Taking a Whale

Date1866

Mediumengraving, paper

Dimensions9 1/8 × 13 7/8 in. (23.2 × 35.2 cm)

Donor credit lineKendall Whaling Museum Collection Transfer

Object number2001.100.9284

Institutional Credit LineCourtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

DescriptionBlack and white version of a colored wood engraving. Page 813 from "Harper's Weekly" with image of a sperm whale being taken. Whale is upside down in water, with head at left center. One whaleboat is in front left, a second in center back. A third whaleboat is overturned in front right corner, with four men in water. In left background is a fourth whaleboat and a ship. Title below, followed by "-Sketched By R. Weir.-[See Page 807.] See Ingalls, Elizabeth. Whaling Prints in the Francis B. Lothrop Collection. Salem: Peabody Museum of Salem, 1987. p. 159, # 303. See also 2001.100.8294 for second copy, and cf. 2001.100.4715, what is thought to be Weir's original colored oil of the scene (signed Wallace). ProvenanceFrom "Harper's Weekly," Dec. 22, 1866, p. 813. Based on an original watercolor in KWM pseudonymously signed "Wallace" (#O-352). Duplicate, intended for exhibition in conjunction with the whaleboat in the Boat Room.

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