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. 11 journeys so far, 1903 to 1981, 3,475 specimens between them.

9 collectors and expeditions538 days in the field186,822 km between stops2,395 photographed specimens

Leonard J. Brass

13 islands · Jul 1932 – Jan 1933

Leonard J. Brass across 13 islands, July 1932 – January 1933

816 specimens · 69 stops · 206 days · 10,057 km

Grady L. Webster

10 islands · Jun – Sep 1968

Grady L. Webster across 10 islands, June – September 1968

510 specimens · 60 stops · 111 days · 38,525 km

M.M. Fleischer

13 islands · Feb – Jun 1903

M.M. Fleischer across 13 islands, February – June 1903

411 specimens · 33 stops · 113 days · 52,279 km

Harold St.John

11 islands · Oct 1957 – Feb 1958

Harold St.John across 11 islands, October 1957 – February 1958

325 specimens · 61 stops · 125 days · 23,583 km

Leonard J. Brass

5 islands · Jan – May 1932

Leonard J. Brass across 5 islands, January – May 1932

291 specimens · 44 stops · 120 days · 1,876 km

Richard Hildreth

6 islands · Jul – Sep 1968

Richard Hildreth across 6 islands, July – September 1968

322 specimens · 44 stops · 75 days · 8,666 km

Benjamin C. Stone

7 islands · Mar – Sep 1971

Benjamin C. Stone across 7 islands, March – September 1971

236 specimens · 43 stops · 182 days · 10,793 km

H.U. Stauffer

10 islands · Dec 1963 – Apr 1964

H.U. Stauffer across 10 islands, December 1963 – April 1964

165 specimens · 43 stops · 140 days · 17,939 km

Benjamin C. Stone

5 islands · Jul – Sep 1981

Benjamin C. Stone across 5 islands, July – September 1981

220 specimens · 21 stops · 49 days · 9,878 km

F. Raymond Fosberg

8 islands · Sep – Oct 1960

F. Raymond Fosberg across 8 islands, September – October 1960

112 specimens · 22 stops · 56 days · 12,270 km

Judson Linsley Gressitt

New Guinea · Aug – Dec 1958

Judson Linsley Gressitt in New Guinea, August – December 1958

67 specimens · 26 stops · 110 days · 956 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.