Blue Whale Model | American Museum of Natural History

Blue Whale Model
In fact, the blue whale is the biggest animal ever known to have existed. It's even bigger than the enormous dinosaurs that lived over 65 million years ago.
This colossal species uses plates of baleen in its mouth to filter huge numbers of tiny prey, including small crustaceans called krill. Blue whales migrate long distances, traveling alone or in small groups called pods. They breed in warm southern waters during the winter and feed in polar seas during the spring and summer.
[Black and white photos of the Museum’s blue whale model.]
NARRATOR: What color is a blue whale? Is that a trick question? Or is the answer as easy as it sounds? Let’s start at the beginning...
[A hand pulls a copy of Moby Dick off a book shelf.]
NARRATOR: The first person to refer to a “blue whale” is Herman Melville in 1851.
[Close-up of the novel’s title page, showing the author’s name—Herman Melville—and the date of publication.]
[Archival footage of the sailor, now looking out a telescope. He sees whales spouting in the distance.]
NARRATOR: The ocean giant makes one other brief appearance in the novel, but this time, under a name sailors and scientists generally used at the time:
[Close-up of a page in Moby Dick. Text is highlighted reading “(Sulphur Bottom).”]
NARRATOR: …Sulphur-Bottom whale.
[Archival illustration of a whale in black and white.]
NARRATOR: So, is the blue whale blue?
[Blue tint appears on whale illustration.]
NARRATOR: Yellow-bellied?
[Blue tint disappears, and yellow tint appears on the underside of the illustrated whale.]
NARRATOR: The world’s largest animal was a cryptic character even to those who knew the sea best.
[Archival footage from the early 20th century shows just the back of a large whale, seen far out at sea.]
NARRATOR: And for more than a century, the Museum’s model whales have mirrored that mystery.
[Various archival images of the Museum’s whale models, as they appeared throughout the decades of the 20th century.]
[SHIMMERING MUSIC]
[Animated title with American Museum of Natural History logo. Text reads, “ICONS – What Color Is a Blue Whale?” and appears over color footage of the blue whale model in the modern-day Hall of Ocean Life.]
[Curator Melanie Stiassny speaks from the Museum collections. Shelves with numerous jars are in the background. An onscreen title identifies her as, “Melanie Stiassny, Curator, Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life.”]
MELANIE STIASSNY (Herbert R. and Evelyn Axelrod Research Curator, Department of Ichthyology, Division of Vertebrate Zoology): We tend to think that all the action’s on land. You know, that’s where the daffodils are. That’s where the monkeys are.
[Flat oceanscape, with a single small sailboat floating on the horizon, far in the distance.]
STIASSNY: I mean, when we stand on land and we look out at the sea, you know, it’s just this flat blue thing.
[Dolphins swim past the camera. An enormous school of hundreds of fish circles.]
STIASSNY: But in fact, the open ocean is really the largest biome on our planet.
[Stiassny speaks from the collections.]
STIASSNY: So, you don’t come across blue whales very often.
[A blue whale spouts at the ocean’s surface.]
STIASSNY: And there’s still a tremendous amount that we don’t know about them.
NARRATOR: For many years, the blue whale was known as the sulphur-bottom whale
NARRATOR: But blue whales dive deep and swim fast—up to 30 miles an hour fast—faster than wind-powered ships could chase them.
[Animated sequence: A whaler throws a harpoon at the whale in front of the ship, but it falls far short of the whale. The whale flips its tail and dives deep into the ocean.]
NARRATOR: So, when Moby Dick was written, blues had largely escaped the harpoon. Even if whalers had managed to find their mark, without steam-powered winches, they could never have hauled a 100-ton blue whale carcass from the deep.
[Animated sequence: Men standing on a ship’s deck heave on a rope hanging from a pulley. As we peer over the side of the ship, something heavy crashes into the ocean and throws up a huge splash.]
NARRATOR: That all changed in the 1870s with Norwegian whaler Svend Foyn.
