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. 3 journeys so far, 1961 to 1993, 513 specimens between them.
3 collectors and expeditions118 days in the field5,539 km between stops185 photographed specimens
3 journeys match
Harold St.John
17 islands · Jun 1961 – Jan 1962
Harold St.John across 17 islands, June 1961 – January 1962294 specimens · 62 stops · 214 days · 4,975 km
F. Raymond Fosberg
7 islands · Jan – Mar 1968
F. Raymond Fosberg across 7 islands, January – March 1968177 specimens · 44 stops · 62 days
J. van der Land
8 islands of the Seychelles · Dec 1992 – Jan 1993
J. van der Land across 8 islands of the Seychelles, December 1992 – January 199342 specimens · 7 stops · 15 days · 564 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.