Bishop Museum
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The Hawaiian Hall at the Bishop Museum contains the world's largest collection of Polynesian artifacts
Location:	1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, HI
Coordinates:	21°20′00.00″N 157°52′14.22″W / 21.33333°N 157.8706167°W / 21.33333; -157.8706167Coordinates: 21°20′00.00″N 157°52′14.22″W / 21.33333°N 157.8706167°W / 21.33333; -157.8706167
Built:	1889
Architect:	William F. Smith
Architectural style:	Richardsonian Romanesque
Governing body:	Private
NRHP Reference#:	82002500[1]
Added to NRHP:	July 26, 1982

The Bishop Museum (formerly the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, and designated the Hawaiʻi State Museum of Natural and Cultural History), is a museum of history and science in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu. Founded in 1889, it is the largest museum in Hawai'i and is home to the world's largest collection of Polynesian cultural and scientific artifacts. Besides the comprehensive exhibits of Hawaiiana, the Bishop Museum has an extensive entomological collection of over 13.5 million specimens, the third largest collection in the United States. The museum is accessible on public transit: TheBus Routes A, B, 1, 2, 7, 10.

Establishment[link]

Charles Reed Bishop built his museum in honor of his wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, to preserve royal heirlooms passed down to him upon her death.

Charles Reed Bishop, a philanthropist and co-founder of Kamehameha Schools and First Hawaiian Bank, built the museum in memory of his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. She was the last legal heir of the Kamehameha Dynasty, which ruled the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi between 1810 and 1872. Bishop had originally intended the museum to house family heirlooms passed down to him through the royal lineage of his wife.

The museum was built on the original boys campus of Kamehameha Schools, an institution created to benefit native Hawaiian children as outlined in the Princess' last will and testament. In 1898, Bishop constructed Hawaiian Hall and Polynesian Hall in the then popular Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style. The Pacific Commercial Advertiser newspaper dubbed the buildings as "the noblest buildings of Honolulu." Both Hawaiian Hall and Polynesian Hall stand today and have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Hawaiian Hall is home to a complete Sperm Whale skeleton with papier-mâché body suspended above the central gallery. Along the walls are prized koa wood display cases worth more than the original Bishop Museum buildings. It is also home to the Hawaiian Royal regalia, including the Hawaiian royal crown and the consort's crown.

Later development[link]

In 1940, Kamehameha Schools moved to its new campus in Kapālama, allowing the museum to expand. Bishop Hall, which had been built for the school, reverted to museum use.^[2] Most other school structures were razed and new museum facilities were constructed. By the late 1980s, the Bishop Museum had become the largest natural and cultural history institution in Polynesia.

In 1988, construction of the Castle Memorial Building was begun. Dedicated on January 13, 1990, Castle Memorial Building houses all the major traveling exhibits that come to the Bishop Museum from institutions around the world.

The Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center opened in November 2005. The building is designed as a learning center for children, and includes many interactive exhibits focused on marine science, volcanology, and related sciences.^[3][4]

Library and Archives[link]

The Library has one of the most extensive collections of books, periodicals, newspapers and special collections concerned with Hawai'i and the Pacific.

The Archives holds the results of extensive studies done by Museum staff in the Pacific Basin as well as manuscripts, photographs, artwork, oral histories, commercial sound recordings and maps.

Many of Hawai'i 's royalty (including Bernice Pauahi Bishop and Queen Lili'uokalani) deposited their personal papers at Bishop Museum. Manuscripts in the collection also include scientific papers, genealogical records, and memorabilia.

The book collection consists of approximately 50,000 volumes with an emphasis on the cultural and natural history of Hawai'i and the Pacific, with subject strengths in anthropology, music, botany, entomology, and zoology. The Library provides extra access to the collection of published diaries, narratives, memoirs, etc. relating to 18th and 19th century Hawai'i.

Institutions[link]

On the campus of Bishop Museum is the Jhamandas Watumull Planetarium, an educational and research facility devoted to the astronomical sciences and the oldest planetarium in Polynesia.

Also on the campus is Pauahi Hall, home to the J. Linsley Gressit Center for Research in Entomology which houses some 14 million prepared specimens of insects and related arthropods, including over 16,500 primary types, making it the third largest entomology collection in the United States and the eighth largest in the world. An active research facility, Pauahi Hall is not open to the public. Nearby is Pākī Hall, home to the Hawaiʻi Sports Hall of Fame, a museum library and archives, open to the public.

From 1988 until 2009, the Bishop Museum also administered the Hawaiʻi Maritime Center in downtown Honolulu.^[5] Built on a former private pier of Honolulu Harbor for the royal family, the center was the premier maritime museum in the Pacific Rim with artifacts in relation to the Pacific whaling industry and the Hawaiʻi steamship industry.

On the Big Island of Hawai'i, the Bishop Museum administers the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, specializing in indigenous Hawaiian plant life.

The Secretariat of the Pacific Science Association (PSA), an independent regional, non-governmental, scholarly organization that seeks to advance science and technology in support of sustainable development in the Asia-Pacific, has been based at Bishop Museum since PSA's founding in 1920.

