For most people, hearing about school field trips evoke memories of going to museums, government buildings, or historical sites. But at Maryknoll’s Junior College in Lakewood, New Jersey, some lucky Biology students got the once in a lifetime opportunity to dissect a whale that had recently been washed ashore at a local beach. Below see the journal entry from that day.
“Tuesday, January 27th [1948]: A Free Day was granted to the students, so that they could study for the Midyear Examinations which begin tomorrow…Several carloads of the priests drove to Mantoloking, N.J. this afternoon to see the 63 foot, 30 ton whale which washed ashore on this nearby beach last Sunday. [A] Biology professor later returned to the whale with several of his Biology students armed with cleavers, axes, shovels, large kitchen knives, and buckets of formaldehyde…Said [the professor]: “My first dissection job….it might as well be a big one!”
Students from Maryknoll’s Junior College in Lakewood dissect a whale that had washed up on a beach in New Jersey on January 27, 1948
