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. 14 journeys so far, 1970 to 1980, 5,686 specimens between them.

12 collectors and expeditions519 days in the field113,198 km between stops687 photographed specimens

Johnson Randall

27 islands · Dec 1970 – May 1971

Johnson Randall across 27 islands, December 1970 – May 1971

2,367 specimens · 98 stops · 175 days · 9,120 km

Dean B. Cannoy

23 islands · Dec 1970 – May 1971

Dean B. Cannoy across 23 islands, December 1970 – May 1971

1,582 specimens · 82 stops · 159 days · 7,718 km

Betsy H. Gagne

11 islands · Jun – Sep 1977

Betsy H. Gagne across 11 islands, June – September 1977

480 specimens · 22 stops · 84 days · 12,628 km

M.-H Sachet

8 islands of French Polynesia · Nov 1974 – Feb 1975

M.-H Sachet across 8 islands of French Polynesia, November 1974 – February 1975

286 specimens · 34 stops · 108 days · 4,737 km

W. Teraoka

4 islands · Apr 1979 – Mar 1980

W. Teraoka across 4 islands, April 1979 – March 1980

183 specimens · 58 stops · 348 days · 23,334 km

B.G. Decker

8 islands · Sep – Nov 1974

B.G. Decker across 8 islands, September – November 1974

227 specimens · 24 stops · 63 days · 5,150 km

J. Raynal

7 islands · Jun – Aug 1973

J. Raynal across 7 islands, June – August 1973

117 specimens · 29 stops · 79 days · 4,474 km

J. Raynal

9 islands · Jun – Oct 1971

J. Raynal across 9 islands, June – October 1971

106 specimens · 42 stops · 103 days · 21,113 km

G.W. Gillett

4 islands · Jul – Sep 1970

G.W. Gillett across 4 islands, July – September 1970

94 specimens · 13 stops · 74 days · 5,743 km

Noel Louis Hilmer Krauss

7 islands · Nov 1977 – Feb 1978

Noel Louis Hilmer Krauss across 7 islands, November 1977 – February 1978

61 specimens · 19 stops · 80 days · 5,557 km

N. Hallé

3 islands of French Polynesia · May – Jun 1979

N. Hallé in Tubuai, Tahiti and Marotiri, May – June 1979

50 specimens · 16 stops · 41 days

Steven L. Montgomery

7 islands of French Polynesia · Jul – Sep 1977

Steven L. Montgomery across 7 islands of French Polynesia, July – September 1977

45 specimens · 12 stops · 71 days · 4,361 km

H. Kennedy

3 islands · Aug – Sep 1979

H. Kennedy in Tahiti, Hawaiʻi Island and Upolu, August – September 1979

42 specimens · 11 stops · 33 days · 6,642 km

M.-H Sachet

4 islands · Jun – Jul 1976

M.-H Sachet across 4 islands, June – July 1976

46 specimens · 8 stops · 28 days · 2,621 km

How a journey is found

Every specimen with a full date (year, month and day; a bare “1 January” is treated as a missing day) and a named collector is a diary entry. For each collector the days are read in order, each day given the place most of its labels name. The place where a collector spent more than forty percent of their days, and at least sixty of them, is home: days there are left out.

A gap of more than 21 days between collecting days ends one journey and begins the next. A journey must run five to four hundred days, hold at least forty specimens and touch at least two places. Within it, consecutive days inside the same or a neighbouring tenth-of-a-degree cell (about eleven kilometres) are one stop; the stop’s point is the mean of its labels’ coordinates, or the island’s centre when none carry any.

Companions are collectors whose own labels put them in the same cell on the same days. Staff can name a journey, write about it, feature it or hide it; those words survive every rebuild. Everything else is read off the specimens and rebuilt by harvest.mjs expeditions as the records improve.