Harvesting Lau Hala in The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum’s Photograph Collection
Harvesting Lau Hala in The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum’s Photograph Collection
Information about lau hala can be found in both text and visual documents in the collections of public and private museums, libraries, and archives throughout the islands and, indeed, around the world. One of those repositories is The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum's historical photograph collection of “a million images.” The collection represents the work of hundreds of professional and amateur photographers and contains examples of the earliest photographic portraits made in the islands, scenes of land and sea, and documentation of ceremonial activities and daily life. Drawing on the Bishop Museum collection, this chapter provides a brief overview of the history of photography in Hawaiʻi; some information about noted photographers who worked in the islands; and a sampling of photographic images that provide documentation of the making of hats and the use of lau hala in Hawaiʻi. Themes of the development of photography in the islands and the adoption of foreign-styled hats as a part of Hawaiian attire are interwoven throughout. Finally, the chapter helps illuminate how photographs themselves, and the repositories that preserve and create access to them, are important resources for understanding cultural history.
Keywords: lau hala, weaving, Hawaiian cultural history, Hawaiian tradition, Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, photograph collection, hats
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