[Archival footage of two men on the prow of a ship.]
NARRATOR: Like Melville’s Captain Ahab, Captain Foyn was on the hunt for a near-mythic creature—in his case, not for revenge, but for profit.
[Archival footage of a whaling ship, two men screwing a pointed tip on a large harpoon, and a whaler manning a harpoon gun mounted on a ship.]
NARRATOR: He mounted an explosive harpoon gun on the bow of a steam-powered ship, and the blue whale had met its match.
[Archival footage of a harpoon shooting a blue whale. Ocean spray is thrown up all around and the scene is chaotic.]
[Archival image of a large wire frame sitting on the floor of a Museum gallery.]
NARRATOR: Only about 30 years later, the American Museum of Natural History constructed its first blue whale model.
[Various archival images of the model whale’s construction, and the finished model hanging in the gallery. It is large and chunky—more like a hoagie than a sleek whale.]
NARRATOR: The dimensions and features were based on a dead whale,
[Archival image of two men taking a cast of a dead whale’s mouth.]
NARRATOR: …hauled into a Newfoundland port by a whaling ship.
[Archival footage of a large whale pulled by its tail along a dock.]
[Quinn speaks in an interview.]
QUINN: Its pose was less than inspiring, in that it really appeared like a giant knockwurst.
[Archival image of the early model whale hanging in the Museum.]
QUINN: It was painted a battleship grey.
[Quinn speaks in an interview.]
QUINN: Not really reflecting the color of an actual, living blue whale.
NARRATOR: Contemporary critics were more complimentary, although during construction, visitors did ask why the Museum was building a submarine.
[Various headlines and articles from period newspapers and magazines. Highlighted text reads, “The Whale In the American Museum of Natural History—A life-like model of the Largest Living Mammal,” “PRINCE OF WHALES - …the splendid new model,” “76 FOOT WHALE AT THE MUSEUM – 66 Foot Dinosaur Will Retire To Second Place,” and “…questions as to why he is building a submarine.”]
[Archival footage of a man hosing down the carcass of a blue whale, distended on a dock.]
NARRATOR: By the time technology caught up with blues, the demand for baleen and whale oil as fuel was almost non-existent. But a demand for margarine, soap, pet food, and nitroglycerin kept the hunt profitable.
[A montage of images from vintage advertisements for margarine, soap, and pet food is followed by archival footage of a hand pressing down on a plunger and an explosion.]
[Vintage footage of a blue whale floundering next to the side of a whaling ship.]
NARRATOR: For those four products, blue whales were almost driven to the point of extinction. From an estimated 350,000 individuals in pre-whaling years, some 99% of the population was wiped out.
[Stiassny speaks from the collections.]
STIASSNY: It was really treating the ocean as a pantry. Here’s a place where we can get our oil. Here’s a place where we can get our meat. So, it really reflects a very different attitude to the oceans.
[Archival image of the Hall of Ocean Life under construction in the 1930s.]
NARRATOR: When the Museum’s Hall of Ocean Life opened in 1933,
[Archival map of the Museum’s floor plan. The room labeled “Ocean Life” shows an image of a man harpooning a whale.]
NARRATOR: …the early dioramas depicted animals that were seen as commodities—
[Archival image of various dioramas—a family of fur seals, a man diving for pearl oysters, and a painting of a whaling ship hunting a sperm whale.]
NARRATOR: …the fur seal, pearl oysters, the sperm whale. Many were expected to go extinct in the 20th century.
[Archival image of blue whale spouting.]
NARRATOR: And the blue whale was no exception.
[Stiassny speaks from the collections.]
STIASSNY: I think whales- I think whales occupy such an important place in our culture because we have hunted them, we have used them. We’ve knocked their populations right down. And yet, in many ways, they became the icon of conservation—Save the Whale.
[Archival images showing “Save the Whales” poster and protest.]
NARRATOR: By the 1960s, the tide of public opinion was turning.
