In the early ’70s, Nantucket was home to a dwindling group of skilled artisans known as scrimshanders, who intricately carved tales onto whale teeth. The once-thriving community of 30 to 35 craftsmen has vanished, leaving behind a fading echo of a unique American art form: scrimshaw.
Born out of the leisure moments during whaling expeditions of the 18th and 19th centuries, these mariners found solace in scratching stories onto the canvases of whale teeth. The practice of scrimshanting, as they called it, filled the idle hours on the vast seas.
- Fuente Magna: Contentious American Counterpart to the Rosetta Stone
- Monsters of the Deep? The Truth about Cryptid Whales
Fran Howard, a seasoned figure in the trade, reminisces about the bygone era, displaying teeth with price tags dating back decades. Each tooth carries the weight of a whale’s narrative, a silent witness to the harsh realities of the whaling life.
Acquiring one of these teeth is an honor, a connection to a time when sailors, wives, and whalers shared a symbiotic existence. The value lies not just in craftsmanship but in the untold stories etched into these precious remnants of a fading art.
Top image: This is an original close-up of a piece of Scrimshaw on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Source: Modulok / CC BY-SA 3.0
