HAWAIIAN MISSION HOUSES ANNOUNCES ONLINE AVAILABILITY OF DIGITIZED HISTORIC RESOURCES

HONOLULU, HI – Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives is pleased to announce the online publication of three important resources for researching 19th-century Hawai‘i: The Friend, 1843-1954; the Levi Chamberlain Journal, 1822-1849; and the Mission Station Reports, 1822-1865. A digitization project has made it possible for HMH to offer these important historical resources in a word-searchable format available at any time convenient to the researcher on the website www.missionhouses.org.

The Friend was a local newspaper published from 1843 to 1954. Published by and for the missionaries, it is invaluable as a source of information concerning the activities, experiences, and accomplishments of the 19th-century Congregational missionaries to Hawaii as well as 20th-century figures and the development of the United Church of Christ in Hawaii. Today, The Friend is the newsletter of the Hawaii Conference of the United Church of Christ.

The Levi Chamberlain Journal contains the daily writings of the secular agent for the Mission depository, recorded from November 11, 1822 to January 1, 1849 and detailing what daily life was like during this time period for the Congregational missionaries and their associates. Levi Chamberlain was responsible for keeping records and accounts on all supplies that came in to the Mission and also kept accounts on all supplies requisitioned from him by individual missionaries on all the Hawaiian islands. Because he was in frequent contact with all of the missions, he was the hub of information for any news concerning the missionaries and their activities throughout the Islands.

Every year, each of the seventeen mission stations throughout the kingdom reported to Honolulu on the events of the year at their post. These Mission Station Reports, 1822-1865, continued until the closing of the mission and have just been added to the HMH website. For neighbor island residents, this tool for researching their history without traveling to Honolulu is invaluable.

The originals of these resources are available to the public in the Archives of the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The three-year project to digitize these and other portions of the collection has been funded primarily through grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Atherton Family Foundation, with additional support from the G. N. Wilcox Trust, the McInerny Foundation, the S.W. Wilcox Trust, the A&B Foundation, the Fred Baldwin Memorial Foundation, and the Sidney Stern Memorial Trust.

The Archives at HMH hold the largest collection of Hawaiian language books in the world. Through the work of Alu Like and the Ulukau electronic library, some of these books have been digitized and are available on line, ranging from geography and algebra texts to treatises on philosophy and politics. Visit www.missionhouses.org and the Library tab to begin your exploration.

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Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives, located in Honolulu’s Historic Capitol District, is the leading authority on Protestant missionary history in Hawaiʻi, and is known worldwide as the place where the Hawaiian written language was developed through the collaborative efforts of the missionaries, the ali‘i—the Hawaiian royalty—and the Hawaiian people. It preserves the two oldest documented houses in Hawai‘i, which were built and used by missionaries in the early nineteenth century, and the largest collection of Hawaiian language books in the world.