[Page from International Whaling Commission report. Highlighted text reads, “10. Protection of the Blue Whale. Total protection of the blue whale in the North Atlantic was continued for a further five years.”]
NARRATOR: Blue whales had been granted protected status…
[Blueprints from the Museum’s renovation of the Hall of Ocean Life show a whale’s outline next to architectural features.]
NARRATOR: …and the Museum wanted to renovate the Hall of Ocean Life, with the world’s largest model of the world’s largest animal at its center. There was one problem…
[Quinn speaks in an interview.]
QUINN: Blue whales were difficult to study, difficult to see, and find.
[Flat open ocean.]
QUINN: Back then, they were very rare.
[View of the Earth from space, image of the Earth rising over the Moon’s surface, image of Buzz Aldrin on the Moon.]
STIASSNY: Amazingly, we’d actually walked on the moon before we’d seen a live blue whale underwater.
QUINN: …the nose and jaws were distorted. So, we had quite a job ahead of us.
[Various archival images of whale re-sculpting in process.]
NARRATOR: They’d have to taper the tail flukes, re-shape the flippers, adjust the eyes, add a belly button, anus, and even blowholes. And of course, there was the question of paint.
[Stiassny speaks from the collections.]
STIASSNY: We really had to redo things—like the color in life is so different from the color in death.
[Quinn indicates sections of a blue whale skin paint sample.]
QUINN: —a darker tone blue and pale patches. And also has a little bit of the yellow, which is where the sulphur-bottom whale name comes in.
[Archival images of the blue whale scale model in the Hall, surrounded by construction materials.]
NARRATOR: Finally, the Museum had reference material.
[A blue whale swims underwater.]
NARRATOR: Researchers had captured images of blues underwater. So, at last, this model could be truer to life.
[Quinn speaks in an interview.]
QUINN: When an artist goes about undertaking the job of painting a blue whale, there are lots of things to consider. Things that you take for granted. For instance, when an object is underwater, it doesn’t look wet.
[A series of archival images taken from a similar angle gives a sort of time lapse effect as construction lifts and materials move around the blue whale model in the Hall of Ocean Life.]
NARRATOR: Donning 25 gallons of paint, the whale now wore a new coat of color. It was science, presented with more than a dash of awe.
[Drone footage of blue whale cow and calf spouting at the ocean footage.]
STIASSNY: I think whales hold a very special place in our hearts, perhaps because they’re so big.
[Stiassny speaks from the collections.]
STIASSNY: We know they’re intelligent. We know they’re social. I think they really grasp people’s imaginations, not just as a kind of big animal,
[Drone footage shows a blue whale lunge feeding on a cloud of krill near the ocean’s surface.]
STIASSNY: …but an animal that really represents the wild nature still on our planet. We hope that that will inspire people to really think a little bit more about their impact on the oceans and how we can do something about it.
[Drone footage shows a blue whale cow and calf spouting from afar.]
NARRATOR: Since the international ban on commercial whaling in 1982, populations have made recoveries.
[Humpback whale leaps out of water and splashes back down.]
NARRATOR: Humpbacks have made a remarkable comeback.
[Humpback whale swimming underwater.]
NARRATOR: There are now an estimated 135,000 swimming the oceans.
[Blue whale cow and calf surface to spout and then dive into the ocean.]
NARRATOR: Blue whales are still considered endangered, numbering only about 5,000-15,000 worldwide. They are still incredibly mysterious, and their habitat is still in peril.
[A blue whale swims underwater.]
EARLE: The ocean is not infinite. It is not too big to fail. It is failing. The big question—how do we create a real awareness?
[Earle speaks in an interview, indicates the Museum around her with her hands.]
EARLE: This museum, the American Museum of Natural History and fellow institutions around the world—it’s our collective knowledge, our history.
[Footage of the blue whale model in today’s Hall of Ocean Life is surrounded by animated colors. The whale’s eye sparkles and a cartoon version “swims” out of the ceiling and into the ocean.]
EARLE: As a kid, I remember museum experiences that inspired me to want to go see the creatures that I could not see in my backyard, but I knew they existed.
