Hawaiian & Pacific Collections

Maria Ahsing Ka Wahine 'o Kaiona woodcut print The Hawaiian and Pacific Collections are currently hosting "From Beneath the Surface: Recent Prints Concerning Hawai'i." The seventeen prints in this exhibition were created during the 2016-2017 academic year by students working in the printmaking studio in the Department of Art and Art History at UH-Manoa. The artwork is the result of students' participation in projects that addressed a collective concern for current issues surrounding cultural, political and environmental conditions in Hawai'i.  "From Beneath the Surface" will be on exhibit in the Hawaiian and Pacific Collections reading room throughout the summer, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Special thanks to Professor Charles Cohan for coordinating the production and installation of this exhibit.

The Hawaiian Collection is pleased to announce that the full run of the  Honolulu Weekly  is now available online at: https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10524/55438 The  Honolulu Weekly  was published between 1991-2013. For many in Honolulu during these years, especially prior to the advent of the Internet, the  Weekly  was a welcome alternative to the Honolulu dailies, offering a fresh take on Honolulu's music and culture scene, and focusing on astutely selected issues of the day. The paper’s weekly publication cycle and long-format cover stories often allowed writers to explore topics at a depth the daily newspapers were unable to, while also encouraging writers to go beyond simple reporting and into a more nuanced analysis. While the paper’s embrace of “advocacy journalism” often lead to accusations of bias, it’s editorial staff made no pretense at hiding that bias, and also made a point o...

In late January 2017 digital and print copies of several genealogies from the  Jack Tobin Papers  were given to the Council of Iroij (Council of High Chiefs) of the Marshall Islands. The previously-made agreement relating to access was reconfirmed, this time by the entire Council. As part of the agreement the Pacific Collection created print copies for the Library at the College of the Marshall Islands, for the Historic Preservation Office, for the Alele (National Library, Archives and Museum), and for the Council. This is the conclusion of several years of work between the UHM Pacific Collection and Wilbert Alik, the head of the Department of Marshallese Studies at the College of the Marshall Islands. The originals of these genealogies were donated to the University of Hawai'i-Manoa Library by Dr. Tobin in increments over several years, and will be permanently archived by the Pacific Collection. Dr. Tobin first went to the Marshall Islands in 1950 as a student of Dr. ...

The Pacific Collection recently acquired a set of twenty-four cabinet card images of Tahiti , taken circa 1895 by an unidentified member of an American tourist group. The photographs include a range of subjects, some with captions, including landscapes, interiors and exteriors of buildings, and Tahitians. One image in particular stands out -- a man, woman and child in front of their home. On the back of the image is a hand-written caption: "Lawyer Goupil's residence, finest on the island." On the one hand, both the image and caption are somewhat unimpressive, but they hint at a more historic value: Auguste Goupil was a well-known lawyer in Tahiti. The image presumably shows Goupil, his wife and their daughter, Jeanne. Roughly a year after this photo was taken, Goupil hired Paul Gauguin to paint Jeanne, which resulted in one of Gauguin's more famous works, "Portrait of a Young Woman, Vaite (Jeanne) Goupil." A detail of the photograph and Gauguin's pai...

--> Pacific Collection librarian Eleanor Kleiber recently finished processing the Jack Tobin Papers , and they are now available for public use. Jack Adair Tobin, Ph.D. (June 15, 1920-June 18, 2010) was an anthropologist who worked in the Marshall Islands, beginning in 1950. This manuscript collection, which comprises roughly six linear feet of material and covers the bulk of Dr. Tobin's professional life, is extremely important in that it contains primary source documentation of numerous aspects of Marshallese life during a period of intense change. In addition to the physical materials in the collection, nearly 2,000 photographs have also been digitized and are available online . A finding aid for the collection is also available online . The Jack Tobin Collection is one of more than 60 Pacific manuscript collections -- because these collections are comprised primarily of unpublished material, they are an important tool when searching for primary source docume...

Volume 48 (2014) of the Hawaiian Journal of History is now available online via eVols , the UH-M Library digital repository devoted to materials produced outside of the UH System. (The Library also maintains a separate digital repository, Scholarspace, for materials produced within the UH system.) Back issues through Volume 1 (1967) are also available in eVols, along with indexes. The Hawaiian Journal of History is also indexed in the Hawaii-Pacific Journal Index . More information on the HJH can be found on its website .

Yosihiko Sinoto: A Life of Research at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Thursday, May 7, 7:30pm Hale ʻŌhia Kapiʻolani Community College A Hawaiian Historical Society event in support of the upcoming publication, Curve of the Hook: An Archaeologist in Polynesia.