Call for information - Southern whalers as collectors and donors.

Rachael Utting has contacted MEG to see if any of our members can help her.  She writes: 

As part of my PhD research at Royal Holloway, University of London I’m looking for both museum and personal collections in Britain and the Pacific that have links with British whalers. I’m focussing on the collecting activities of captains, surgeons or crew associated with the British Southern Whale Fishery between 1775-1860. These whalers were only active in the southern hemisphere and not part of the northern or arctic fisheries. Their collecting habits encompassed all types of artefact, from material culture to natural history, cartography and drawings.

Do your museum collections have any links with these whalers? These collections tend to be few and far between but if an artefact originates from the southern hemisphere and is linked in any way to whaling or whalemen please do let me know!

You can read more about her project and find out how to contact her on the Royal Holloway website.