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, 1970 to 1972, 848 specimens between them.
3 collectors and expeditions104 days in the field91,521 km between stops
3 journeys match
Johnson Randall
15 islands of Palau · Mar – May 1970
Johnson Randall across 15 islands of Palau, March – May 1970432 specimens · 21 stops · 54 days · 44,188 km
A.R. Emery
11 islands of Palau · Mar – Apr 1970
A.R. Emery across 11 islands of Palau, March – April 1970294 specimens · 18 stops · 28 days · 43,958 km
Gerald R. Allen
17 islands of Australia · Nov 1971 – Jul 1972
Gerald R. Allen across 17 islands of Australia, November 1971 – July 1972122 specimens · 56 stops · 244 days · 3,375 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.