About Us
Bishop Museum was founded
in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in honor of
his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop,
the last descendant of the royal Kamehameha
family. The Museum was established to house
the extensive collection of Hawaiian artifacts
and royal family heirlooms of the Princess,
and has expanded to include millions of artifacts,
documents and photographs about Hawai‘i
and other Pacific island cultures.
Mr. Bishop built the magnificent Polynesian and Hawaiian Halls on the grounds of the original Kamehameha Schools for Boys. The Museum and School shared the Kapālama campus until 1940 when a new larger school complex was opened nearby on Kapālama Heights.
Today, Bishop Museum is the largest museum in the state and the premier natural and cultural history institution in the Pacific, recognized throughout the world for its cultural collections, research projects, consulting services and public educational programs. It also has one of the largest natural history specimen collections in the world. Serving and representing the interests of Native Hawaiians is a primary purpose of the Museum.
The Museum also operates two other institutions: Hawaii Maritime Center (located in Honolulu Harbor next to Aloha Tower Marketplace) and the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden (on the island of Hawai'i ).
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