Hawaiian costume, engraved by William Mamona and drawn by Edward Bailey.
Catalog record
This page provides information about Native Hawaiians and missionaries who are recorded in the Hawaiian language collection at AAS. Names of artists, engravers, newspaper editors, authors and translators are included.
People No Longer Known
Title pages never tell the whole story. Throughout the history of printing, many of the people doing the physical work to make printing and publishing possible are not acknowledged by name. For example, it is known that a number of Lahainaluna students were involved in collecting the histories and stories of Native Hawaiians for the Mo'olelo Hawaiʻi , however Davida Malo is the only contributor whose name is still known today.
As part of a grant from the Pine Tree Foundation, AAS staff have worked to identify and enhance information about as many Hawaiian individuals as possible who were involved in Hawaiian language printing and publishing. This work provides an opportunity to acknowledge the crucial and often overlooked labor of individuals no longer known in the historical record. Beyond the scope of the grant, the work still continues.
Works known to have been produced by named or unnamed Native Hawaiians have been identified in the General Catalog. For additional information on finding works by Indigenous creators see Finding Materials for Indigenous Peoples Studies.
Native Hawaiian Artists and Engravers
Detail of Kalama's engraved signature on Mission houses, Honolulu, 1837. Catalog record Simona P. Kalama
also known as: Simona Petero Kalama, S. P. (Simona Petero) Kalama Waiawaawa, or Simona P. Kalama WaiawaawaSimona Petero Kalama Waiawaawa was born in 1822 at Kalamawaiʻawaʻawa in Nāpoʻopoʻo in Hawaiʻi. He grew up in Lahaina, and entered the Lahainaluna Seminary around 1834, where he remained a student until 1839. Kalama was a skilled cartographer who engraved many maps at Lahainaluna. In 1841 with members of United States Exploring Expedition under Captain Charles Wilkes, a missionary named Judd was collecting specimens of molten lava at Kilauea Crater on the island of Hawaiʻi when the ledge they were on began to sink. Kalama saved Judd, pulling him to safety. (See Forbes, D.W. Engraved at Lahainaluna, 2021, p. 21.) Eventually, Kalama became a land surveyor and landowner. He held government positions in Hawaiʻi in the House of Representatives, Privy Council, and circuit court of Honolulu. Kalama died on December 9, 1875.
Kaleohano (1831-1896)
Kaleohano was named as the artist on View of a Stream of Lava as it Entered the Sea at Nanawale, 1840.
Catalog recordKaleohano was born in Pulehu, Maui, in 1831 to members of the aliʻi (Hawaiian nobility). His parents converted to Christianity following a visit from Protestant missionaries. Kaleohano entered the Lahainaluna Seminary in 1840 where he remained a student for four years. He was named as the artist on one engraving. After graduation, Kaleohano married a woman named Kaahanui and as of 1858, Kaleohano was working as a teacher in Wailuku, Maui.
In 1851, Kaleohano and Kaahanui became some of the earliest converts to Mormonism on the islands after meeting newly arrived Mormon missionary George Q. Cannon. (See below for more on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.) Kaleohano became a prolific Mormon missionary in Hawaiʻi, completing seven missionary assignments throughout the islands between 1851 and 1854. He briefly distanced himself from the Mormon church in the 1860s during the controversial leadership of Walter Murray Gibson. After Gibson was excommunicated in 1864, Kaleohano resumed his involvement. Kaleohano was instrumental in establishing an LDS community in Lāʻie, moving to the area with his family in 1865 to establish an agricultural colony. While at Lā’ie, Kaleohano became the Hawaiian Monarchy’s primary contact for the Mormon church. Kaleohano died in March 1896.
George Kapeau (d. 1860)
Detail of Kapeau's engraved signature on Holden, 1838. Catalog record George Luther Kapeau was born around 1811 on the island of Maui. Born to a low-ranking royal family, Kapeau was one of the first non-royal Hawaiians to receive education from the missionaries. Kapeau entered the Lahainaluna Seminary around 1833, where he remained a student until graduating in 1837. Kapeau later held several positions within Kamehameha III’s government, including as an advisor in the Privy Council from 1847 to 1854, a member of the House of Nobles from 1848 to 1855, a judge in the Maui circuit court, and deputy governor of the Island of Hawaiʻi. During this period, Kapeau corresponded with fellow Lahainaluna engraver Momona in their government capacities. Kapeau died in October 1860.
