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Gum scraper

Image Gum scraper

TLF ID R1769

This is a gum scraper used in the New Zealand whaling industry in about 1840. It is made from a semi-circular iron blade and has wooden handles, one of which is bound with string. It is 25 cm high and 17 cm wide.

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Educational details

Educational value
  • This asset indicates that the whaling industry was operating about 1840 in New Zealand waters - whaling was New Zealand's first significant industry and an important point of early contact between Mäori and Europeans.
  • It demonstrates a type of technology used in the whaling industry in Australia and New Zealand in about 1840 - this tool was used for scraping the residual flesh from whalebone.
  • It suggests that the whale industry extracted maximum value from each whale carcass - pliable baleen, a substance similar to human fingernail, from the jaw was scraped for eventual use in the manufacture of fashion items such as women's corsets and stays and flexible buggy whips, the residual flesh was dried and burned as fuel to heat the pots used for extracting oil from the whale blubber.
Topics Tools Whale hunting

Other details

Contributors
  • Contributor
  • Name: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
  • Organization: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
  • Description: Content provider
  • URL: http://www.tepapa.govt.nz
  • Name: Education Services Australia
  • Organization: Education Services Australia
  • Description: Data manager
  • Copyright Holder
  • Name: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
  • Organization: Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
  • Name: Guard family
  • Organization: Guard family
  • Publisher
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organization: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Description: Publisher
  • Address: VIC, AUSTRALIA
  • URL: http://www.esa.edu.au
  • Resource metadata contributed by
  • Name: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Organisation: Education Services Australia Ltd
  • Address: AUSTRALIA
  • URL: www.esa.edu.au
Access profile
  • Colour independence
  • Device independence
  • Hearing independence
Learning Resource Type
  • Image
Rights
  • © Education Services Australia Ltd and Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2013, except where indicated under Acknowledgements