A grand feast was held to commemorate the death of Kamehameha and the missionaries were invited to participate. During April,...
Fragrant sandalwood trees, or ‘iliahi, whose heartwood was used for incense and medicines, had long been abundant in the Hawaiian...
From the time of Captain Cook, Hawaiians saw that foreigners used writing to both formalize agreements and communicate ideas. But...
From the first arrival of foreigners in Hawai‘i in 1778, Hawaiians perished from introduced diseases at an alarming rate. By...
Around 1,000 years ago, navigators from the Marquesas Islands launched an unprecedented voyage of discovery across the Pacific Ocean.
With the arrival of foreigners, Hawai‘i’s economy expanded beyond traditional systems. An economy founded on provisioning early trading ships shifted...
This first exhibit of Eia Hawai‘i: 1819 – 1841 explores the events in Hawai‘i and New England before missionaries first arrived in Hawai‘i in 1820. Within a period of fifty years, Hawai‘i had experienced a dramatic transition from geographic isolation to playing a pivotal role as a provisioning stop for growing Western trade and colonial exploration, a shift that profoundly impacted the indigenous culture and practices of the islands.
Samuel Ruggles and Samuel Whitney accompanied George Prince Humehume home to Kaua‘i, where he was welcomed with great emotion by...
By the mid-1830s, Hawai‘i had endured a series of escalating foreign conflicts. Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) was pressured from all sides...
In 1786, trading ships began making regular stops in Hawai‘i on their way to China and the Pacific Northwest. Pursuing the lucrative fur trade, vessels from Great Britain, Spain and America found Hawai‘i an ideal place to restock provisions and replenish depleted crews with fresh Hawaiian sailors.