The story
Establishment
Charles Reed Bishop (1822–1915), a businessman and philanthropist, co-founder of the First Hawaiian Bank and Kamehameha Schools, built the museum in memory of his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop (1831–1884). Born into the royal family, she was the last legal heir of the Kamehameha Dynasty, which had 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.
Bishop hired William Tufts Brigham as the first curator of the museum; Brigham later served as director from 1898 until his retirement in 1918.
The museum was built on the original boys' campus of Kamehameha Schools, an institution created at the bequest of the Princess, to benefit native Hawaiian children; she gave details in her last will and testament. In 1898, Bishop had Hawaiian Hall and Polynesian Hall built on the campus, in the popular Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style. The Pacific Commercial Advertiser newspaper dubbed these two structures as "the noblest buildings of Honolulu".
Today, both halls are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Hawaiian Hall is home to a complete sperm-whale skeleton, accompanied by a papier-mâché body suspended above the central gallery. Along the walls are prized koa wood display cases; today, the wood alone is worth more than the original Bishop Museum buildings. Set into the floor of Hawaiian Hall is a stone image of the Hawaiian shark god Kāneikokala, which museum staff have been unable to move during subsequent renovations.
The museum is accessible on public transit: TheBus Routes A, 1, 2, 7, 10.
Kaimiloa Expedition
In 1924, American millionaire, Medford Ross Kellum, outfitted a four masted barquentine for a scientific expedition which, even the naming of the ship Kaimiloa, was left entirely to the scientific circles of Honolulu.
The goal of the expedition was a five-year exploration of many of the then inaccessible spots of the Pacific. Under the auspices of the Bishop Museum, a group of Hawaiʻi scientists joined the ship: Gerrit P. Wilder, botanist; Mrs. Wilder, historian; Kenneth Emory, ethnologist; Dr. Armstrong Sperry, writer and illustrator; and Dr. Stanley Ball.
The vessel was a complete floating laboratory, possibly the most complete of any craft that has undertaken a similar trip. Bottles, crates, and boxes were stowed below, along with gallons of preservatives for insects and plant specimens for the Bishop Museum.
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The goals of the expedition were exhaustive:
complete collections of islands subjects ranging from insects, plants, minerals, and archaeological and ethnological specimens,
study of the fish and sea life,
chart as accurately as possible the ocean currents,
for the United States government, conform and correct to the findings of the expedition the charts of the island groups,
attempt to trace the origin of the Polynesians, their language and their migrations,
photograph the natives and measure accurately portions of their bodies,
record phonographically records of the speech, the songs, their chants,
sound the ocean floor and study the formation of the islands in an effort to prove the unfounded but at the time prevalent theory that some Pacific islands were once a part of the mainland and that they formed a "lost continent".
Later development
In 1940, Kamehameha Schools moved to its new campus in Kapālama, allowing the museum to expand at the original campus site. Bishop Hall, first built for use by the school, was adapted for museum use. 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.
Recent acquisitions
In November 2017, Christie's Paris auctioned Vérité kiʻi, a wooden kiʻi from the Parisian Vérité collection. It was cataloged as a representation of the Hawaiian war god Kū-kaʻili-moku, and dated to about 1780–1820. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne bought the figure and donated it to the museum, which announced the gift in 2018. Several specialists in Oceanic art, including Adrienne L. Kaeppler, have questioned the carving's age, which remains unresolved; it was the centerpiece of the museum's exhibition Kini Ke Kua: Transformative Images.
From Wikipedia’s article on Bishop Museum, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4