Falls of Clyde[link]

From 1968 until September 2008, the Bishop Museum owned the Falls of Clyde, the oldest sail-driven oil tanker which was moored at the Hawai‘i Maritime Center. In early 2007, the ship was closed to public tours for safety reasons and in order to facilitate repairs to the deteriorating tank, which frequently caused the ship to list dramatically. The decision was also made to conduct a more thorough inspection by marine experts. Between 1998 and 2008 the Museum incurred more than $2 million in preservation costs.^[6]The museum had plans to sink the ship by the end of 2008 unless private funds were raised for a perpetual care endowment.^[7] On September 28, 2008, ownership was transferred to the non-profit group, Friends of Falls of Clyde, which intends to restore the ship.^[8] In October 2008, the Bishop Museum was accused of "incompetence and dishonesty" for having raised $600,000 to preserve the ship but then spending only about half on the ship. The accusation also focused on other decisions about how the money was used.^[9]

Gallery[link]

• 

  Bishop Hall, 2010

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  Front end of Hawaiian Hall, 2010

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  Entrance to Hawaiian & Polynesian Hall, 1958

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  Staircase to Polynesian Hall, 2010

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  Hale pili in Hawaiian Hall, 2010

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  Sperm whale model in Hawaiian Hall, 2010

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  Hawaiian Girl with Dog, oil on canvas by John Mix Stanley, 1849

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  Hawaiian Royalty wore these featered cloaks and helmets. Hawaiian Chief's Feather Cloak ('ahu 'ula) and Helmet. The chief in the background is Kaiana

• 

  Entrance to the Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, 2011

See also[link]

• Amy B. H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden
• Ray Jerome Baker, donor of a large collection of original prints, negatives, glass plate lantern slides, and ephemera

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bishop Museum

• Official website of the Bishop Museum
• Hawai'i Maritime Center
• J. Linsley Gressitt Center for Research in Entomology
• Pacific Science Association

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2007)

Bernice Pauahi Bishop
Spouse	Charles Reed Bishop
Issue
Keolaokalani Davis (hānai)
Full name
Bernice Pauahi Pākī Bishop
House	House of Kamehameha
Father	Abner Pākī Kekūanāoʻa (hānai)
Mother	Laura Kōnia Kīnaʻu (hānai)
Born	(1831-12-19)December 19, 1831 ʻAikupika, Haleākala, Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaii
Died	October 16, 1884(1884-10-16) (aged 52) Keōua Hale, Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaii
Burial	November 2, 1884 [1] Mauna ʻAla Royal Mausoleum, Oʻahu, Hawaii
Signature

Bernice Pauahi Bishop (December 19, 1831–October 16, 1884), born Bernice Pauahi Pākī, was a Hawaiian princess, philanthropist, aliʻi, and direct descendant of the royal House of Kamehameha. She was the great-granddaughter of King Kamehameha I and last surviving heir. Her estate is the largest private landowner in the state of Hawaiʻi, comprising approximately 9% of Hawaii's total area. The revenues from these lands are used to operate the Kamehameha Schools, which were established in 1887 according to Pauahi's will. Pauahi was married to businessman and philanthropist Charles Reed Bishop.

Life[link]

Pauahi was born in Honolulu on December 19, 1831 in ʻAikupika, the grass hut compound of her father.^[2] Her father, High Chief Abner Kuhoʻoheiheipahu Pākī (c. 1808-1855), was a noble from the island of Molokaʻi, and son of Aliʻi Kawao and Kalani-hele-maiiluna Pākī, who descended from Aliʻi Aimoku of the island of Maui. Her mother was Princess Laura Kōnia (c 1808-1857), granddaughter of Kamehameha I. She was the younger daughter of Aliʻi Pauli Kaʻōleiokū (1767–1818), by his second wife, Aliʻi Kahailiopua Luahine, was an illegitimate but legitimated natural (eldest) son of King Kamehameha I. She was named for her aunt Queen Pauahi (c. 1804–1826), one of the widows of King Kamehameha II, and given the Christian name of Bernice. Pauahi was adopted at birth by Princess Kīnaʻu (who took office as Kuhina-Nui Kaʻahumanu II). She was sent back home when Kīnaʻu died of the mumps in 1839.

Beginning at age eight, Pauahi went to the Chiefs' Children's School (later called the Royal School) until about 1846. Her teachers were Mr. and Mrs. Cooke. Pauahi greatly enjoyed horseback riding and swimming, and she also liked music, flowers, and the outdoors. She dressed like any fashionable New York or London woman and wore the trappings of the Victorian Era.

