Bishop Museum, Natural and cultural history museum in Kalihi, United States
The Bishop Museum is a natural history and cultural museum in Kalihi, a neighborhood of Honolulu on Oahu. The collections include Hawaiian royal heirlooms, Pacific ethnography, insects, birds, fish, and geological specimens from across the Pacific region.
Charles Reed Bishop founded the museum in 1889 to preserve the heirlooms of his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Over the decades, expeditions and donations expanded the collections to millions of natural history and cultural objects from the Pacific.
The name honors Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, whose royal collection formed the foundation. Visitors today see Hawaiian feather cloaks, wood carvings, and tools that offer insight into life before European contact.
The grounds include several buildings, among them the three-story Hawaiian Hall filled with exhibits and a separate wing for temporary displays. A planetarium offers astronomy programs, and the library is accessible by appointment.
The Hawaiian Hall displays a complete sperm whale skeleton suspended above the gallery. The display cases surrounding the skeleton were crafted from koa wood, a native tree that has become rare today.
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