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
12 journeys match
F. Raymond Fosberg
56 islands · Apr – Nov 1946
F. Raymond Fosberg across 56 islands, April – November 19462,439 specimens · 102 stops · 209 days · 105,682 km


Edward Yataro Hosaka
31 islands · Apr – Aug 1946
Edward Yataro Hosaka across 31 islands, April – August 1946872 specimens · 51 stops · 110 days · 43,680 km
Harold St.John
13 islands · Jul – Nov 1946
Harold St.John across 13 islands, July – November 1946590 specimens · 27 stops · 120 days · 9,900 km
R.S. Cowan
11 islands · Aug – Sep 1946
R.S. Cowan across 11 islands, August – September 1946484 specimens · 17 stops · 41 days · 1,023 km
Wm. R. Taylor
6 islands · Feb – Aug 1946
Wm. R. Taylor across 6 islands, February – August 1946242 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 1947291 specimens · 17 stops · 67 days · 4,927 km
Donald P. Rogers
11 islands · Apr – Sep 1946
Donald P. Rogers across 11 islands, April – September 1946275 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 1947243 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 1946194 specimens · 23 stops · 147 days · 16,487 km
Harold St.John
11 islands · Jul – Aug 1949
Harold St.John across 11 islands, July – August 1949180 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 194496 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 1949101 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.
