Ka Palapala
The Hawaiian Collection often services community members who are researching genealogies. One popular tool is Ka Palap a la , the University of Hawaii-Manoa yearbook, which was published from 1916 through 1968. Recently, such a researcher was poring through yearbooks for photos of her uncle, a star athlete in the 1930s. In addition to finding numerous photos of her relative, the young woman also discovered a rare photo of famed kumu hula 'Iolani Luahine, who was a freshman at the University in 1936. These kinds of serendipitous finds not only point to the research value of Ka Palapala , but are the type of small event that make our work so gratifying. (Even more gratifying: Our visitor learned that her uncle, in addition to being a student-athlete, also went on to be a multi-sport coach at the University of Hawaii -- something she had not previously known.) In this photo, kumu Luahine (second from right) poses with other members of the Freshman inter-class basketball team. For...