These papers contain a catalogue of over 2500 ethnological items discovered during the United States South Sea Surveying and Exploring Expedition. Discover the tools and daily items used by Hawaiians and Fijians as you transcribe the lists.
These papers contain a catalogue of over 2500 ethnological items discovered during the United States South Sea Surveying and Exploring Expedition. Discover the tools and daily items used by Hawaiians and Fijians as you transcribe the lists.
This collection—held by the National Anthropological Archives—details ethnological items and forms part of the papers of the United States South Sea Surveying and Exploring Expedition (1838-1942). Also known as the "Wilkes Expedition" and the US Exploring Expedition, the survey was significant to the growth of science in the United States and catalyzed the then-young field of oceanography. The survey was not without conflict and harrowing experiences on sea and with respect to native populations on land. Many of the species and items collected and described by the survey formed the basis of collections at the newly established Smithsonian Institution.
Learn more about the collection and its movement from the Patent Office to the Smithsonian Building (1851) and then the National Museum (1877); as well as the biological specimens gathered in the expedition, through the Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives.