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. 5 journeys so far, 1934 to 1967, 13,484 specimens between them.
5 collectors and expeditions368 days in the field62,921 km between stops12,148 photographed specimens
5 journeys match



Donald Anderson
34 islands · Apr – Oct 1934
Donald Anderson across 34 islands, April – October 19348,872 specimens · 35 stops · 202 days · 16,221 km
F. Raymond Fosberg
32 islands · Apr – Oct 1934
F. Raymond Fosberg across 32 islands, April – October 19342,503 specimens · 85 stops · 201 days · 23,387 km



Elwood Curtin Zimmerman
21 islands · Feb – Oct 1934
Elwood Curtin Zimmerman across 21 islands, February – October 19341,714 specimens · 56 stops · 248 days · 12,587 km
Jean Maireau
3 islands · Jun – Jul 1934
Jean Maireau in Rapa, Karapo Rahi and Pitcairn Island, June – July 1934345 specimens · 20 stops · 55 days · 2,910 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.
