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. 6 journeys so far, 1971 to 1987, 2,007 specimens between them.
4 collectors and expeditions220 days in the field31,923 km between stops
6 journeys match
Johnson Randall
12 islands · Jun – Sep 1973
Johnson Randall across 12 islands, June – September 1973770 specimens · 45 stops · 83 days · 15,630 km
Johnson Randall
20 islands · Aug – Nov 1987
Johnson Randall across 20 islands, August – November 1987700 specimens · 51 stops · 87 days · 9,036 km
Gerald R. Allen
7 islands · Jul – Aug 1973
Gerald R. Allen across 7 islands, July – August 1973241 specimens · 22 stops · 48 days · 2,361 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
Roger C. Steene
3 islands · 8–20 Aug 1973
Roger C. Steene in Madang Province, Port Moresby and New Britain, 8–20 August 1973108 specimens · 10 stops · 13 days · 1,009 km
Patrick Colin
Port Moresby and Madang Province · Oct – Nov 1987
Patrick Colin in Port Moresby and Madang Province, October – November 198766 specimens · 2 stops · 7 days · 512 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.