Scrimshaw: unlocking the cultural and biological archive of sea mammal art ...
During the middle decades of the nineteenth century the folk-art tradition ‘scrimshaw’, predominantly using the teeth of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), flourished among the crews of industrial whaling ships. Scrimshaw collections represent a unique cultural and biological archive of pre-indu...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository
2023
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.98977 https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/352782 |
| Summary: | During the middle decades of the nineteenth century the folk-art tradition ‘scrimshaw’, predominantly using the teeth of sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), flourished among the crews of industrial whaling ships. Scrimshaw collections represent a unique cultural and biological archive of pre-industrial/industrial sperm whale populations, but the rarity, collectability, and high value of genuine nineteenth century scrimshaw specimens have precluded meaningful scientific investigation. Building on classical art historical methods, the multidisciplinary approach applied in this thesis allows for the examination of scrimshaw artefacts beyond imagery and carving techniques, providing additional insight into the biological history of the whales caught through detailed micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) scanning and biomolecular analysis. The Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), in Cambridge, United Kingdom, holds a significant collection of pictorial sperm whale scrimshaw from the early nineteenth century, ... |
|---|