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. 4 journeys so far, 1982 to 1986, 328 specimens between them.
3 collectors and expeditions84 days in the field22,380 km between stops92 photographed specimens
4 journeys match
W.A. Whistler
9 islands · Apr – Jun 1985
W.A. Whistler across 9 islands, April – June 1985140 specimens · 32 stops · 75 days · 9,570 km
W.R. Sykes
3 islands of the Cook Islands · Aug – Sep 1982
W.R. Sykes in Rarotonga, Mitiaro and Mauke, August – September 198287 specimens · 24 stops · 25 days
W.A. Whistler
4 islands of the Cook Islands · Jul – Aug 1986
W.A. Whistler across 4 islands of the Cook Islands, July – August 198656 specimens · 20 stops · 58 days · 5,124 km
M.D. Merlin
5 islands · Jul – Aug 1986
M.D. Merlin across 5 islands, July – August 198645 specimens · 8 stops · 41 days · 7,686 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.