De L’histoire naturelle des Cetaces

Catalog No.: QL737.C4.C946 1836
Artist/Maker: Frédéric Cuvier
Date Made: 1836
Object Name: De L’histoire naturelle des Cetaces

Famously referred to in Moby-Dick as resembling a “squash,” Cuvier’s sperm whale was replicated many times until Thomas Beale published The Natural History of the Sperm Whale (London, 1839), wherein he replicated William John Huggin’s 1834 sperm whale based upon personal observations of sperm whalemen in the South Pacific.