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, 1924 to 1965, 808 specimens between them.
3 collectors and expeditions140 days in the field35,274 km between stops575 photographed specimens
5 journeys match


Gerrit Parmele Wilder
18 islands · Nov 1924 – May 1925
Gerrit Parmele Wilder across 18 islands, November 1924 – May 1925244 specimens · 43 stops · 188 days · 15,411 km
C.R. Long
9 islands · Jun – Jul 1965
C.R. Long across 9 islands, June – July 1965244 specimens · 17 stops · 33 days · 2,563 km



Stanley Ball
7 islands · Nov 1924 – Jan 1925
Stanley Ball across 7 islands, November 1924 – January 1925174 specimens · 14 stops · 43 days · 3,291 km

Gerrit Parmele Wilder
3 islands · Jul – Dec 1926
Gerrit Parmele Wilder in Moorea, Tahiti and Penrhyn Atoll, July – December 192677 specimens · 29 stops · 145 days · 451 km
Gerrit Parmele Wilder
5 islands · Mar – Aug 1927
Gerrit Parmele Wilder across 5 islands, March – August 192769 specimens · 28 stops · 155 days · 13,558 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.
