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. 2 journeys so far, 1938 to 1991, 1,419 specimens between them.
2 collectors and expeditions95 days in the field5,921 km between stops501 photographed specimens
2 journeys match
Harold St.John
9 islands · Jun – Nov 1938
Harold St.John across 9 islands, June – November 19381,315 specimens · 9 stops · 172 days · 5,917 km
W.C. McClatchey
Rotuma and Solnohu Island · Sep – Dec 1991
W.C. McClatchey in Rotuma and Solnohu Island, September – December 1991104 specimens · 23 stops · 76 days · 4 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.