Engraving of a dramatic sea scene showing a group of sailors hunting a massive sea creature resembling a whale or sea monster. The creature dominates the center of the composition as multiple small boats surround it with men wielding spears. Several other sea monsters are depicted in the background, some washed ashore, while ships sail on the distant horizon. The image is rendered in intricate linework and includes a Latin caption beneath the scene: "Corpora dum gaudent immmania tollere Cetae / Sic variis telis, vario feriuntur arisus."

Gallery Label: Monsters of the Deep, Ronald A. (1954) and Carol S. Kurtz Photography Gallery

How do you draw a picture of something you've heard about but never seen? How do you see it in the first place?

This is a problem that has bedeviled scientists for centuries. Today, we hunt for ways to visualize black holes, gravitational waves, and deep-sea life. Five hundred years ago, people likewise tried to make sense of phenomena like comets and earthquakes. They also sought to understand the mysterious, half-seen creatures that lurked beneath the ocean's surface.

This exhibit traces how Europeans became acquainted with whales, from the large, wild, and toothy monsters that fill the earliest images of the sea to the mammals we know today. It was a scientific process, one that was aided by new information from sailors, scholars, and beachcombers; new ways of recording that information; and an active market for distributing images and knowledge.

Join us as we trawl these monster-filled depths in search of whales.