Journeys
The expeditions, reassembled
Every dated label is a diary entry. Read a collector’s labels in order and the voyage comes back: the islands in sequence, the days at each, the specimens from every stop. 10 journeys so far, 1920 to 1929, 4,434 specimens between them.
7 collectors and expeditions338 days in the field55,700 km between stops3,102 photographed specimens
10 journeys match


Edwin Horace Bryan Jr.
85 islands · Nov 1923 – Nov 1924
Edwin Horace Bryan Jr. across 85 islands, November 1923 – November 19242,392 specimens · 109 stops · 342 days · 30,927 km
Erling Christophersen
3 islands · Aug – Sep 1929
Erling Christophersen in Upolu, Tutuila and Ofu, August – September 1929587 specimens · 24 stops · 37 days · 31 km

Erling Christophersen
5 islands · Oct – Nov 1929
Erling Christophersen across 5 islands, October – November 1929315 specimens · 20 stops · 44 days · 283 km
William A. Setchell
3 islands · Jun – Jul 1920
William A. Setchell in Tutuila, Aunuu and Rose Atoll, June – July 1920175 specimens · 32 stops · 51 days · 21 km
A.J. Eames
Upolu and Tutuila · Feb – Mar 1921
A.J. Eames in Upolu and Tutuila, February – March 1921260 specimens · 10 stops · 33 days · 289 km

Gerrit Parmele Wilder
7 islands · Aug – Sep 1923
Gerrit Parmele Wilder across 7 islands, August – September 1923171 specimens · 15 stops · 36 days · 5,391 km

Erling Christophersen
3 islands · Oct 1924 – Jan 1925
Erling Christophersen in Oʻahu, Tutuila and Hawaiʻi Island, October 1924 – January 1925126 specimens · 16 stops · 85 days · 17,725 km
D. Wesley Garber
3 islands of American Samoa · May – Jul 1925
D. Wesley Garber in Ofu, Olosega and Tutuila, May – July 1925143 specimens · 16 stops · 42 days · 209 km
D. Wesley Garber
Tutuila and Goat Island · Nov 1924 – Jan 1925
D. Wesley Garber in Tutuila and Goat Island, November 1924 – January 1925170 specimens · 9 stops · 38 days



Otto Herman Swezey
6 islands · Jul – Sep 1923
Otto Herman Swezey across 6 islands, July – September 192395 specimens · 15 stops · 64 days · 824 km
How a journey is found
Every specimen with a full date and a known collector is a diary entry. The days are read in order; a gap of more than three weeks ends one journey and starts the next. Days spent where a collector lived most of their life are home, not travel, and are left out.
A journey needs at least five days, forty specimens and two places. Within it, a run of days spent within about ten kilometres is one stop; the stop’s point is the middle of the labels that carry coordinates, or the island’s centre when none do.
Companions are the people whose own labels put them in the same place on the same days. Staff can name a journey, write about it and feature it; everything else here is read straight off the specimens, and is rebuilt as the records improve.
