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, 1925 to 2008, 3,428 specimens between them.

9 collectors and expeditions238 days in the field21,082 km between stops1,298 photographed specimens

Truman George Yuncker

6 islands · Sep – Dec 1939

Truman George Yuncker across 6 islands, September – December 1939

573 specimens · 26 stops · 81 days · 2,624 km

Erling Christophersen

3 islands · Aug – Sep 1929

Erling Christophersen in Upolu, Tutuila and Ofu, August – September 1929

587 specimens · 24 stops · 37 days · 31 km

W.A. Whistler

7 islands · May – Aug 1975

W.A. Whistler across 7 islands, May – August 1975

447 specimens · 44 stops · 90 days · 980 km

M.L. Dailer

9 islands · Jan – Mar 2006

M.L. Dailer across 9 islands, January – March 2006

800 specimens · 8 stops · 46 days · 3,681 km

W.A. Whistler

11 islands · May 1976 – Jan 1977

W.A. Whistler across 11 islands, May 1976 – January 1977

301 specimens · 62 stops · 237 days · 2,182 km

P.S. Vroom

7 islands · Jan – Mar 2002

P.S. Vroom across 7 islands, January – March 2002

348 specimens · 9 stops · 50 days · 6,339 km

D. Wesley Garber

3 islands of American Samoa · May – Jul 1925

D. Wesley Garber in Ofu, Olosega and Tutuila, May – July 1925

143 specimens · 16 stops · 42 days · 209 km

S.W. Cooper

5 islands of American Samoa · Feb – Mar 2008

S.W. Cooper across 5 islands of American Samoa, February – March 2008

101 specimens · 7 stops · 25 days · 760 km

R.G. Buggeln

Tutuila and Ofu · 1–27 Aug 1964

R.G. Buggeln in Tutuila and Ofu, 1–27 August 1964

85 specimens · 9 stops · 27 days

Alfred F. Judd Jr

3 islands · Feb – Mar 1926

Alfred F. Judd Jr in Tutuila, Lānaʻi and Ofu, February – March 1926

43 specimens · 6 stops · 46 days · 4,276 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.