Support effort to fill in blanks of Hawaii history

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Jun 16, 2012

~~<p>Newspapers have been called the first draft of history. However, many of our islands' first drafts have been virtually inaccessible, locked away in musty, bound volumes and written in a language most of us don't understand — Hawaiian.</p>
<p>But the history and knowledge hidden in those volumes are vast and priceless. Thanks to the early adoption of a written alphabet, Hawaiians developed a high level of literacy less than 60 years after Capt. James Cook's arrival in 1778. As a result, these newspapers, dating from the 1830s, contain a "written record of the whole transition from stone age into modern age," said Puakea Nogelmeier, executive director of Awaiaulu Inc. The hard part will be preserving and unlocking those treasures for future generations.</p>
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Newspapers have been called the first draft of history. However, many of our islands' first drafts have been virtually inaccessible, locked away in musty, bound volumes and written in a language most of us don't understand — Hawaiian.

But the history and knowledge hidden in those volumes are vast and priceless. Thanks to the early adoption of a written alphabet, Hawaiians developed a high level of literacy less than 60 years after Capt. James Cook's arrival in 1778. As a result, these newspapers, dating from the 1830s, contain a "written record of the whole transition from stone age into modern age," said Puakea Nogelmeier, executive director of Awaiaulu Inc. The hard part will be preserving and unlocking those treasures for future generations. Login for more...