Museum of Antiquities.

A special meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Queen’s Hospital was held yesterday. It was called to consider the question of conveying the Hawaiian antiquities and curios, devised to the Trustees by the will of the late Queen Emma, to the Hon. C. R. Bishop for a projected public museum. Mr. Bishop had sometime ago formed the purpose of founding a museum of Hawaiian antiquities, with the collection of his late consort, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, as the nucleus. Prince Albert Kunuiakea, one of the devisees under the lamented Queen’s will, had signified his willingness to transfer his portion of the collection to Mr. Bishop’s custody, provided the Trustees would do the same with theirs. It was conceived by the Trustees of the Queen’s Hospital that it would be a pity to sell the late Queen Dowager’s fine collection, thus having it scattered and probably in large part sent out of the country, for the comparatively small amount that would thereby be realized for the Hospital. It is understood that Mr. Bishop contemplates the erection of a building for the Museum, which will be an ornament to the city, an attraction to visitors, and a conservatory of relics of ancient Hawaiian life, now disappearing fast. The project is one worthy of that gentleman. It is creditable to the public spirit of the Trustees of the Queen’s Hospital, that they should so readily grant to the Museum the valuable collection bequeathed to them.

[The Bishop Museum may be celebrating its 125th year anniversary this year, but its beginnings go back much farther in time.]

(Daily Herald, 9/16/1886, p. 3)

The Daily Herald, Volume I, Number 14, Page 3. September 16, 1886.