Historic journey

Photo Gallery: Bishop Museum’s new Pacific Hall

The opening of the new Pacific Hall — formerly known as Polynesian Hall — will mark a milestone for Bishop Museum on Saturday.

Its completion caps a $24.5 million renovation of the Hawaiian Hall Complex and is symbolic of the museum’s modernization as well as its greater scope and reach.

With Pacific Hall, the museum explores and reveals the deep, historical connections among the peoples of the Pacific.

"Telling the Native Hawaiian story requires that you tell the whole story," said Blair Collis, president and CEO of Bishop Museum. "Fundamentally, the question of where Hawaiians came from needs to be answered and we feel it’s our kuleana to provide that part of the story.

"That’s been part of our mission from the beginning — that you can’t understand Hawaii unless you understand the Pacific."

At the same time, Collis believes Pacific Hall fulfills museum founder Charles Reed Bishop’s original mission of offering a larger perspective on Pacific cultures and natural history.

The newly renovated hall provides an unprecedented display of Pacific ethnological and archival materials alongside contemporary Pacific artwork and multimedia displays.

In all, it will offer 42 cases, 12 digital media displays and seven contemporary art pieces.

Most items on display have never been seen in public and are intended to offer a new perspective on Pacific migration. Thanks to new scientific techniques, groundbreaking data will be presented that revises the timeline of Pacific settlement.

The first floor showcases canoe models from around the world and explores themes such as "Gods and Ancestors." A refurbished canoe from Fulaga island in southern Fiji is suspended from the ceiling above a new, inlaid wood floor map of the Pacific.

Upstairs on the mezzanine, visitors will go on a journey via artifacts that trace the migration of ancient Austronesian-speaking people through Melanesia, Tonga, Samoa and Fiji to the Society Islands, the Marquesas and, finally, to Hawaii, Easter Island and Aotearoa (New Zealand).

"Yes, there’s diversity but there’s also an amazing similarity," said Elizabeth Tatar, director of strategic initiatives at Bishop Museum. "The ocean doesn’t divide these peoples, but brings them together."

EVOLUTION OF PACIFIC HALL

1892
Construction begins on Polynesian Hall, which was designed by architect William F. Smith of San Francisco, who also designed the original museum building.

1894
Polynesian Hall opens with exhibits installed by William T. Brigham, the museum’s first director.

1957
Polynesian Hall undergoes extensive remodeling and is renamed the Hall of Pacific Life, with exhibits on the physical geography and natural history of the Pacific area.

1961
Formal opening of the Hall of Pacific Life with 54 new exhibits, representing a five-year effort.

1971
Polynesian Hall hosts an exhibit called “Two by Two,”?featuring a private collection of stuffed, mounted animals from around the world. Exhibit closes in 1977.

1978
Polynesian Hall presents “Artificial Curiosities,” commemorating the 200th anniversary of Captain Cook’s arrival in Hawaii, featuring 400 Pacific artifacts collected by Cook on loan from museums around the world.

1980
The most recent exhibition, “Peoples of the Pacific: Chiefs, Bigmen, and Mariners,” is installed and runs until 2010.

2009
Completion of the first phase of the Hawaiian Hall Restoration Project at an estimated cost of $15.8 million. The museum re-established the hall’s third-floor picture gallery, built an atrium, installed an elevator and brought collection care up to 21st century standards.

2010
Renovation of Polynesian Hall begins at an estimated cost of $8.7 million.

Sept. 2013
Grand unveiling of Pacific Hall, representing the complete renovation of the Hawaiian Hall Complex, the museum’s iconic building on the 12-acre campus, at a total cost of $24.5 million.