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. 9 journeys so far, 1922 to 2004, 3,013 specimens between them.

8 collectors and expeditions311 days in the field29,426 km between stops1,974 photographed specimens

Edward Philpott Mumford

8 islands of French Polynesia · Aug – Dec 1929

Edward Philpott Mumford across 8 islands of French Polynesia, August – December 1929

774 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 1929

765 specimens · 27 stops · 140 days · 759 km

Wood Jones

22 islands · Jul – Dec 1922

Wood Jones across 22 islands, July – December 1922

478 specimens · 45 stops · 142 days · 3,823 km

M.-H Sachet

8 islands of French Polynesia · Nov 1974 – Feb 1975

M.-H Sachet across 8 islands of French Polynesia, November 1974 – February 1975

286 specimens · 34 stops · 108 days · 4,737 km

P.A. Schafer

4 islands of French Polynesia · Jan – Apr 1975

P.A. Schafer across 4 islands of French Polynesia, January – April 1975

231 specimens · 36 stops · 89 days · 329 km

B.G. Decker

8 islands · Sep – Nov 1974

B.G. Decker across 8 islands, September – November 1974

227 specimens · 24 stops · 63 days · 5,150 km

Steven Perlman

6 islands · Apr – Jul 2004

Steven Perlman across 6 islands, April – July 2004

114 specimens · 22 stops · 110 days · 9,780 km

Kenneth R. Wood

4 islands of French Polynesia · Jun – Jul 2004

Kenneth R. Wood across 4 islands of French Polynesia, June – July 2004

94 specimens · 13 stops · 41 days · 1,519 km

P.A. Schafer

4 islands of French Polynesia · Aug – Nov 1975

P.A. Schafer across 4 islands of French Polynesia, August – November 1975

44 specimens · 17 stops · 98 days · 2,534 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.