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. 12 journeys so far, 1935 to 1994, 16,156 specimens between them.

10 collectors and expeditions565 days in the field517,498 km between stops12,162 photographed specimens

Yoshio KondoKay Kondo

22 islands of Palau · Dec 1935 – Jun 1936

Yoshio KondoKay Kondo across 22 islands of Palau, December 1935 – June 1936

6,659 specimens · 16 stops · 189 days · 15,221 km

Yoshio KondoKay Kondo

23 islands · May – Dec 1949

Yoshio KondoKay Kondo across 23 islands, May – December 1949

2,551 specimens · 57 stops · 218 days · 71,593 km

F. Raymond Fosberg

56 islands · Apr – Nov 1946

F. Raymond Fosberg across 56 islands, April – November 1946

2,439 specimens · 102 stops · 209 days · 105,682 km

Ernani Meñez

50 islands · Jun – Sep 1960

Ernani Meñez across 50 islands, June – September 1960

2,317 specimens · 38 stops · 100 days · 40,857 km

R.L. Stemmermann

28 islands · Nov 1977 – Feb 1978

R.L. Stemmermann across 28 islands, November 1977 – February 1978

620 specimens · 70 stops · 102 days · 20,526 km

Johnson Randall

15 islands of Palau · Mar – May 1970

Johnson Randall across 15 islands of Palau, March – May 1970

432 specimens · 21 stops · 54 days · 44,188 km

Robert Hobdy

17 islands · Apr – Aug 1982

Robert Hobdy across 17 islands, April – August 1982

250 specimens · 24 stops · 106 days · 16,977 km

Harold St.John

15 islands · Dec 1945 – May 1946

Harold St.John across 15 islands, December 1945 – May 1946

194 specimens · 23 stops · 147 days · 16,487 km

Benjamin C. Stone

14 islands · Jun – Sep 1956

Benjamin C. Stone across 14 islands, June – September 1956

168 specimens · 36 stops · 116 days · 49,852 km

A.R. Emery

11 islands of Palau · Mar – Apr 1970

A.R. Emery across 11 islands of Palau, March – April 1970

294 specimens · 18 stops · 28 days · 43,958 km

Johnson Randall

8 islands · Jun – Sep 1986

Johnson Randall across 8 islands, June – September 1986

167 specimens · 23 stops · 68 days · 75,616 km

Derral R. Herbst

8 islands · May – Jun 1994

Derral R. Herbst across 8 islands, May – June 1994

65 specimens · 7 stops · 44 days · 16,541 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.