Lutera Kepohoni
Detail of Kepohoni's engraved signature on The Night- Blooming Cerius, ca. 1840. Catalog record Not much information is available about the engraver Lutera Kepohoni. Kepohoni was probably not a student but an apprenticed local, presumably from Lahaina. Kepohoni was one of the most prolithic engravers who worked at Lahainaluna Seminary. In a letter dated 1847, Kepohoni wrote to Lahainaluna, asking to "re-establish my job... Whereas it was I who did the tasks Andrews held in his hands from the years 1836 to 1844." (Letter in Hawaiʻi State Archives cited in Forbes, D.W. Engraved at Lahainaluna, 2021, p. 23.) As of 1847, Kepohoni owned a house at Kuholilea, Lahaina.
William Momona (d. 1857)
Detail of Momona's engraved signature onThe Diamond Hill as Seen From Honolulu, 1838 or 9. Catalog record William Momona was a student from Keauhou, Hawaiʻi, who entered the Lahainaluna Seminary around 1833. Momona was a student for four years and possibly remained at Lahainaluna for longer in some capacity. In 1836 Momona was dismissed from Lahainaluna for adultery, was reinstated after an apology, and was dismissed again in 1840. There is evidence that Momona became a judge in the third judicial district of the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court sometime in the 1840s. In the 1840s and 1850s, Momona exchanged several letters with fellow Lahainaluna engraver Kapeau in their official government capacities. Momona died in 1857.
Detail of Nuuanu's engraved signature on the map View of a Stream of Lava as it Entered the Sea at Nanawale, 1840. Catalog record Nuuanu
Nuuanu was a student from Waialua, Oahu, who entered the Lahainaluna Seminary in 1836 and remained a student for five years. As of 1858, Nuuanu lived in Honolulu and worked a job in the government.
Detail of Pikao's engraved signature on the map Aina Moana, 1842. Catalog record N. Pikao
Pikao was a student from Honolulu who entered the Lahainaluna Seminary in 1836. A student for at least four years, Pikao was suspended in 1839 for "direct willful disobedience" and again later in the year was "excluded from school." (See Forbes, D.W. Engraved at Lahainaluna, 2021, p. 25.) Pikao died by 1858.
Native Hawaiian Newspaper Editors
Kapena
Hawaiʻi State Archives,
PC 1,107-AJohn Mākini Kapena (1843-1887)
John Mākini Kapena, born in 1843 in Lahaina, Maui, was an established politician and diplomat in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Kapena served as Governor of Maui from 1874 to 1876, Minister of Finance from 1876 to 1878, and Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1878-1880, among various other roles. In 1870, Kapena became the editor of Ke Au Okoa, until it merged with Ka Nupepa Kuokoa to become Ka Nupepa Kuokoa Me Ke Au Okoa I Huiia (not at AAS) in 1873.
Joseph U. Kawainui (1841-1895)
Joseph U. Kawainui was born on Maui around 1841. He came to Honolulu as a child to attend the Royal school. Around 1870, he was hired as a reporter by Henry Martyn Whitney, the publisher of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa. Kawainui eventually became an editor of Kuokoa before leaving to start his own publication. In 1878 he started Ko Hawaii Pae Aina (not at AAS) which he published until 1892. He then returned to the position of editor of Kuokoa until his death in 1895.
Samuel Kauhanehonokawailani Mahoe (1845-1918?)
S.K. Mahoe likely refers to Samuel Kauhanehonokawailani Mahoe, who was hired as an editor of Ka Nupepa Kuokoa in 1878. Mahoe was instrumental in the printing of Hawaiian language newspapers and the preservation of Hawaiian history. According to his obituary, Mahoe served “many terms” in the Royal Hawaiian government until his death.
Kaunamano
Wikimedia CommonsJ. K. Kaunamano
Kaunamano established the newspaper Ka Hoku o ka Pakipika (not at AAS), described as the first Hawaiian language newspaper established by a Native Hawaiian. Kaunamano was also involved in government, as indicated by his signing of a government report in 1892.
Poepoe
Wikimedia CommonsJoseph Mokuʻōhai Poepoe (1852-1913)
Joseph Mokuohai Poepoe was born in 1852 in Honomakau, Hawaiʻi. He came to Honolulu as a child to attend the Royal School at Kekehuna. In 1884, Poepoe received his Hawaiian law license. He later became a teacher at the British Government School in Ainakea and made several runs for government office as part of the Democratic Party of Oahu nei. Poepoe was well-known as an editor for many Hawaiian-language newspapers on Oahu, including Ka Nupepa Kuokoa under Henry Martyn Whitney. Poepoe died in 1913.
