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, 1982 to 1988, 1,507 specimens between them.
5 collectors and expeditions108 days in the field31,827 km between stops347 photographed specimens
5 journeys match
F. Raymond Fosberg
6 islands · May – Jul 1982
F. Raymond Fosberg across 6 islands, May – July 1982691 specimens · 46 stops · 88 days · 10,015 km
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Steven L. Montgomery
9 islands of French Polynesia · Jul – Oct 1988
Steven L. Montgomery across 9 islands of French Polynesia, July – October 1988277 specimens · 18 stops · 73 days · 10,669 km
Betsy H. Gagne
7 islands of French Polynesia · Jul – Sep 1988
Betsy H. Gagne across 7 islands of French Polynesia, July – September 1988267 specimens · 15 stops · 68 days · 10,816 km
M.-H Sachet
5 islands of French Polynesia · Jun – Jul 1982
M.-H Sachet across 5 islands of French Polynesia, June – July 1982169 specimens · 12 stops · 28 days · 297 km
Jacques Florence
Tahaa and Raiatea · 13–22 Sep 1983
Jacques Florence in Tahaa and Raiatea, 13–22 September 1983103 specimens · 4 stops · 10 days · 30 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.