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, 1923 to 1971, 4,876 specimens between them.
6 collectors and expeditions476 days in the field153,060 km between stops2,196 photographed specimens
12 journeys match

Johnson Randall
25 islands · Mar – Dec 1968
Johnson Randall across 25 islands, March – December 19681,676 specimens · 99 stops · 261 days · 106,577 km



Edward Philpott Mumford
8 islands of French Polynesia · Aug – Dec 1929
Edward Philpott Mumford across 8 islands of French Polynesia, August – December 1929774 specimens · 26 stops · 140 days · 795 km



Alastair M. Adamson
9 islands of French Polynesia · Aug – Dec 1929
Alastair M. Adamson across 9 islands of French Polynesia, August – December 1929765 specimens · 27 stops · 140 days · 759 km
Gerrit Parmele Wilder
4 islands · Feb – Sep 1929
Gerrit Parmele Wilder across 4 islands, February – September 1929605 specimens · 77 stops · 205 days · 5,048 km


Gerrit Parmele Wilder
18 islands · Nov 1924 – May 1925
Gerrit Parmele Wilder across 18 islands, November 1924 – May 1925244 specimens · 43 stops · 188 days · 15,411 km



Alastair M. Adamson
Tahiti and Moorea · Oct – Dec 1928
Alastair M. Adamson in Tahiti and Moorea, October – December 1928203 specimens · 15 stops · 49 days · 153 km

Gerrit Parmele Wilder
7 islands · Aug – Sep 1923
Gerrit Parmele Wilder across 7 islands, August – September 1923171 specimens · 15 stops · 36 days · 5,391 km

Gerrit Parmele Wilder
3 islands · Jul – Dec 1926
Gerrit Parmele Wilder in Moorea, Tahiti and Penrhyn Atoll, July – December 192677 specimens · 29 stops · 145 days · 451 km
Johnson Randall
5 islands · Feb – May 1956
Johnson Randall across 5 islands, February – May 1956111 specimens · 14 stops · 108 days · 128 km
Charles Walters
Tahiti and Oʻahu · May – Sep 1967
Charles Walters in Tahiti and Oʻahu, May – September 1967110 specimens · 14 stops · 126 days · 8,847 km



Dennis M. Devaney
8 islands · Feb – Mar 1971
Dennis M. Devaney across 8 islands, February – March 197190 specimens · 13 stops · 41 days · 1,684 km


Dennis M. Devaney
16 islands · Sep – Oct 1967
Dennis M. Devaney across 16 islands, September – October 196750 specimens · 18 stops · 56 days · 7,816 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.
