Finback earbone from Hashidate Maru

Date1952

Mediumwhale skeletal bone, wood, paper

Dimensions4 1/2 × 9 3/4 in. (11.4 × 24.8 cm)

Donor credit lineKendall Whaling Museum Collection Transfer

Object number2001.100.1374

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionRare specimen of a complete finback whale earbone, complete with the associated hard anatomical structures (one piece); on a bed of straw excelsior in a traditional Japanese cedar box (two pieces); the whale taken in the Antarctic by the Japanese floating-factory ship Hashidate Maru during the 1950-51 season, and presented by the captain and crew, boxed, as a souvenir to the American Military Occupational Forces inspector Benjamin Goldberg.ProvenanceCollection of Lt./Capt. Benjamin Goldberg, U.S. Army, 1952; Ten Pound Island Book Co., Gloucester, Mass., 02/06/1996, $50.00.

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