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. 27 journeys so far, 1921 to 1988, 47,048 specimens between them.
23 collectors and expeditions1,169 days in the field175,916 km between stops44,745 photographed specimens
27 journeys match
Walter Hambuechen
3 islands of French Polynesia · 1–5 Dec 1960
Walter Hambuechen in Rurutu, Tubuai and Raivavae, 1–5 December 196083 specimens · 3 stops · 5 days

Alex B. Anderson
3 islands of French Polynesia · 8–26 Aug 1934
Alex B. Anderson in Tubuai, Rurutu and Raivavae, 8–26 August 193440 specimens · 5 stops · 19 days · 411 km
Jacques Florence
3 islands of French Polynesia · Apr – May 1988
Jacques Florence in Rurutu, Raiatea and Hao Atoll, April – May 198843 specimens · 2 stops · 21 days · 1,193 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.
