| Administrative History | The 'Tay Whale' was landed by fishermen in Stonehaven harbour on 31 December 1883 and sold at public auction to John Woods, an oil merchant from Dundee. Woods had high hopes of becoming rich on the profits to be had from its oil, but by the time it reached Dundee it was badly decomposing and his hopes were dashed. He invited Sir John Struthers, Professor of Anatomy, whom he had out-bid at the auction, to come to Dundee and dissect it as he had originally hoped to do. Determined to make some money from the episode, Woods sold tickets for the dissection and afterwards sent the embalmed whale on a tour of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London and Manchester.
In August 1884, having completed its grand tour, Struthers was invited back to Dundee to remove the whale's skull and remaining bones. Once his work was completed, the skeleton was re-articulated and gifted by Woods to the City of Dundee, where it was assembled in the Albert Institute (now McManus Galleries), in November 1884. |
| Publication Note | Full details of Reid's studies, covering the history, external characters and all aspects of the anatomy of the skull and skeleton were published as seven separate articles in the 'Journal of Anatomy and Physiology' in 1888-89 and as a separate monograph in 1889:
Struthers, J. 'On some points in the anatomy of a Megaptera longimana. Part 1 History and external characters' in ' Journal of Anatomy and Physiology' 1888; 22: 109-125
Struthers, J. 'On some points in the anatomy of a Megaptera longimana. Parts II-VII History and external characters' in ' Journal of Anatomy and Physiology' 1888; 22: 240-282, 441-460, 629-654: 1889; 23; 124-163, 308-335, 358-373.
Struthers, J. 'Memoir on the anatomy of the humpback whale' (Edinburgh: Maclachlan and Stewart, 1889. |