There be whales here!

This newsletter is about giant models of whales, like the ones you see in museums. But it begins with a story about a movie premiere that took place in one of those museums.

I have a friend who used to plan movie premieres for Warner Brothers, and often when there was a premiere in New York, he’d invite me and a guest to the premiere (I wrote a whole thing once about what movie premieres are like). I always thought this would be an impressive thing to bring a date to, and finally I had the opportunity.

I had just started dating this graphic designer when my friend invited me to the premiere of M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water. The premiere was held at the American Museum of Natural History so that, in keeping with the in-the-water theme, the after-party could be in the Hall of Ocean Life beneath the giant blue whale model. You know, this one:

So we went. There were celebrities, and food and drinks, and all that was fun. But the movie was terrible. And there was something else that made it not exactly the best date. See, I mentioned that this woman was a graphic designer, but what I didn’t mention is that she happened to be a graphic designer for the American Museum of Natural History.

Look, I couldn’t control where the movie premiere was happening. I knew it wasn’t going to be as cool as if it was at Radio City Music Hall or something but it’s not every day you get to go to a movie premiere, right? Well, she was not impressed that I took her to a party under the big blue whale. She had been to plenty of events already in the Hall of Ocean Life.

At one point she said to me, “You realize that for our date, you pretty much took me to work.”

But eventually she married me anyway, so it worked out in the end.

A few weeks ago, I took our 12 year old to the same museum for the first time. When he saw the whale, he was absolutely amazed. His initial reaction was just being totally overwhelmed by its size. He couldn’t believe animals that big really exist. Thank you! Finally someone was impressed!

Other Giant Display Whales

So that visit got me thinking about whales in museums. I know the blue whale is the largest mammal on Earth, but is the model in New York the biggest model of a blue whale? Is there another museum somewhere with an even bigger model?

There’s no Wikipedia entry for “List of whale models” (although there is a list of individual whales) so I did some research. I don’t know if I found all the biggest whale models in the world, but these are the biggest whale models I could find, past and present, in order by size:

98 feet: National Museum of Nature and Science (Tokyo)

At 98 feet, this life-size blue whale in Tokyo is the largest one I could find. Somehow in pictures it doesn’t look to me as big as the whale at AMNH but it could be because it’s outside with people in the foreground, so the scale is difficult to judge. Maybe those trees behind it are huge.

I will say that the museum looks very cool. If I ever go to Tokyo, I’m definitely going to check it out.

94 feet: American Museum of Natural History (New York)

Already mentioned above, the AMNH whale was built in the 1960s and then renovated in 2001 to correct some minor anatomical mistakes. My favorite thing about the renovation was that they added a little belly button. If you ever go, be sure to look for it.

Since I already shared a photo of the AMNH whale, here’s a video showing how it gets cleaned instead:

92 feet: National Museum of Natural History (DC) [Since Removed]

In 1963, the Smithsonian exhibited this giant blue whale model, replacing a smaller one you’ll learn about below. At the time it was made, no photographs had been taken yet of a living blue whale, so some assumptions made about the whale’s posture turned out to be scientifically inaccurate.

In 2000, the space was renovated and the contractor in charge of the renovation became the model’s new owner. He listed the model on eBay with a reserve price of $2.25. The description said:

from the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History. (I KNOW THAT A WHALE IS NOT A FISH.) IT’S NO FLUKE, THIS IS FOR REAL!! 92 FEET LONG nose to fluke. ... I have been given the rights to find a new home for this gorgeous piece. ... This would make a fantastic showpiece for an amusement park or theme park, public aquarium, or municipality

But when the whale was taken down from the wall, it broke. So he canceled the sale.

83 feet: Natural History Museum (London)

Are we counting skeletons? Because this one’s not a model but an actual skeleton of a Blue Whale named Hope. I think that counts for the purposes of this list.

Wikipedia says that Hope is 83 feet long but the museum itself doesn’t seem to list a size on their page about Hope the whale. So I’ll trust Wikipedia in this case. The museum does have an interesting story about where the skeleton came from, though.

82 feet: Ethyl The Whale (Santa Fe)

Ethyl is made out of plastic trash. Her name is short for polyethylene. Atlas Obscura has a ton of photos and this description:

Ethyl the Whale is an 82-foot-long, life-sized sculpture of a blue whale that holds the Guinness world record for largest recycled plastic sculpture. It was created by two artists from San Francisco, Yustina Salnikova and Joel Stockdill, to bring awareness to the negative impact plastics have on the environment, and was named after its polyethylene body. 