Hawaiian Sovereigns
The Kingdom of Hawaiʻi flourished between 1795 (or 1810, if including all the islands) and 1893 under a series of sovereigns most of whom took the name Kamehameha. The first Kamehameha who united the islands in 1810 was not involved in printing since he died in 1819, just a few months before the first U.S. and Native Hawaiian missionaries arrived with the printing press. The Hawaiian sovereigns that followed made active use of the printing press, primarily to promulgate laws and orders. The last sovereign, Queen Liliʻuokalani, also wrote songs in Hawaiian that were preserved in print in the nineteenth century, as well as an English language book, Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, published in Boston in 1898, the same year that the U.S. took over Hawaii.
Kamehameha III
Hawaiʻi State Archives,
PP-97-7-001Hawaii. Sovereign (1825-1854 : Kamehameha III)
Kamehameha III reigned for almost 30 years, though the early years were under the regency of his mother. His most enduring legacy was establishing a constitutional monarchy in 1840 and adopting another constitution in 1852.
Kamehameha IV
Catalog recordHawaii. Sovereign (1854-1863 : Kamehameha IV)
Kamehameha IV was educated as a youth by U.S. Protestant missionaries, succeeded his uncle when he was only 20 years old, and reigned for less than 10 years before his death. Politically he opposed an annexation treaty with the United States, instead preferring a reciprocity treaty.
Kalakaua
Hawaiʻi State Archives,
PNLPC-5-07656Hawaii. Sovereign (1874-1891 : Kalakaua) or Kalakaua, David, King of Hawaii, 1836-1891
also known as: David Laʻamea Kamananakapu Mahinulani Naloiaehuokalani Lumialani KalākauaPublications by Kalākaua include speeches on the occasion of the opening of the Legislative Assembly in Hawaiian and English. He also published a book in English, The Legends and Myths of Hawaii (New York, 1888).
Liliuokalani
Hawaiʻi State Archives,
PP-98-10-005Liliuokalani, Queen of Hawaiʻi (1838-1917)
also known as: Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha Pākī DominiAlso known by her married English name, Lydia Dominis, the woman who would become the last sovereign of the Hawaiian Kingdom took the name Liliʻuokalani when her brother designated her as heir apparent. In 1891 she succeeded her brother Kalākaua as the last sovereign of the kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Her government was overthrown in 1893. She wrote multiple songs in Hawaiian.
Native Hawaiian Authors and Translators
S.N. Haleʻole (1819-1866)
S.N. Haleʻole entered the school at Lahainaluna in 1834 and later became a teacher himself. Haleʻole wrote what is known as the first book-length literary text written by a native Hawaiian to appear in print. Ke Kaao o Laieikawai (1863) told the traditional Hawaiian story of Laieikawai. It had first been published serially in the newspaper Ka Nupepa Kuokoa.
John Papa ʻIʻi
Hawaiʻi State Archives,
APP-73-4-009John Papa ʻIʻi (1800-1870)
also known as: John Kaneiakama Papa ʻIʻi; Ioane Kaneiakama Papa ʻIʻiBorn on the island of Oʻahu, John Papa ʻIʻi began serving in the royal household of Kamehameha in 1810 at ten years of age. He went on to become an influential statesman. The compiled statutes of 1842 indicate John ʻIʻi wrote some of those original Hawaiian laws. He also published biographical and historical accounts in the Hawaiian language newspaper Ka Nupepa Kuokoa from 1866 until his death in 1870.
S.M. Kamakau
Hawaiʻi State Archives,
AN-PNS-78-16899Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau (1815-1876)
Samuel Manaiakalani Kamakau remains one of the most important Hawaiian historians. Kamakau was a student at Lahainaluna Seminary, where he later became a teacher's helper and began writing articles about Hawaiian culture and history. Kamakau helped found the first Hawaiian Historical Association in 1841. In 1845, he became the principal of a school in Kipahulu, Māui. From 1848 through his death in 1876, Kamakau held various government roles, including tenures in the House of Representatives and as a district judge. Kamakau wrote regular columns for Hawaiian newspapers throughout the 1860s on various subjects, including many on Hawaiian history.
Joel Hulu Mahoe (1831-1891)
Joel Hulu Mahoe was a Hawaiian pastor and missionary after converting to Christianity at a young age. He was given the first name Joel by a reverend at the Hilo mission. Mahoe worked as a delegate of the Hawaiian Board to the Gilbert Islands. Due to his proficiency in the Gilbertese language, he was known to assist Gilbertese people with immigration to the Hawaiian islands. Mahoe remained an advocate for the Gilbertese people until his death in 1891.
