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. 2 journeys so far, 1930 to 1935, 922 specimens between them.
2 collectors and expeditions88 days in the field21,610 km between stops801 photographed specimens
2 journeys match



Pacific Entomological Survey
6 islands of French Polynesia · May 1930 – Jan 1931
Pacific Entomological Survey, May 1930 – January 1931797 specimens · 34 stops · 228 days · 8,102 km
J.C. Chapin
15 islands · Oct 1934 – Jan 1935
J.C. Chapin across 15 islands, October 1934 – January 1935125 specimens · 26 stops · 107 days · 13,508 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.
