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, 1953 to 1959, 2,150 specimens between them.
3 collectors and expeditions143 days in the field15,836 km between stops1,051 photographed specimens
3 journeys match
Truman George Yuncker
11 islands of Tonga · Feb – Jun 1953
Truman George Yuncker across 11 islands of Tonga, February – June 19531,148 specimens · 59 stops · 103 days
Albert C. Smith
10 islands · Mar – Aug 1953
Albert C. Smith across 10 islands, March – August 1953869 specimens · 33 stops · 154 days · 15,233 km
E. Soakai
16 islands of Tonga · Jan – Aug 1959
E. Soakai across 16 islands of Tonga, January – August 1959133 specimens · 38 stops · 206 days · 603 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.