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, 1950 to 2009, 660 specimens between them.
4 collectors and expeditions119 days in the field24,471 km between stops587 photographed specimens
4 journeys match
Otto Degener
6 islands · Jun 1950 – Jan 1951
Otto Degener across 6 islands, June 1950 – January 1951256 specimens · 41 stops · 236 days · 2,367 km
Derral R. Herbst
5 islands · Aug – Dec 1974
Derral R. Herbst across 5 islands, August – December 1974178 specimens · 27 stops · 126 days · 1,297 km
Steven Perlman
7 islands · Jan – Apr 2009
Steven Perlman across 7 islands, January – April 2009157 specimens · 25 stops · 94 days · 15,389 km
W.J. Gilbert
6 islands · Jun – Aug 1963
W.J. Gilbert across 6 islands, June – August 196369 specimens · 15 stops · 62 days · 5,418 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.