Bishop Museum facts for kids

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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 in Hawaii
Location	1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, Hawaii
Built	1889
Architect	William F. Smith
Architectural style	Richardsonian Romanesque
NRHP reference No.	82002500
Added to NRHP	July 26, 1982

The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, also known as the Hawaiʻi State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a special place in Honolulu, Hawaii. It's a museum that teaches about history and science.

Founded in 1889, it is the biggest museum in Hawaiʻi. It holds the world's largest collection of items from Polynesian cultures. It also has many natural history items. For example, it has over 24 million natural history specimens. More than 13.5 million of these are insects! This makes it one of the largest insect collections in the United States.

The museum also has a fun place called the Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center.

History of the Museum
Library and Archives
Other Important Parts of the Museum
The Falls of Clyde Ship
Gallery
See also

History of the Museum

How the Museum Started

Charles Reed Bishop built the museum to honor his wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. He wanted to keep her family treasures safe.

The museum was built by Charles Reed Bishop (1822–1915). He was a successful businessman who wanted to honor his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop (1831–1884). Princess Bernice was a member of the Hawaiian royal family. She was the last direct heir of the Kamehameha Dynasty. This family had ruled the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

Mr. Bishop first planned for the museum to hold special family treasures. These items had been passed down through his wife's royal family. He hired William Tufts Brigham to be the museum's first leader.

The museum was built on the land of the original Kamehameha Schools. Princess Bernice had set up these schools in her will. They were created to help native Hawaiian children get an education. In 1898, Mr. Bishop added Hawaiian Hall and Polynesian Hall. These buildings were made in a grand style called Richardsonian Romanesque. People at the time called them "the noblest buildings of Honolulu."

Today, both halls are important historical sites. Hawaiian Hall has a full sperm whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling. It also has beautiful display cases made of koa wood. This wood is now worth more than the original museum buildings!

The Kaimiloa Expedition

In 1924, a rich American named Medford Ross Kellum prepared a large ship for a science trip. The ship was named Kaimiloa. The goal was to explore many hard-to-reach places in the Pacific Ocean over five years.

Scientists from the Bishop Museum joined the ship. They included a botanist (plant expert), a historian, an ethnologist (culture expert), a writer, and a doctor. The ship was like a floating science lab. It carried many bottles and boxes for collecting plants and insects for the museum.

The expedition had many important goals:

Collect insects, plants, minerals, and cultural items from islands.
Study fish and other sea life.
Map ocean currents very carefully.
Help the United States government update maps of island groups.
Try to find out where Polynesians came from and how they traveled.
Take pictures of native people and measure parts of their bodies.
Record their speech, songs, and chants.
Explore the ocean floor to learn how islands were formed.

Later Growth of the Museum

In 1940, Kamehameha Schools moved to a new location. This allowed the Bishop Museum to grow bigger. Bishop Hall, which was first used by the school, became part of the museum. Many old school buildings were removed. New museum buildings were then built. By the late 1980s, the Bishop Museum was the largest museum of its kind in Polynesia.

In 1988, work began on the Castle Memorial Building. This building opened in 1990. It now hosts many special exhibits that come to the Bishop Museum from around the world.

The Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center opened in 2005. This building is a great learning center for kids. It has many hands-on exhibits. These exhibits teach about marine science (ocean science), volcanology (volcanoes), and other related sciences.

Library and Archives

The museum has a large library. It holds many books, magazines, and old newspapers. These are all about Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. The museum's archives also keep many important papers. These include studies by museum staff, old writings, photographs, artwork, and maps.

When the Bishop Museum first opened in 1891, its library was very small. It only had a few shelves of books.

Many Hawaiian royals, like Bernice Pauahi Bishop and Queen Liliʻuokalani, gave their personal papers to the museum. The collection also includes scientific papers, family history records, and special memories.

The library has about 50,000 books. They focus on the culture and nature of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific. Topics include people, music, plants, insects, and animals. The library also has many published diaries and stories from the 1700s and 1800s in Hawaiʻi.

Other Important Parts of the Museum

The Bishop Museum campus has several other important places:

The Jhamandas Watumull Planetarium is here. It's a place for learning about astronomy (space and stars). It is the oldest planetarium in Polynesia.
Pauahi Hall is home to the J. Linsley Gressit Center for Research in Entomology. This center has about 14 million insect specimens! It is the third-largest insect collection in the United States. This is an active research center, so it is not open to the public.
Nearby is Pākī Hall. This building holds the Hawaii Sports Hall of Fame. It also has a museum library and archives that are open to everyone.
In 1992, the Hawaii State government created the Hawaii Biological Survey (HBS). This program is part of the Bishop Museum. The HBS studies and collects every plant and animal found in Hawaiʻi. It currently has over 4 million specimens.
From 1988 to 2009, the Bishop Museum also managed the Hawaii Maritime Center in downtown Honolulu. This center was a top museum about the ocean in the Pacific. It had items related to whaling and steamships in Hawaiʻi.
On the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, the Bishop Museum runs the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden. This garden specializes in plants that are native to Hawaiʻi.
Since 1920, the Pacific Science Association (PSA) has been based at the Bishop Museum. This group helps science and technology grow in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Falls of Clyde Ship

Falls of Clyde

From 1968 to 2008, the Bishop Museum owned the Falls of Clyde. This ship is the oldest sail-powered oil tanker still around. It was docked at the Hawaii Maritime Center. In 2007, the ship was closed to visitors for safety reasons. It needed many repairs.

The museum decided to transfer ownership of the ship. In September 2008, a non-profit group called Friends of Falls of Clyde took over. They plan to fix up and restore the ship.

Gallery

Bishop Hall, 2010
Front end of Hawaiian Hall, 2010
Entrance to Hawaiian & Polynesian Hall, 1958
Staircase to Polynesian Hall, 2010
Hale pili in Hawaiian Hall, 2010
Sperm whale model in Hawaiian Hall, 2010
Hawaiian Girl with Dog, oil on canvas by John Mix Stanley, 1849
Hawaiian royalty wore these feathered cloaks (ʻahu ʻula) and helmets. The chief in the background is Kaʻiana.
Russian cannon outside the Bishop Museum in Honolulu in 1960
Entrance to the Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, 2011
Papua New Guinea Sawos people men's spirit house gable
Hawaiian Hall, with a heiau recreation in miniature (2012)
Atrium – photograph of Charles Bishop with Bernice Pauahi Bishop (2012)
Charles Bishop with his wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi, in the atrium of the museum (2012)
Kahili Room – Kahili Paʻa Lima in a glass case (2012)
Hawaiian Hall – akua kiʻi (2012)
Hawaiian Hall – hale replica with placard (2012)