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. 8 journeys so far, 1921 to 2006, 2,499 specimens between them.
5 collectors and expeditions187 days in the field14,158 km between stops906 photographed specimens
8 journeys match
W.A. Whistler
7 islands · May – Aug 1975
W.A. Whistler across 7 islands, May – August 1975447 specimens · 44 stops · 90 days · 980 km
M.L. Dailer
9 islands · Jan – Mar 2006
M.L. Dailer across 9 islands, January – March 2006800 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 1977301 specimens · 62 stops · 237 days · 2,182 km
P.S. Vroom
7 islands · Jan – Mar 2002
P.S. Vroom across 7 islands, January – March 2002348 specimens · 9 stops · 50 days · 6,339 km
Wray Harris
3 islands of Samoa · Jul – Aug 1937
Wray Harris in Upolu, Tutuila and Olosega, July – August 1937284 specimens · 3 stops · 32 days · 258 km
D. Wesley Garber
3 islands of American Samoa · May – Jul 1925
D. Wesley Garber in Ofu, Olosega and Tutuila, May – July 1925143 specimens · 16 stops · 42 days · 209 km
D. Wesley Garber
Tau and Olosega · Dec 1921 – Jan 1922
D. Wesley Garber in Tau and Olosega, December 1921 – January 1922133 specimens · 10 stops · 45 days
W.A. Whistler
5 islands · Dec 1975 – Jan 1976
W.A. Whistler across 5 islands, December 1975 – January 197643 specimens · 13 stops · 21 days · 509 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.