[Nhcoll-l] Identifying and mounting a whale penis

[Callomon,Paul]

There's actually a museum in Reykjavik, Iceland, devoted to this, er, extremity. They might know...

Paul Callomon
Collection Manager, Malacology and General Invertebrates
________________________________
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia
prc44 at drexel.edu<mailto:prc44 at drexel.edu> / Tel. 215-405-5096


From: Nhcoll-l <nhcoll-l-bounces at mailman.yale.edu> On Behalf Of Friedrich, Lena
Sent: Tuesday, June 2, 2026 6:24 AM
To: 'nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu' <nhcoll-l at mailman.yale.edu>
Subject: [Nhcoll-l] Identifying and mounting a whale penis


External.
Hello everyone,

My name is Lena Friedrich and I work at the Karl-Sudhoff-Institute in Leipzig, Germany.

We are currently in the process of developing an exhibition/depot for a pharmacognosy collection, which includes a dry specimen of a whale penis (see picture 1).
Sadly, no one at our institute is an expert on whales, which is why I would like to ask for your help in identifying what kind of whale the penis belonged to.
We already sent a sample of the specimens tissue to a lab for DNA testing, but unfortunately this didn't yield any results.

We also have some uncertainties regarding the mounting of the whale penis. Our plan is to have it hanging from some kind of fixture on the ceiling of the room (see picture 2), but we are not sure what would be the best way to go about this.
If any of you have experience with this sort of mount we would love to hear some advice or recommendations on how to proceed.

Thank you very much for your time!

Kind regards
Lena Friedrich


*************************************************************
Lena Friedrich
Preparator
Medical-historical collections
Karl-Sudhoff-Institute for the history of medicine and science
Liebigstr. 27, Haus E, Raum D006
04103 Leipzig
Tel.: 0341/9725623
Email: lena.friedrich at medizin.uni-leipzig.de<mailto:lena.friedrich at medizin.uni-leipzig.de>





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