by Dr. Louise Sherby, Hunter College Archives & Special Collections
On May 19, 1887, the Queen of Hawai'i, Queen Kapi'olani, was on a trip from Hawai'i to London for Queen Victoria's celebration of her golden jubilee. On her way, she stopped in New York City and visited the Normal College (what we now know as Hunter College).
Photo by J.J. Williams, Hawai'i State Archives
Prof. Colette Higgins, Professor of History at Kapi'olani Community College, is using her sabbatical this year to "travel in her footsteps" and on Friday, May 13, 2016, she and her husband visited our Archives & Special Collections. We actually found very little in our archives on her visit but were able to give her some pictures of what the buildings would have looked like in 1887.
Prof. Higgins is blogging about her trip across America and her voyage on the Queen Mary to England. If you would like to see what she is writing about as she and her husband travel by train and ship on this trip, here is a link to her blog entry about her visit to Hunter College: http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/colette.higgins/1/1463248890/tpod.html
She's trying to reacquaint Hawai'i with the history of Queen Kapi'olani and her importance to the islands and how this trip influenced her. Below is a copy of a description written by one of the Queen's travel companions of her visit to NY and Normal College and a couple short newspaper articles reporting on her trip. Enjoy!
Excerpt taken from pages 19-10 in A Short Description of QUEEN KAPIOLANI’S Voyage to England to Attend THE JUBILEE CELEBRATION OF QUEEN VICTORIA OF ENGLAND In The Year 1887 By James W. L. McGuire, Copied from the original in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. Friedricka A. Barringer, Kaneohe. March, 1957; this typed copy is at the Hawaii State Archives).
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