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. 56 journeys so far, 1921 to 1995, 54,910 specimens between them.
40 collectors and expeditions1,829 days in the field472,605 km between stops46,111 photographed specimens
56 journeys match
J.C. Jolinon
4 islands of French Polynesia · Jan – Feb 1987
J.C. Jolinon across 4 islands of French Polynesia, January – February 198749 specimens · 15 stops · 53 days · 85 km
Jacques Florence
Moorea · 8–21 Aug 1983
Jacques Florence in Moorea, 8–21 August 1983154 specimens · 2 stops · 14 days · 10 km



Elwood C. Zimmerman Gessler
Moorea and Raiatea · Sep – Oct 1934
Elwood C. Zimmerman Gessler in Moorea and Raiatea, September – October 193494 specimens · 2 stops · 14 days · 183 km
Ernest H. Quayle
8 islands · Dec 1921 – Feb 1922
Ernest H. Quayle across 8 islands, December 1921 – February 192246 specimens · 12 stops · 57 days · 6,573 km



Anderson Gessler
Moorea and Huahine · Sep – Oct 1934
Anderson Gessler in Moorea and Huahine, September – October 193498 specimens · 2 stops · 7 days · 149 km
Johnson Randall
4 islands · Nov – Dec 1966
Johnson Randall across 4 islands, November – December 196664 specimens · 9 stops · 26 days · 43 km



Kenneth Pike Emory
3 islands · Sep – Nov 1925
Kenneth Pike Emory in Moorea, Tahiti and Huahine, September – November 192546 specimens · 3 stops · 38 days · 189 km
M.-H Sachet
4 islands · Jun – Jul 1976
M.-H Sachet across 4 islands, June – July 197646 specimens · 8 stops · 28 days · 2,621 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.
