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, 1935 to 2008, 6,440 specimens between them.
4 collectors and expeditions179 days in the field87,377 km between stops5,523 photographed specimens
5 journeys match



S. Ito
19 islands of the United States · Dec 1935 – May 1936
S. Ito across 19 islands of the United States, December 1935 – May 19363,668 specimens · 32 stops · 178 days · 11,506 km
Ernani Meñez
50 islands · Jun – Sep 1960
Ernani Meñez across 50 islands, June – September 19602,317 specimens · 38 stops · 100 days · 40,857 km
Robert Hobdy
17 islands · Apr – Aug 1982
Robert Hobdy across 17 islands, April – August 1982250 specimens · 24 stops · 106 days · 16,977 km
Steven Perlman
9 islands · Sep – Dec 2008
Steven Perlman across 9 islands, September – December 2008122 specimens · 20 stops · 81 days · 10,371 km
Steven Perlman
10 islands · Dec 2007 – Feb 2008
Steven Perlman across 10 islands, December 2007 – February 200883 specimens · 18 stops · 53 days · 7,666 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.
