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. 10 journeys so far, 1946 to 1988, 4,528 specimens between them.

7 collectors and expeditions400 days in the field280,071 km between stops1,889 photographed specimens

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

F. Raymond Fosberg

21 islands · Nov 1951 – Apr 1952

F. Raymond Fosberg across 21 islands, November 1951 – April 1952

672 specimens · 57 stops · 145 days · 13,644 km

Maxwell S. Doty

11 islands · Sep 1953 – Aug 1954

Maxwell S. Doty across 11 islands, September 1953 – August 1954

309 specimens · 40 stops · 315 days · 78,333 km

Wm. R. Taylor

6 islands · Feb – Aug 1946

Wm. R. Taylor across 6 islands, February – August 1946

242 specimens · 52 stops · 156 days · 5,901 km

Derral R. Herbst

5 islands · Feb – Apr 1988

Derral R. Herbst across 5 islands, February – April 1988

201 specimens · 16 stops · 49 days · 7,903 km

Harold St.John

11 islands · Jul – Aug 1949

Harold St.John across 11 islands, July – August 1949

180 specimens · 15 stops · 30 days · 6,890 km

Johnson Randall

3 islands of the United States · Oct – Dec 1967

Johnson Randall in Enewetak Atoll, Oʻahu and Tahiti, October – December 1967

238 specimens · 14 stops · 40 days · 20,674 km

station

17 islands · Aug – Dec 1956

station, August – December 1956

76 specimens · 33 stops · 130 days · 25,742 km

Maxwell S. Doty

5 islands · Jan – May 1959

Maxwell S. Doty across 5 islands, January – May 1959

70 specimens · 17 stops · 110 days · 10,865 km

Harold St.John

3 islands · Mar – Apr 1949

Harold St.John in Niʻihau, Nihoa and Enewetak Atoll, March – April 1949

101 specimens · 4 stops · 14 days · 4,437 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.