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. 3 journeys so far, 1923 to 1977, 2,773 specimens between them.
3 collectors and expeditions202 days in the field54,794 km between stops2,120 photographed specimens
3 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
Harold St.John
6 islands · Nov 1955 – Jan 1956
Harold St.John across 6 islands, November 1955 – January 1956293 specimens · 22 stops · 65 days · 13,814 km
G.J. Spence
6 islands · Jan – Mar 1977
G.J. Spence across 6 islands, January – March 197788 specimens · 14 stops · 63 days · 10,053 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.