Husband Charles Reed Bishop

It had been planned from childhood that Pauahi, born into Hawaiian royalty, would marry her hānai (adopted) brother Prince Lot Kapuāiwa. Pauahi married businessman Charles Reed Bishop May 4, 1850 despite the objections of her parents.^[3] Per her request, very few people attended her wedding. One of the few witnesses was Princess Elizabeth Kekaʻaniau, her cousin. The couple had no children of their own. They adopted a son named Keolaokalani Davis from Pauahi's cousin Ruth Keʻelikōlani in 1862, against the wish of Ruth's husband, but the infant died at the age of six months. In 1883, they tried adopting William Kaiheekai Taylor, the baby son of Pauahi's distant cousin Lydia Keomailani Crowningburg and Wray Taylor, only to be turned down by the reluctant parents.^{[4]:105, 168}

Prince Lot Kapuāiwa became King Kamehameha V in 1863, and offered Pauahi the throne on his deathbed in 1872. But, taken aback, she replied, "No, no, not me; don't think of me. I don't need it." The king pressed on. But she again spurned the throne: "Oh, no, do not think of me. There are others." After considering the alternatives, all of whom were rejected, the king said no more. The king died an hour later. Pauahi's refusal to accept the crown allowed the House of Kalākaua to come to power. No one knows why Pauahi refused the throne. The answer may have been in her letters left in the care of her husband. Unfortunately, they were destroyed during the Great San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

On October 16, 1884, at the age of 52, Pauahi died of breast cancer at Keōua Hale, Honolulu. She is interred in the Kamehameha Crypt at Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii at Mauna ʻAla on Oʻahu.

Legacy[link]

Bishop wished that a portion of her estate be used "to erect and maintain in the Hawaiian Islands two schools...one for boys and one girls, to be known as, and called the Kamehameha Schools."^[5] She directed her five trustees to invest her estate at their discretion and use the annual income to operate the schools. When she wrote her will, only 44,000 Hawaiians were alive. After Bishop's death in 1884, her husband Charles Reed Bishop started work in carrying out her will.

The original Kamehameha School for Boys was established in 1887. The girls' school was established in 1894 on a nearby campus. By 1955, the schools moved to a 600 acre (2.4 km²) location in the heights above Kapālama. Some time later, Kamehameha Schools established two more campuses on outer-islands: Pukalani, Maui and the Kamehameha Schools Hawaii Campus in Keaʻau on the island of Hawaii.

Charles Reed Bishop founded the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in 1889 as another memorial to Pauahi, using the building that was the original school.

Will controversies[link]

Her will caused three major controversies. In 1992, a clause that all Kamehameha Schools teachers must be Protestant was challenged as illegal religious discrimination in employment by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a decision of the district court, and found that the school had not proved that it was "primarily religious", and thus this clause violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.^[6]

In 1997, several conflicts of interest were charged. Trustees received up to $900,000 per year and put their own money into the investments of the estate. The Supreme Court of Hawaii was directed in the will to replacement trustees, but also ruled on many cases involving the estate. An essay by Judge Samuel Pailthorpe King and University of Hawaii William S. Richardson School of Law Professor Randall W. Roth and others was published as a series of newspaper articles,^[7] and later a book. After a number of legal battles, the trustees resigned and management was re-organized.^[8]

Trustees were instructed "to devote a portion of each year's income to the support and education of orphans, and others in indigent circumstances, giving the preference to Hawaiians of pure or part aboriginal blood."^[5] Traditionally, this was interpreted to admit almost no students that could not prove native Hawaiian ancestry. A number of lawsuits challenged this policy. One included a settlement reported to be $7 million.^[9]

Ancestry[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Julie Stewart Williams (1999). Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Illustrated by Robin Yoko Burningham (Revised ed.). Kamehameha Schools Press. ISBN 0-87336-057-5. http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=ks11&l=en. 
• George Kanahele (2002) [1986]. Pauahi: the Kamehameha legacy. Kamehameha Schools Press. ISBN 0-87336-005-2. http://www.ulukau.org/elib/cgi-bin/library?c=pauahi&l=en. 
• J. Arthur Rath (2005). Lost generations:A Boy, a School, a Princess. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-3010-6. http://books.google.com/books?id=DlRlRts4v74C. 
• Samuel Pailthorpe King and Randall W. Roth (March 2006). Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement, and Political Manipulation at America’s Largest Charitable Trust. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-3014-4. http://books.google.com/books?id=ot6ihjRRg-QC. 

External links[link]

Biography portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bernice Pauahi Bishop

• The Esoteric Curiosa: "A Traveling Kamehameha" Princess Bernice Pauahi Does The Grand Tour of Europe
• Bernice Pauahi Bishop Photograph Album 1847 - 1880
• Ke Ali'i Bernice Pauahi Paki Bishop (1831-1884) Founder of Kamehameha Schools
• Biography from the Hawaiʻi Royal Family's official site
• Pauahi statue unveiled
• Bernice and Charles: a match made in heaven
• "The Bishops in Europe, 1875-1876". archives. Kamehameha Schools. http://kapalama.ksbe.edu/archives/historical/Europe%201875. Retrieved 2010-03-08. 
• Bernice Pauahi dies
• Will Hoover (July 2, 2006). "Bernice Pauahi Bishop". The Honolulu Advertiser. http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/150/sesq1bernicebishop. Retrieved 2010-03-08. 
• Bernice Pauahi Bishop at Find a Grave