[The animated whale swims up in front of our view. Its eye twinkles and that transitions to footage of two young children running into the Hall of Ocean Life with the blue whale visible in front.]
EARLE: I know that the kids who come through this institution have experiences like that. And years later, they will look back and say, “It’s when I stood under the great blue whale that I knew I had to go see one for myself.”
[Earle speaks in an interview.]
EARLE: I know of no faster way to make people aware…
[A series of time lapse photos overlaid on one another shows the paths of visitors as they walk around the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, surrounding the whale and creating intricate patterns on the stairs and walkways.]
EARLE: …and create a feeling of humility and respect,
[Earle speaks in an interview.]
EARLE: …and to realize we’re a part of it, not apart from it. To put ourselves in perspective—that is so worth doing.
***END***
The Annotated Blue Whale Model
The Museum's iconic blue whale model, first constructed in the mid-1960s, was based on photographs of a female blue whale found dead in 1925 off the southern tip of South America. At the time, little was known about blue whales in their natural habitats.
Click on the + signs below to find out more about the Museum's blue whale model.
Gone to Pieces
This model replaced a 76-foot-long plaster model of a blue whale created in 1907 for what was then the Hall of the Biology of Mammals on the fourth floor. Some of the old model’s pieces were sold as memorabilia at auction in 1974. A woman who bid $530 for a glass eye said, “Once you look in the eye of a whale, you never forget it.”
Record Setter
On November 1968, the whale’s body was lifted up to the ceiling as two halves: the 66-foot-long front section and the 28-foot-long tail. The Hall of Ocean Life and Biology of Fishes opened on Wednesday, February 26, 1969, and the next Sunday, more than 35,000 people came to see the whale—setting a new attendance record for the Museum.
Source Material
When the Museum redesigned the Hall of Ocean Life in anticipation of its 100th anniversary in 1969, artist Richard Ellis received one of the biggest assignments: designing the new life-sized blue whale model. But the first photographs of living whales underwater weren’t taken until the mid-1970s. So Ellis had to rely on eyewitness descriptions— and extrapolate from photos or casts of whale corpses.
True to Life
The very last detail added to the model were 28 tiny hairs on the whale’s chin. To determine their placement, the preparators consulted the Discovery Reports, dispatches by a British Museum expedition on whaling in the Antarctic. But they forgot about the belly button. That wasn’t added until the hall was renovated in 2003 and became the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life.
Whoosh!
During the planning phase, Richard van Gelder, then chair of the Mammalogy Department, refused suggestions to depict the blue whale with its mouth open. He argued it would be scientifically inaccurate for a whale that was poised to dive— and also too tempting as a target for “potential basketball stars.”
Cutting Room Floor
Other scrapped plans? Depicting a beached whale, accompanied by a soundscape of scavenging birds and faux phosphorescent bacteria. Propping it atop a 3-foot-diameter pedestal on its belly. Surrounding it with artificial water and three killer whales in a walk-in habitat group. Floating a rubber model filled with helium (van Gelder thought it “too much like the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.” )
Heavy Weight
The model ended up being 10 tons, including the weight of the polyurethane plastic, the fiberglass coating, and 600 pounds of paint. After x-raying the welded joints, engineers concluded the margin of safety built into the design would handle it.
By 2001, Museum artists working on the renovation of the 94-foot-long model had many more images and live footage of blue whales. They flattened the model's once overly-bulging eyes, corrected the blowholes, and tapered the tail. They also added a belly button–which visitors can find about four-fifths of the way down the model's body, a reminder of just one of the traits humans share with this majestic mammal.
At 21,000 pounds of foam and fiberglass, how does the model stay up? It's suspended by a single steel pipe, connected to structures hidden in both the model and the ceiling.
#WhaleWash
Each year, the blue whale model receives a thorough scrub. What does it take to clean this massive exhibit? Three days, an electric lift, an industrial vacuum cleaner, and strong arms! See for yourself in the video below.