Davida Malo (1795-1853)
Malo fromThe Races of Man, 1848. Davida Malo was one of the native Hawaiian speakers integral to the translation of the Bible into Hawaiian and he authored his own works in Hawaiian as well. Malo entered Lahainaluna Seminary when it was established in 1831 when he was 36. He was at the school for 3 years, later serving as a school master. In 1827 Malo wrote one of the earliest books by a native Hawaiian, He Buke no ka Oihana Kula (A book for the work of education), which is a collection of Hawaiian genealogies. The original manuscript is at the Bishop Museum. It did not appear in print until the late twentieth century. Malo was one of the contributors to Ka Mooolelo Hawaii, printed in 1838, and he also wrote his own Mo'olelo Hawai'i which was not printed until the early twentieth century. The compiled statutes of 1842 indicate Malo was one of those who wrote several of the original Hawaiian laws.
Nawahi, from History of later years of the Hawaiian Monarchy and the Revolution of 1893, 1896, after page 26. Catalog record Joseph Kahooluhi Nawahi (1842-1896)
also known as: Joseph Kahoʻoluhi Nāwahī; Iosepa Kahoʻoluhi NāwahīokalaniʻōpuʻuJoseph Kahooluhi Nawahi was a Native Hawaiian legislator, lawyer, newspaper publisher, and painter. In 1857, after attending the Hilo Boarding School, Nawahi enrolled at the Lahainauna Seminary. After graduating from Lahainaluna, Nawahi enrolled at the Chief's School at Kahehuna to continue his education.
A self-taught lawyer, Nawahi used his legal knowledge to pursue a career in politics. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1872. Following the deaths of King Kamehameha V and Lunalilo in 1872 and 1874, respectively, Nawahi was one of six representatives to vote for Queen Emma of Hawaii, who was defeated by Kalakaua in the election.
Nawahi vehemently opposed the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, calling it "he ku ʻikahi kaʻili aupuni" ("a nation-snatching treaty"). He believed the treaty would be the first step in the annexation of Hawaiʻi. Nawahi remained a strong defender of Hawaiian sovereignty and worked closely with Queen Lili'uokalani during the tumultuous latter half of the nineteenth century.
In 1894, Nawahi was arrested for treason because of his support for Hawaiian sovereignty. It was during his three months in prison that he contracted tuberculosis, which would ultimately lead to his death in 1896.
Following his release from prison in early 1895, Nawahi and his wife Emma ʻAʻima Aʻii started the weekly publication of Ke Aloha Aina (Not at AAS), an anti-annexationist newspaper written in Hawaiian. The paper continued publishing after his death; it ran until 1920.
Missionary Groups
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was one of the first Christian missionary groups founded in the United States in 1810, the same year that Kamehameha united the Hawaiian islands under his rule. Within a decade, ABCFM had sent from their headquarters in Boston a group of Native Hawaiians and U.S. missionaries to what they referred to as the "Sandwich Islands." Dozens of additional missionaries arrived on later boats until the mission dissolved in 1853 [CHECK]. Many children born to the U.S. missionaries while on the islands thought of themselves as native-born Hawaiians, further complicating relationships between the groups.
Lorrin Andrews (1795-1868)
Lorrin Andrews was a U.S. missionary who arrived on Hawaiʻi in 1827. In 1831 he was chosen as the first principal of the Lahainaluna Seminary, where he served for ten years before abandoning the ABCFM. Andrews was an essential champion for setting up copperplate engraving in Lahainaluna Seminary and he also helped translate the New Testament of the Bible into Hawaiian.
Edward Bailey (1814-1903)
Edward Bailey was born in Holden, Massachusetts, and attended Amherst College before sailing with his wife, Caroline, to Hawaiʻi in 1836. A teacher by training, Bailey worked at Lahainaluna Seminary and Wailuku Female Seminary until around 1850. Bailey painted over one hundred landscapes of Maui and drew the main street of his hometown, Holden, Massachusetts, which was then engraved by Kapeau.
Persis G. Taylor (1821-1906)
also known as: Miss Thurston or Persis Goodale Thurston TaylorPersis Goodale Thurston Taylor was an American artist born to U.S. missionaries with ABCFM living on Hawaiʻi. As a young adult, Thurston lived in Lāhainā, Maui, where she worked for three years with students on the printing press at the Lahainaluna Seminary. Her paintings were made into engravings at Lahainaluna.
