The Allan Forbes collection contains some 2,100 prints, paintings, and other works which feature whales. Connected by cetaceans, Forbes’s collection presents a kaleidoscope of facets of European and Japanese print culture, including natural history, maps, celestial spheres, maritime history, political cartoons and spectacles, and the whaling industry. Materials date from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries; most were produced in Britain, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the United States, and Japan.

Allan Forbes (1874-1955), son of one of Boston’s longstanding high-society families, was a successful banker and an avid collector. He joined the nascent State Street Trust Company shortly after graduating from Harvard in 1897, propelling it, over the course of his career, into an influential Boston financial institution. His collecting interests were varied, encompassing polo horses, antique furniture, military currency, and whale-related prints. He donated his whaling collections to the Hart Nautical Museum in 1940. Forbes also channeled his interests into writing some 39 historical pamphlets on maritime and New England history, published through the State Street Trust.

Title: Allan Forbes Collection

Creator: Allan Forbes, collector

Dates: 1502-1940

Extent: 2,165 items

Language: English, French, Dutch, and Japanese

Repository: MIT Museum

Access: Open for research by appointment and online

Copyright: Some restrictions may apply

Credit: MIT Museum; Gift of Allan Forbes