Scrimshaw Bone Ruler or Straight Edge, 19th Century
date: label: date made
content: 19th century
notes: label: Description
content: This straight, thick piece of whale bone measuring 13-1/2 inches long is marked at one-and-half inch intervals, starting one inch in from the left end. Such tools were used to rule straight lines in ship logbooks, journals, letters and account books.
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: Helen Freeman, Willard Nye Estate
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.249981
label: catalog number
content: 249981
label: accession number
content: 48696
objectType: label: Object Name
content: scrimshaw bone ruler
label: Object Name
content: ruler
label: Object Name
content: bone ruler
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: bone, whale (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: scrimshaw (overall production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 13 1/2 in x 15/16 in; 34.29 cm x 2.38125 cm