Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Tooth, mid 19th Century
date: label: date made
content: mid 19th century
notes: label: Description
content: The main surface of this large sperm whale tooth is etched with the famous scene of Washington crossing the Delaware River on Christmas 1776 into New Jersey. The river was filled with ice, and the rowers had to push it out of their way to get across the river in their heavy, flat-bottom Durham cargo boats. In all, Washington transported ca. 2,400 troops across the Delaware that day. After crossing, they marched nine miles to Trenton, NJ, where they surprised and conquered the British Hessian troops.
label: Description
content: The absence of any pinholes indicates that the artist of this piece carved it freehand, but its subject indicates that the artist had a good look at the many images of the famous scene before he began carving. The back of the tooth is smoothed but uncarved, with a large piece missing from the bottom edge.
label: Description
content: Scrimshaw began in the late 18th or early 19th century as the art of carving whale bone and ivory aboard whale ships. The crew on whalers had plenty of leisure time between sighting and chasing whales, and the hard parts of whales were readily available on voyages that could last up to four years.
label: Description
content: In its simplest form, a tooth was removed from the lower jaw of a sperm whale and the surface was prepared by scraping and sanding until it was smooth. The easiest way to begin an etching was to smooth a print over the tooth, prick the outline of the image with a needle and then “connect-the-dots” once the paper was removed. This allowed even unskilled craftsmen to create fine carvings. Some sailors were skilled enough to etch their drawings freehand. After the lines were finished, they were filled in with lamp black or sometimes colored pigments.
label: Description
content: Scrimshaw could be decorative, like simple sperm whale teeth, or they could be useful, as in ivory napkin rings, corset busks (stiffeners), swifts for winding yarn or pie crimpers. The sailor’s hand-carved scrimshaw was then given to loved ones back on shore as souvenirs of the hard and lonely life aboard long and dangerous voyages.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Scrimshaw
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content: Transportation
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content: Art
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Frederic A. Delano
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.374497
label: catalog number
content: 374497
label: accession number
content: 136263
objectType: label: Object Name
content: tooth, whale
label: Object Name
content: scrimshaw tooth, whale
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: scrimshaw (overall production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: tooth (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 7 7/8 in; 20.066 cm