 4 in x 6 1/2 in
Nomenclature: natural history
Classification: whales

Colored engraving of a Greenland, Bowhead Whale (Balaena mysticetus) breaching. This large arctic whale (up to 100 tons) was nearly hunted out prior to the whaling moratorium and may be now be back to half its estimated former population of 50,000 It is perhaps the longest lived of all mammals and second only in mass to the blue whale.

AF-NB-0073E