Lyman House Memorial Museum, Historic missionary residence in Hilo, Hawaii, United States.
The Lyman House Memorial Museum is a wooden house built in 1838 on Haili Street in Hilo, Hawaii, now serving as a museum dedicated to missionary life and Hawaiian natural history. A modern wing was added alongside the original structure to house additional exhibits, including a notable mineral collection.
David and Sarah Lyman arrived in Hawaii in 1828 as missionaries from New England and built this house ten years later using local wood. The building eventually became a museum to keep the memory of the family and their role in island life alive.
The house shows how a New England missionary family lived, cooked, and taught on the islands during the 1800s. The original rooms are largely intact and give a direct sense of daily life from that period.
The museum sits on Haili Street in central Hilo and is easy to reach on foot from many parts of town. Plan enough time to see both the original house and the exhibits in the newer wing, as they cover very different ground.
The museum's mineral collection contains a rare mineral called orlymanite, named after Orlando Hammond Lyman, a descendant of the founding family. It is one of the few minerals in the world named after a local family member rather than a scientist or a place.
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