Blue Whale on the Move: Dismantling a 125 Year-Old Specimen

• Main Authors: Bernucci, A, Cornish, L, Lynn, C
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: museum fur naturkunde berlin 2020
• Subjects: Natural History Collections; Museums; Preservation; Conservation; Balaenoptera musculus; Blue whale
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10141/622736; https://doi.org/10.3372/SPNHC2016.2

The Natural History Museum (London, UK) intends to suspend a 25 metre-long, blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) from its central Hintze Hall. Alongside other specimens which are to be put on open display in this space the environment was looked at in terms of sustainable improvements. Works are being undertaken to improve the conditions by utilizing natural ventilation and re-using existing duct work. This specimen, acquired by the Museum in 1891, was suspended from the ceiling of the Mammal Hall, where it has been on display since 1934. Conservators worked with a specialist specimen handling company to carefully dismantle and remove each of the 220 bones from its original mount. The skull required a special frame and a precise calculation of movement to dismantle it and remove it. Many complex decisions were made during this process – as each bone removal did not dictate what the next would bring. During the dismantling phase, the conservation team have had to address the many requirements of curators, researchers, senior management and the media. © 2016 The Authors. The abstracts published in this volume are open access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, whether commercial or not, provided the original author and source are credited (see http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). NHM Repository