Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.12352

    Bowhead whale

    Date
    1811
    Creator
    Edward Mitchell (British) , Engraver
    After
    William Scoresby (1789 - 1857, British) , Scientist
    Object type
    Library reference
    RCN32515
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 125mm
    width (print): 211mm
    Subject
    Biology
       > Zoology
    Content object
    nature
       > animal
    Description
    Marine zoological study of the Bowhead whale Balaena mysticetus, also known as the Greenland right whale. Side view.

    Plate 12 accompanying the paper ‘Account of the Balaena mysticetus, or Great Northern or Greenland whale’, by William Scoresby junior, Memoirs of the Wernerian Natural History Society, v.1 1808-1810, pp.578-586 (Edinburgh, 1811). Inscribed above: ‘Plate XII to front p.586’. Inscribed below: ‘W.Scoresby Junr. delt. Engrd. by E. Mitchell.’

    The accompanying text states that: ‘Hitherto no accurate representation of this vast animal has appeared in the writings of zoologists. The drawing here engraved I executed in Greenland, and its accuracy was proved, by finding that it agreed in every particular with the numerous individuals I afterwards met with in the Arctic Ocean.’

    William Scoresby junior (1789-1857) British Arctic scientist and Church of England clergyman was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1824.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
    Powered by CollectionsIndex+/CollectionsOnline