Henry Martyn Whitney (1824-1904)
Henry Martyn Whitney was born to U.S. missionaries with ABCFM in 1824 on the island of Kauaʻi. Whitney worked for the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi government printing office, where he worked as a journalist for The Polynesian, and later in various other governmental roles. Whitney started the Pacific Commercial Advertiser [link] in 1856; only a few early issues had Hawaiian language content. Partly in response to the publication of the Native Hawaiian-run Ka Hoki o ka Pakipika (not at AAS), Whitney established the Hawaiian-language newspaper Ka Nupepa Kuokoa in 1861. Whitney strongly opposed the Hawaiian monarchy and advocated for the influence of U.S. Protestants over the islands.
Richard Armstrong (1805-1860)
also known as: LimaikaikaRichard Armstrong was a U.S. missionary with ABCFM who arrived on Hawaiʻi in 1832. Armstrong is known for establishing the American-style public school system on Hawaiʻi – he was appointed as Minister of Public Instruction by King Kamehameha III. Armstrong edited several newspapers on the islands, including Ka Elele, Ka Elele Hawaii, and Ka Nonanona, a faith-based newspaper targeted at children. Armstrong sometimes published using the Hawaiian name Limaikaika, which translates to English as “strong hand or arm.”
Josiah Fuller (1814-1889)
also known as: J. PulaJosiah Fuller moved to Hawaiʻi from the U.S. likely as part of an ABCFM mission. In 1856, Fuller began publishing the Hawaiian-language newspaper Ka Hae Hawaii, which functioned as an official platform for the Hawai’i Department of Public Instruction. Fuller published under the Hawaiian name J. Pula.
Henry Hodges Parker (1834-1927)
Henry Hodges Parker was the son of U.S. Christian missionaries. Born on the Marquesas Islands, Parker arrived back in Hawaiʻi with his family two months after his birth in 1834 following reassignment by the church because of civil unrest in the Marquesas. Parker was raised in Kaneohe, O’ahu, where he became fluent in Hawaiian and later became a teacher at Lahainaluna High School on Maui. Parker served as the fourth Kahu (pastor) of the Kawaiaha’o Church in Honolulu. He held the position for 54 years and remains the longest-serving Kahu in history. From 1871 to 1874, Parker published Ka Lau Oliva, a Hawaiian-language newspaper serving the Kawaiaha’o Church community.
Catholic Missionaries
The ABCFM were not the only missionary group on the islands, though because they brought a printing press when the first arrived they are more heavily represented in the historical record. Catholic missionaries also attempted to win converts and there was significant conflict between the two religious groups. The first Hawaiian language Catholic documents were printed in Paris, but the Palapala Katolika (Catholic Press) was not set up on the islands until they brought their own press in 1840.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
also known as: Latter-day Saints, LDS, Mormons
In December 1850, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) sent ten missionaries to the Hawaiian islands. The group included George Q. Cannon, who would go on to be a significant LDS leader and publisher. Half the initial group of missionaries returned to the U.S. in the first few months, but on August 6, 1851, Cannon organized the first branch of the Church in Hawaii in the village of Kealahou, Maui. The clerk appointed to that branch was one of the Native Hawaiian teachers, Kaleohano, who in his school days had been the artist for one of the engravings done at Lahainaluna Seminary. By the end of 1853 there were nearly 3,000 Mormon converts in Hawai‘i. Between 1852 and 1854, George Q. Cannon, worked with a Native Hawaiian Jonatana or Jonathan H. Nāpela to translate the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian. Cannon had the Hawaiian translation published in San Francisco in 1855, and copies of Ka Buke a Moramona (not at AAS) soon arrived in Hawai‘i. Today, Hawai‘i has one of the highest concentration of LDS church members in U.S. states that do not border Utah.
Walter Murray Gibson (1822-1888)
also known as: KipikonaWalter Murray Gibson was a later U.S. Mormon missionary who arrived on the islands in 1861 and established himself on the island of Lānaʻi, but by 1864 he was excommunicated from the church for preaching false doctrines misappropriation of funds and the Mormon's left the island. In January 1865, Brigham Young purchased land in Lā‘ie, O‘ahu, for a new community of LDS members that Native Hawaiian Kaleohano was instrumental in founding. Gibson went on to seek political power in the Hawaiian government and through publishing newspapers. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1878 as a candidate for the King’s Party, touting his alliance with King Kalakaua and proclaiming himself a voice of Hawaiians. He held many positions in the government, often at the same time, including Minster of Foreign Affairs, Attorney General, Minister of the Interior, and Secretary of War. Gibson started Nuhou in 1873, printing in Hawaiian and English. Nuhou promoted Gibson and his political views, namely his staunch dedication to Hawaiian independence. In 1880, Gibson purchased the Pacific Commercial Advertiser.