This postcard was mailed in August 1908 and depicts the whaling scene titled Right Whaling, Attaching Chain to Head, also showing the right whale’s bonnet, New Bedford, Mass., as printed in the upper margin.
New Bedford remained a symbolic center of American whaling well into the early twentieth century, and publishers issued detailed process views to document the technical stages of whale processing. Such images moved beyond dramatic pursuit scenes to illustrate the industrial labor involved in securing and cutting in a whale alongside a vessel.
The image shows crew members working from the deck and spars of a whaling ship as a chain is fastened through a cut in the whale’s head. A worker stands on the exposed head while another leans over the carcass at water level, revealing the bone exposed by the dropping away of the lower lip, a detail referenced in the printed caption on the reverse. The divided back carries H. S. Hutchinson and Co., New Bedford, Mass., imprint, printed in Germany notation, and a clear New Bedford August 26, 1908 postmark with a one-cent Benjamin Franklin stamp, firmly anchoring the card to the period.
The item shown in the listing is the exact item the collector will receive. We have tens of thousands of items to choose from. Shipping will always be combined or refunded to save you as much money as possible. Please contact us with any questions, or visit our store page for specifics.
