Recently a patron came to us with one heck of a story. It sounded like some kind of urban legend and it left us with a desire to discover the truth! When we did a little digging (not literally) we uncovered a wild tale that just seemed to get weirder the more we looked into it. It is important to remember that there wasn’t a lot to do for fun in the 1880s, so when a traveling exhibit came to town, people generally flocked to see it. In July of 1882, P.T. Barnum and his gang of elephants, giraffes, lions, and other rare species came to the city, and people happily paid good money to see the show. Just a few days later, another group of guys decided to try to make some money on their little traveling show, but it didn’t work out quite as well.
As a lawyer from Massachusetts, George Newton’s profession had been quite legitimate until he decided to purchase the 80,000-pound carcass of a right whale for $450 in 1880. Now why does one do such a thing? Good question. Somehow, George, along with an associate by the name of Fred J. Englehardt, got it into their minds that a traveling whale carcass would make them a lot of money! They started a company called Pioneer Inland Whaling Association and their model was simple. They would place the whale on a train car, and when they got to their destination they could set up a tent, displaying the whale inside, and charge 25 cents for adults and 15 cents for kids. Aquariums were few and far between, and none had any whales on display, so it stands to reason that some people might be interested in seeing a 60-foot whale up close. A real educational experience! When you think about it like that, it seems like they meant well. However, they didn’t take into consideration how to properly preserve this massive dead mammal.
When the whale first came on shore, it was filled with ice and salt, placed on a train bed and shipped to Chicago for display. Luckily, the January cold kept the whale from decomposing. By April of 1881, however, the whale was beginning to stink and a newspaper mentioned that the partners had brought in butchers to remove “six or eight barrels of superfluous matter” from the inside of the whale. A large airtight box was built so that embalmers could properly preserve “His whaleship” (Yes, they named him. His Royal Highness, The Prince of Whales. No, I’m not joking) and soaked him in the fluids for about 24 hours. This sounds like they tried their best and it seemed to hold up for a while. “H.R.H The Prince of Whales” toured for over a year to cities like Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago, and Pittsburg, being viewed by over half a million people! For most of these folks, it was the first time they had seen a real whale.
Within less than two months of the whale’s so-called embalming treatment, he began to stink again and was thrown out of Detroit on account of its excessive smell. By the time the whale made its way to Poughkeepsie for a three-day stay, August 3rd, 4th and 5th, of 1882, it barely resembled its former self and the stench was unbearable. By this time, Newton had sold his interests in the endeavor and Fred J. Englehardt was still trying to keep the show alive (well…you know). While the Poughkeepsie Journal did advertise about the whale coming to the city and people seemed to show excitement at first, the whale (and its keepers) soon wore out its welcome.
The Journal mentioned that the Pioneer Inland Whaling Association was losing money and had been for a while. They had debts, not only to the Morgan House Hotel here in the city, but various other cities along their route, totaling at least $1,000. Mr. Nye, the owner of the Morgan House, had enough and seized the whale as payment for the debt and the Journal jokingly claimed, “Now that the Morgan house has seized the whale the guests may expect whale steaks.” They also mentioned that Mr. Nye was thinking of burying the whale behind the Morgan House, somewhere on Catharine Street: “He has dug trenches in the rear of the Morgan House and had a man pacing out the whale’s length Saturday afternoon to see if there was room enough in the trenches to put him in.” But they didn’t bury him! The whale remained near the docks through August and people were complaining, “The odor from it permeates the whole lower part of the city.”
Finally, in September of 1882, the whale, along with its tents, train car, and other materials, was sold at auction to a man named J. Homer Hildreth of Chicago for $2,000. By mid-September he had left the city and what happened to him after that remains a mystery. It is sad to think that his touring days came to a halt here in Poughkeepsie of all places. But it is good to know he’s not buried on Catharine Street!
References:
Poughkeepsie Eagle News: 30 July 1882, 1 Aug 1882, 5 Aug 1882, 6 Aug 1882, 7 Aug 1882, 18 Aug 1882, 10 Sept 1882, 15 Sept 1882
The Collections of George H. Newton (1880-1884) from the Mystic Seaport Museum, https://research.mysticseaport.org/coll/coll197/
Jones, Jamie L. “Fish out of Water: The “Prince of Whales” Sideshow and the Environmental
Humanities.” Configurations, Volume 25, Number 2, Spring 2017, pp. 189-214
Jackson Citizen Patriot: 8 July 1881
Images:
Morgan House: Color-tinted photograph of the Morgan House exterior, in Poughkeepsie. 1900 645-1PC5
Advertisements showing the Monster Whale from Daily Patriot Newspaper - 1881