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. 12 journeys so far, 1944 to 1949, 6,007 specimens between them.

7 collectors and expeditions392 days in the field245,806 km between stops2,870 photographed specimens

F. Raymond Fosberg

56 islands · Apr – Nov 1946

F. Raymond Fosberg across 56 islands, April – November 1946

2,439 specimens · 102 stops · 209 days · 105,682 km

Edward Yataro Hosaka

31 islands · Apr – Aug 1946

Edward Yataro Hosaka across 31 islands, April – August 1946

872 specimens · 51 stops · 110 days · 43,680 km

Harold St.John

13 islands · Jul – Nov 1946

Harold St.John across 13 islands, July – November 1946

590 specimens · 27 stops · 120 days · 9,900 km

R.S. Cowan

11 islands · Aug – Sep 1946

R.S. Cowan across 11 islands, August – September 1946

484 specimens · 17 stops · 41 days · 1,023 km

Wm. R. Taylor

6 islands · Feb – Aug 1946

Wm. R. Taylor across 6 islands, February – August 1946

242 specimens · 52 stops · 156 days · 5,901 km

Harold St.John

7 islands · Dec 1946 – Feb 1947

Harold St.John across 7 islands, December 1946 – February 1947

291 specimens · 17 stops · 67 days · 4,927 km

Donald P. Rogers

11 islands · Apr – Sep 1946

Donald P. Rogers across 11 islands, April – September 1946

275 specimens · 28 stops · 162 days · 6,269 km

R.S. Cowan

3 islands · Dec 1946 – Jan 1947

R.S. Cowan in Hawaiʻi Island, Ebon Atoll and Kauaʻi, December 1946 – January 1947

243 specimens · 15 stops · 44 days · 4,673 km

Harold St.John

15 islands · Dec 1945 – May 1946

Harold St.John across 15 islands, December 1945 – May 1946

194 specimens · 23 stops · 147 days · 16,487 km

Harold St.John

11 islands · Jul – Aug 1949

Harold St.John across 11 islands, July – August 1949

180 specimens · 15 stops · 30 days · 6,890 km

Edwin Horace Bryan Jr.

5 islands of the Marshall Islands · Jul – Aug 1944

Edwin Horace Bryan Jr. across 5 islands of the Marshall Islands, July – August 1944

96 specimens · 21 stops · 32 days · 35,937 km

Harold St.John

3 islands · Mar – Apr 1949

Harold St.John in Niʻihau, Nihoa and Enewetak Atoll, March – April 1949

101 specimens · 4 stops · 14 days · 4,437 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.