Whales as a Nordic speciality: Collecting cetaceans for Natural History Museums (1860s–1910s)

Abstract

Whales are not specifically Nordic animals, but Nordic whales have been central in European natural history collections since the second half of the nineteenth century; this article analyses how this came to be. Several factors came into play: the interest in whales among many researchers and curators working in natural history museums, the development of modern whaling from the 1860s, and the development of networks of exchange and sale of scientific specimens. We study these three factors through the traces they have left in the museums’ catalogues, in archives, and in the collections themselves and argue that, individually, these factors would not have had such a big impact. It is their combination in this period that has given Nordic whales such a central place in natural history collections.