"Strasse-Davit-Familie"

DateCirca 1770-1780

Mediumengraving

Dimensions6 1/2 × 9 in. (16.5 × 22.9 cm)

Donor credit lineKendall Whaling Museum Collection Transfer

Object number2001.100.7378

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionImage of an aged dwarf couple sitting outside a cave (with two openings), which was their home. The woman is wearing a long, full dress and the man is wearing pants, a jacket, and a cape. The cave is about twice the height of the couple, and has vegetation growing on it. On the ground, to the left of the couple, is a dead fish. Water is in the background, with a ship and two small boats at left and a stylized whale at right. Mountains are along the horizon. In the sky at left is a sun (with a face), at a moon at right.

This print is of an aged dwarf couple brought from Greenland to Nuremberg as curiosities, presumably by German whalemen. It was written that the couple lived in the mountains in large caverns. The man was 20" tall and aged 140 years, the woman was 18" tall and aged 70 years. They had a son, who was not quite 6", who lived 17 years and had recently died (at the time of their being brought to Nuremberg). For broadside about the couple, featuring a similar image, see (Ingalls, Elizabeth. WHALING PRINTS IN THE FRANCIS B. LOTHROP COLLECTION. Peabody Museum of Salem: Salem. 1987. 76.)ProvenancePurchased from Branners Bibliofile Antikvariat, 3d quarter 1985, $159.75.

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