Palaoa - Whale Skeleton
One question that people who work at museums hear a lot is "is that real?"
Sometime's an object on display is real. Here in Hawaiian Hall you can see many things that are real – the actual objects that were used or made by the ali'i, or chiefs, or the maka'ainana, or commoners. The feather cloaks downstairs are real.
Sometimes an object on display is a replica, something that looks like the real thing but isn't. The shark that is hanging near the second level isn't real – it was made by an artist to give visitors an idea about how big and scary a tiger shark can be.
And sometimes object can be a mix.
The whale hanging near the third floor is one of the oldest things at Bishop Museum and it's a mix of real parts, and parts made by artists.
The bones inside the whale are real. They came from a sperm whale and were reassembled at the museum more than 100 years ago.
But the rest of the whale, the eyes, tongue, skin, and such were shaped and painted by artists to show visitors what the bones alone cannot: how a living whale looks.
The artists made the body out of papier mache and carefully painted the whale to look as real as possible. Have you ever made something out of papier-mâche? Most kids have made things with papier-mâche but it probably didn't weigh more than 4,000 pounds like the Bishop Museum's whale.