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. 9 journeys so far, 1923 to 1940, 5,138 specimens between them.
6 collectors and expeditions361 days in the field46,669 km between stops3,716 photographed specimens
9 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

E.P. Hume
3 islands · Jun – Sep 1931
E.P. Hume in Savaii, Tutuila and Upolu, June – September 1931761 specimens · 47 stops · 92 days · 225 km



Elwood Curtin Zimmerman
4 islands · May – Aug 1940
Elwood Curtin Zimmerman across 4 islands, May – August 1940616 specimens · 10 stops · 86 days · 181 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

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 · Dec 1931 – Feb 1932
Erling Christophersen in Tutuila, Oʻahu and Upolu, December 1931 – February 1932148 specimens · 8 stops · 47 days · 8,662 km



Otto Herman Swezey
6 islands · Jul – Sep 1923
Otto Herman Swezey across 6 islands, July – September 192395 specimens · 15 stops · 64 days · 824 km


Erling Christophersen
Tutuila and Upolu · 24–29 Jun 1931
Erling Christophersen in Tutuila and Upolu, 24–29 June 193153 specimens · 3 stops · 6 days · 145 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.
