Bowhead Articulation: Digital Modeling

The articulation design for the bowhead whale was made possible at the project’s earliest stages through a laser scanned model. With a digital model of the whale, we could design the physical articulation, and by scanning and scaling bones from other whales in our collection and in the collections of other museums, we could make the replicas needed to complete the skeleton. In frame, Idaho Visualization Laboratory technicians, and Lee Post. 2013 IVL work at UAMN filmed by Kelsey Gobroski.
The bowhead whale is an iconic Arctic species
inextricably tied to Native cultures in western
and northern Alaska and a rare success story
in marine mammal conservation. This skeleton
is from a young male harvested by Alaska
Native hunters in 1963 near Utqiaġvik
(formerly Barrow), the northernmost point
in the United States.
This specimen has been in
UAMN’s mammal collection
since 1965. The skeleton will be articulated and suspended
from the lobby ceiling in
Spring 2021. Project funded by the Bill Stroecker Foundation.

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What a cool job you guys have! I'm an Idaho resident will this whale be on display in a museum in Idaho?