I hope you had a wonderful summer filled with adventure! I recently got back from circumnavigating Iceland. It was a science-y vacation filled with a history and culture shaped strongly by its geology and geographic isolation. One of my favorite spots was the Husavik Whale Museum located in the northeast part of the country.
As we drove around the island, we chose to listen to Moby Dick, one of my favorite books made all the more interesting as we drive next to the violent North Atlantic and Iceland’s controversial whaling history.
As someone who use to work in a museum ( some would say “the” natural history museum) I’m hard to impress but this place impressed the heck out of me. Easy layout? Excellent information that was easy to read and conveyed fascinating info about whales? Context about the oceans? Sensitive yet culturally proud about Iceland’s whaling tradition? All check.
Perhaps the best part were the individual stories about each articulated whale skeleton- the story of who found it, how it washed up, how they cleaned it, why it’s special and thanks to all who helped it happen. The Museum was very charming and filled with a wonderful sense of how museums put together their exhibits and how whales fit into a global environmental, ecological and cultural context.
I know we usually focus on local museums, but if you ever find yourself in northeast Iceland or just meandering through a museum exhibit, remember how wonderful a tiny museum can be!
