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75 This new construction reflected a change in the museum’s charter that took place not long after the museum was founded, which expanded its collecting mandate beyond the shores of Hawai‘i to include other cultures throughout the Pacific. Starting in 1891, the Bishop began acquiring collections of Polynesian and Melanesian objects. These included objects from Papua New Guinea, Maori New Zealand, the Solomon Islands, and the New Hebrides, notably from Eric Craig, a dealer from Auckland. These were augmented by works collected by the controversial Kaimiloa expedition sent by Hawai‘i’s last king, Kalakaua, to Samoa in 1887. Like many institutions in the early twentieth century, the Bishop sought to expand its holdings by sponsoring FIG. 11 (facing page): Pottery sherds. Lapita culture. Santa Cruz Islands. 1350–750 BCE. Ceramic. Bishop Museum inv. #SE-SZ-45-T13- 6a, 6b, 6c. FIG.12 (left): Deity. Ha‘apai island group, Tonga. Whale tooth. Bishop Museum inv. #1986.278.001, Catherine C. Summers, Gift, 1986. FIG. 13 (right): Ceremonial mask, apouema. Northeastern New Caledonia. Before 1898. Wood, fiber, hair, feathers. Bishop Museum inv. #01933, Eric Craig Collection, Purchase, c. 1898. scientific expeditions. An intensive study of Polynesian origins and migration began in 1920 as a series of coordinated field projects known as the Bayard Dominick Expeditions to the Society and Marquesan Islands, which were financed by a wealthy Yale graduate and member of the New York Stock Exchange. Other early expeditions went to Society Islands (1925–1926), Samoa (1927– 1928), Mangareva and Southeast Polynesia (1934), and Micronesia (1936). Major collections of artifacts, natural history specimens, photographs, manuscripts, audio recordings, and films were brought back to the museum. Around this time, the museum also benefited from the cooperation and friendly agreements of several institutions and organizations, which further enriched its Pacific collection. Prominent among these were the Maori Board of Ethnologic Research of New Zealand, the Société des Bishop Museum


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