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. 4 journeys so far, 1935 to 1978, 6,014 specimens between them.
4 collectors and expeditions314 days in the field185,097 km between stops2,552 photographed specimens
4 journeys match
F. Raymond Fosberg
56 islands · Apr – Nov 1946
F. Raymond Fosberg across 56 islands, April – November 19462,439 specimens · 102 stops · 209 days · 105,682 km
Masahiko Takamatsu
31 islands · Dec 1935 – Jun 1936
Masahiko Takamatsu across 31 islands, December 1935 – June 19362,083 specimens · 77 stops · 205 days · 15,209 km


Edward Yataro Hosaka
31 islands · Apr – Aug 1946
Edward Yataro Hosaka across 31 islands, April – August 1946872 specimens · 51 stops · 110 days · 43,680 km
R.L. Stemmermann
28 islands · Nov 1977 – Feb 1978
R.L. Stemmermann across 28 islands, November 1977 – February 1978620 specimens · 70 stops · 102 days · 20,526 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.
