Bishop MuseumExplore

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

Edwin Horace Bryan Jr.

85 islands · Nov 1923 – Nov 1924

Edwin Horace Bryan Jr. across 85 islands, November 1923 – November 1924

2,392 specimens · 109 stops · 342 days · 30,927 km

Erling Christophersen

3 islands · Aug – Sep 1929

Erling Christophersen in Upolu, Tutuila and Ofu, August – September 1929

587 specimens · 24 stops · 37 days · 31 km

Erling Christophersen

5 islands · Oct – Nov 1929

Erling Christophersen across 5 islands, October – November 1929

315 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 1920

175 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 1921

260 specimens · 10 stops · 33 days · 289 km

Gerrit Parmele Wilder

7 islands · Aug – Sep 1923

Gerrit Parmele Wilder across 7 islands, August – September 1923

171 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 1925

126 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 1925

143 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 1925

170 specimens · 9 stops · 38 days

Otto Herman Swezey

6 islands · Jul – Sep 1923

Otto Herman Swezey across 6 islands, July – September 1923

95 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.