Explore: Across the Pacific
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Breaking Discovery from the Pacific Basin
Two extraordinary marsupials from New Guinea—long believed extinct and known only from fossils—have now been rediscovered as living species in western New Guinea.
Across the Pacific: Explore Our Collections, Research, and Publications
For more than a century, the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum has worked at the heart of Pacific scholarship—documenting, caring for, and sharing the stories of islands and peoples connected by ocean, migration, trade, and innovation. From Hawaiʻi outward, the Museum’s diverse studies have helped illuminate the deep relationships that link communities across the Pacific Basin. This long commitment has shaped a collection whose scope is both local in its kuleana and expansive in its reach.
Bishop Museum’s Archaeology Department (formerly known as the Anthropology Department) has studied the cultural heritage of Hawai‘i and its ancestral cultures throughout the Pacific for over a century.
Bishop Museum’s Botany department holds the largest and most comprehensive collection of Hawaiian and tropical Pacific Island vascular plants, bryophytes, algae, fungi, and lichen specimens including over 225,000 specimens from Hawai‘i and 210,000 from Pacific Oceania.
Bishop Museum’s Entomology Collections have a long and distinguished record. Its collections serve as the principal US-based entomological resource for documentation of biological diversity and ecosystem studies in the Pacific and Asian regions and are a major national and international systematic resource.
The Ethnology department welcomes all researchers, practitioners, and interested parties to access the collections. Due to limited staff availability, we are only able to accommodate a limited number of visitors each month. Those interested in scheduling a visit may submit a request at least 30 days in advance of their preferred visit date using this form: Ethnology Collections Access Request.
Bishop Museum’s Natural Science Department includes a significant Ichthyology collection, begun in 1889 with a small sampling of fishes from off the west coast of North America by the US Fish Commission vessel Albatross.
The Invertebrate Zoology Collection at Bishop Museum contains over 35,000 cataloged lots with over 1,000 type specimens. It is the only collection in the world devoted solely to marine invertebrates of the Pacific islands, with its primary focus being the Hawaiian Archipelago.
Bishop Museum’s Natural Science Department includes a significant Ichthyology collection, begun in 1889 with a small sampling of fishes from off the west coast of North America by the US Fish Commission vessel Albatross.
Bishop Museum’s Natural Science Department includes a significant Ichthyology collection, begun in 1889 with a small sampling of fishes from off the west coast of North America by the US Fish Commission vessel Albatross.
The Vertebrate Zoology Collections at Bishop Museum include assemblages of mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles, along with fossils from Hawaiʻi and the Pacific Basin, with some material from other regions.
Browse Recent Publications
Bishop Museum houses the world’s largest collection of Hawaiian and Pacific cultural artifacts and natural history specimens. This collection continues to be used as a first class scientific collection contributing to ongoing global research.
Evenhuis, N.L. (ed.). 2024 Records of the Hawaii Biological Survey for 2024. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 156:1-206 [11 December 2024].
Evenhuis, N.L. 2024. A new genus and species from Fiji masquerading as Setostylus Matile (Diptera: Keroplatidae: Keroplatinae). In: Evenhuis, N.L. & Bickel, D.J. (eds.), Fiji Arthropods. New Series. II. [5 December 2024]. Bishop Museum Occasional Papers 158:7–11.
Be a Part of Our Story
Celebrate the extraordinary history, culture, and environment of Hawaiʻi and the Pacific with a gift to Bishop Museum. As a partner in the Museum’s work, you can help to sustain vital collections, research, and knowledge, and inspire exploration and discovery with a tax-deductible donation.