There is a brief discussion of the origins of the original whale in
Karen Rader and Victoria Cain, "From natural history to science: display
and the transformation of American museums of science and nature,"
Museum and Society 6:2 (July 2008): 152-171 at
http://www.le.ac.uk/ms/m&s/Issue%2017/radercain.pdf. They describe the
whale model as a compromise between the curators and the exhibit
designers: "Exhibit-designers agreed to use specimens -- the actual
stuff of science -- in the hall, but placed them within the
aesthetically pleasing frame of habitat dioramas located in side
alcoves. The hall plans also featured more 'modern' exhibition
techniques, designed to educate visitors through a two-pronged approach
of emotional appeal and diagrammatic imagery. Chief among them was a
sculpture of a blue whale, commissioned in 1959. It wasn't a specimen,
but it promised to evoke far more 'oohs' and awe than a whale skeleton
would have."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Philip M. Katz, Ph.D.
Assistant Director, Research
American Association of Museums
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