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, 1956 to 2005, 321 specimens between them.
4 collectors and expeditions79 days in the field39,307 km between stops
4 journeys match
station
17 islands · Aug – Dec 1956
station, August – December 195676 specimens · 33 stops · 130 days · 25,742 km
Brian D. Greene
Kiritimati Atoll and Kiritimati Atoll (Christmas Island) · 19–29 Jul 2005
Brian D. Greene in Kiritimati Atoll and Kiritimati Atoll (Christmas Island), 19–29 July 2005131 specimens · 7 stops · 11 days · 193 km
V Hugh M. Smith cruise 35
12 islands · Aug – Sep 1956
V Hugh M. Smith cruise 35, August – September 195650 specimens · 25 stops · 60 days · 13,190 km
John L. Earle
Kiritimati Atoll · 21–30 Jul 2005
John L. Earle in Kiritimati Atoll, 21–30 July 200564 specimens · 6 stops · 10 days · 182 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.