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. 6 journeys so far, 1945 to 2009, 1,863 specimens between them.
5 collectors and expeditions150 days in the field45,523 km between stops841 photographed specimens
6 journeys match
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
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
Benjamin C. Stone
13 islands · Nov 1955 – Feb 1956
Benjamin C. Stone across 13 islands, November 1955 – February 1956233 specimens · 36 stops · 93 days · 11,844 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
Vander Velde
6 islands of the Marshall Islands · 11–20 May 2009
Vander Velde across 6 islands of the Marshall Islands, 11–20 May 200987 specimens · 6 stops · 10 days
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.