Ethyl was originally built for the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California. It was subsequently acquired by the Santa Fe-based art collective Meow Wolf in 2019 and then dramatically transported to the New Mexico desert.

78 feet: The St. Louis World’s Fair, 1904 [Since Removed]

First displayed at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904, this blue whale model later went on view at the Smithsonian National Museum until around 1960 when it was replaced by the whale mentioned above that went unsold on eBay.

60 feet: Children’s Museum (Hartford, CT) [Since Removed]

As we get to smaller whales, we meet Connie the Whale, the first whale on this list that’s not a Blue Whale. Connie is a sperm whale. Or at least she was.

Connie sat outside the Children’s Museum in Hartford, Connecticut until the museum moved in 2022. Plans to move Connie with the museum proved to be too expensive, and Connie was dismantled.

In 2024, Connie’s tail found a new home across the street from the museum along the Trout Brook Trail.

I guess if you squint, you can imagine the whale is diving and her tail is sticking up before disappearing below the surface.

50 feet: The Lawrence Hall of Science (Berkeley)

In Berkeley, California, you’ll find Pheena, a fine whale, at the Lawrence Hall of Science. While fin whales are the second-largest species of whale, averaging around 65 feet but growing as long as 85 feet, the model here is not the size of a full grown adult at only 50 feet.

Pheena looks like a whale beached itself in a parking lot. I think it’s my least favorite whale on this list.

45 feet: National Museum of Natural History (DC)

After the two blue whales whose stories are told above, the Smithsonian didn’t get another model of a blue whale. Now their biggest whale is a 45-foot Atlantic right Whale named Phoenix, installed in 2003, based on an actual whale named Phoenix.

42 feet, or maybe just 30, depending on the source: Monterey Bay Aquarium (Monterey, CA)

I couldn’t find an official measurement of the gray whale at Monterey Bay Aquarium. Most of their literature simply describes it as “life-size.”

When the aquarium opened, a local paper described the whale as being 42 feet long, which is such a specific number it sounds like they got it from somewhere official. But in a 2014 post on the aquarium’s Tumblr page, they ask, “How do you truck a 30-foot gray whale model down Cannery Row?” And those are the only two mentions of the whale I can find that give any measurements.

As for how you truck a 30-foot gray whale model down Cannery Row, the answer is: on a flatbed truck.

There are many more giant display whales around the world, but those are the biggest ones I could find. At this point in the list, the whales get to be of small enough size that they are common and too numerous to mention.

So that brings me to how you can...

Own Your Own Giant Whale

If you’re like me, then about now you’re wondering how you, too, can get your own giant whale. Well, a giant display whale can be expensive, but maybe not as expensive as you think. If you really want one, I’ll bet you can find one that fits your budget, if not your home.

In 2011, this 15 foot life-size fiberglass orca sold at auction for just $1,300:

If that’s not big enough for you, you can get a 30-foot orca made to order for $7,000 - $9,000 from MyDinosaurs:

If you want an animatronic whale, you can get this life-size sperm whale for $2,999.

It has the following animatronic capabilities:

1. Mouth opening and closing synchronized with sound. 2. Blink eyes. 3. Head up and down, left and right. 4. Neck up, down, left, right. 5. Forelimb movement. 6. Chest breathing 7, tail swaying. 8. Body up, down, left, right. 9. Spread wings. 10. Tongue in and out. 11. Spray water. 12. Smoke spurts. 13. Spit bubbles. 14. Face tracking. 15. Voice conversation.

Bowl of petunias sold separately.

But if size and budget are more important to you than, say, scientific accuracy, don’t worry. There’s a whale for you, too. On Alibaba, you can buy this beautiful, 27-foot long, purple and pink inflatable whale for only $468.

The title says it’s supposed to be a beluga whale, but I think it’s more likely a stylized humpback whale.

Well, those are all the biggest whales I could find. Do you know of a giant model whale that I missed? Send me an email or leave a comment.

Oh, and I apologize if this email triggered anybody’s megalohydrothalassophobia – fear of large things underwater. I hope you were reading it on dry land.

Thanks as always for reading. See you next time!

David