Bernice P. Bishop Museum
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Bishop Museum
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The Hawaiian Hall at the Bishop Museum contains the world's largest collection of Polynesian artifacts
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| Location | 1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, HI |
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| Coordinates | 21°20′00.00″N 157°52′14.22″W / 21.3333333°N 157.8706167°WCoordinates: 21°20′00.00″N 157°52′14.22″W / 21.3333333°N 157.8706167°W |
| Built | 1889 |
| Architect | William F. Smith |
| Architectural style | Richardsonian Romanesque |
| NRHP Reference # | 82002500 |
| Added to NRHP | July 26, 1982 |
The Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated the Hawaiʻi State Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is a museum of history and science located in the historic Kalihi district of Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu. Founded in 1889, it is the largest museum in Hawai'i and has the world's largest collection of Polynesian cultural artifacts and natural history specimens. Besides the comprehensive exhibits of Hawaiiana, the museum's total holding of natural history specimens exceeds 24 million, of which the entomological collection alone represents more than 13.5 million specimens (making it the third-largest insect collection in the United States). The museum is accessible on public transit: TheBus Routes A, 1, 2, 7, 10.
The museum complex is home to the Richard T. Mamiya Science Adventure Center.
Charles Reed Bishop (1822–1915), a businessman and philanthropist, co-founder of the First Hawaiian Bank and Kamehameha Schools, built the museum in memory of his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop (1831–1884). Born into the royal family, she was the last legal heir of the Kamehameha Dynasty, which had ruled the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi between 1810 and 1872. Bishop had originally intended the museum to house family heirlooms passed down to him through the royal lineage of his wife.
Bishop hired William Tufts Brigham as the first curator of the Museum; Brigham later served as director from 1898 until his retirement in 1918.
The museum was built on the original boys' campus of Kamehameha Schools, an institution created at the bequest of the Princess, to benefit native Hawaiian children; she gave details in her last will and testament. In 1898, Bishop had Hawaiian Hall and Polynesian Hall built on the campus, in the popular Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style. The Pacific Commercial Advertiser newspaper dubbed these two structures as "the noblest buildings of Honolulu".
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