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. 52 journeys so far, 1903 to 2008, 16,113 specimens between them.
30 collectors and expeditions1,344 days in the field540,263 km between stops9,856 photographed specimens
52 journeys match
A.W. Wisner
Tutuila and Tutulia · 14–28 Aug 1959
A.W. Wisner in Tutuila and Tutulia, 14–28 August 195968 specimens · 5 stops · 15 days
W.A. Whistler
5 islands · Dec 1975 – Jan 1976
W.A. Whistler across 5 islands, December 1975 – January 197643 specimens · 13 stops · 21 days · 509 km
M.-H Sachet
4 islands · Jun – Jul 1976
M.-H Sachet across 4 islands, June – July 197646 specimens · 8 stops · 28 days · 2,621 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.
