While accumulating trash on the seaside, Riley came across a broken deck brush that looked like a piece of bone. Conventional scrimshaw consisted of ink drawings etched into whale bone by sailors, ornate performs frequently designed aboard whaling ships. By the 20th century, whale oil and whale bone objects ended up changed by fossil fuels and petroleum-primarily based plastics. “I started off wondering about how a ton of the persons who profited from the whale oil market ended up heading into the fossil gas marketplace,” Riley stated. “The ones who acquired immortalized in scrimshaw collections have been normally ship captains or ship entrepreneurs, or notable culture men and women who…