Field Notes of EH Bryan, Jr. on the Whitney South
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Field Notes of E.H. Bryan, Jr. on the Whitney South Seas Expedition (February–November 1924) Compiled by Neal L. Evenhuis Honolulu, Hawai‘i April 2007 Cover photo: The Whitney Expedition’s schooner France in Pago Pago Harbor, April 1924. Field Notes of E.H. Bryan, Jr. on the Whitney South Seas Expedition (February–November 1924) Compiled by Neal L. Evenhuis Pacific Biological Survey Bishop Museum Bishop Museum Technical Report 37 Honolulu, Hawai‘i April 2007 Bishop Museum Press 1525 Bernice Street Honolulu, Hawai‘i Copyright © 2007 All Rights Reserved Printed in the United states of America ISSN 1085-455X Contribution 2007-007 to the Pacific Biological Survey Contribution 2007-007 to the Fiji Arthropod Survey This work supported in part by NSF grant DEB-0425970 “Fiji Terrestrial Arthropod Survey” and the Schlinger Foundation iii Introduction The following pages are devoted to the journals written by Bishop Museum curator Edwin Horace Bryan, Jr. (1898–1985) as he participated on one of the Whitney South Seas Expedition trips to the South Pacific. Bryan’s notes span most of the year 1924 (February through November). He traveled from Honolulu to Samoa to join the expedition, which used the 75-ton schooner France, which had been purchased in Tahiti in 1921 specifically for the Whitney Expeditions. Frpm Pago Pago, the team visited islands throughout (then) American and Western Samoa, the northern Cooks, and on to Fiji where they spent most of the expedition in the Lau group—although Bryan also spent some time on Viti Levu and Ovalau while the boat was in repair and at the end of the trip. While on the expedition, he climbed rugged peaks, slogged through swamps and marches, hiked across scorching hot atolls, trudged through sweltering hot mosquito-infested rainforests, all with his camera and collecting gear in tow; and eventually amassed an unparalleled collection of plants, insects, and other terrestrial animals. In addition, he wrote down detailed observations on the many specimens collected, the surrounding landscape; the weather conditions; as well as the geology, and even cultural traditions; took hundreds of photographs, and made sketches of most all the islands vis- ited. He was curious about everything Pacific and made extensive lists of indigenous terms for plants and animals whenever he visited a new island group. This work is a compilation of all of Bryan’s efforts during that 10-month trip in 1924 to islands that in some cases had not yet been “westernized” and others that contained vegetation and animals that had not yet been disturbed by urbanization, westernization, and/or agricultural use. It includes all of his daily journal entries as well as most of the photographs he took (which were all listed in his daily entries) and the many sketch maps of islands and other sketches he made. The information herein derives from nine field books that Bryan used to produce a clean copy of his original scribbled notes and from the hundreds of black and white photographs he took; the latter that are contained in two large binders. All of this original material is currently housed in the Bishop Museum Archives (see Resources below for finding aid numbers). Background to the Expedition The Whitney South Seas Expedition actually was comprised of a number of expeditions to various iv Bishop Museum Technical Report 37 (2007) South Pacific islands from the years 1920 to 1939. They were supported through funding from finan- cier and horse breeder, Harry Payne Whitney, and coordinated through the American Museum of Natural History. The first field leader was bird collector, Rollo Howard Beck (1870–1950) (see photo on p. 303) and the primary mission of the expedition was to collect birds throughout the Pacific. As a professional courtesy, the Whitney organizing committee made arrangements with Bishop Museum to not collect in Hawaii and exchanged specimens from Hawaii which went to the AMNH while a selection of specimens from the Whitney Expedition went to Bishop. Then Bishop Museum director Herbert Gregory was on the advisory committee of the expedition and suggested that they take on an entomologist on one of their trips. The committee thought this a good idea and in 1924 the 25-year old Ed Bryan, at the time an Assistant in Entomology at Bishop Museum (in 1927 he acquired the lofty title of Curator of Collections), was chosen by Gregory to join the expedition in Samoa. He gave him specific instructions to “collect everything .... except birds”. The other members of the team would be doing that just fine, thank you. Bryan had already been on two previous expeditions (two of the four Tanager Expeditions) that were coordinated through the Bishop Museum (one to Johnston and Wake Islands; the other, to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands). As such Bryan had garnered month’s worth of excellent field experience and was most suited for the job as well as being used to long sea voyages aboard various types of vessels. Bryan gathered up the things he needed and boarded the S.S. Ventura on 11 February 1924, head- ing to Samoa where he would join the expedition members on the schooner France. For the next 10 months the expedition visited over 50 islands, and Bryan made detailed notes on everything he encountered. Additionally, Bryan was especially interested in geography and kept daily logs of the ship’s position, which would help future workers pinpoint exact locations on any particular day of the expedition. Edwin Horace Bryan (1898–1985) Bryan was born Edwin Horace Bryan III on 13 April 1898 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but before he was a year old his father, a shoe dealer in Philadelphia, decided to move out to California to try out citrus farming in the Redlands area of Southern California. It was here that Ed Bryan grew up although he was sent north for his pre-teen years to attend St. Matthew’s Military Academy in the Bay Area town of Burlingame, California. After Ed’s grandfather died, Ed’s father abandoned the Jr. title and Ed took it on, one which he kept the remainder of his life, even after his father died. After graduating from Redlands High School and getting an invitation from an uncle, his father thought it would be good for Ed to come out to Hawai‘i, go to college, and find a job. He arrived in Hawaii on 4 July 1916 and stayed with that uncle, who had just become head of the Mid-Pacific Institute. He entered the College of Hawaii (now the University of Hawaii) in 1916 and received his B.S. degree in general science in 1920. While enrolled, WWI saw Ed signed up as a trainer of soldiers via the U.S. Army Training Corps (forerunner of the ROTC). While at College, Ed worked in the library and assisted botanist and Asiatic explorer Joseph Rock. It was no doubt this association with Rock that helped him change his interest from sugar technology to general science. At the request of entomologist Otto Swezey and through the good references of entomologist D.L. Crawford, on 1 July 1919, Bryan started a summer job as Assistant Entomologist assisting Swezey at Bishop Museum. Although his interest in entomology never abated, he took on whatever jobs were necessary at the Museum. In 1920 he assisted Museum director Herbert Gregory with the often com- plex task of organizing the first Pan-Pacific Science Congress in Honolulu. Bryan not only took on all sorts of jobs but did them well and with eagerness. Journals of E.H. Bryan, Jr. — Whitney South Seas Expedition v Gregory, noting the young man’s energy, and appreciative of Bryan’s enthusiasm, told him to go to back to the mainland where he attended Yale University for an additional year of study and obtained a Ph.B. in 1921. When returning to Bishop Museum in 1922, Bryan found that Gregory had signed him up to teach classes at Kamehameha Schools (at that time on the same campus as the Museum) in addition to his full-time work in the museum’s entomology collection. Fortunately, all this work at the Museum and Kamehameha Schools counted as study time toward the M.S. degree he eventually received from the University of Hawaii in 1924 (while he was away on the Whitney Expedition). After he returned from the Whitney Expedition, Bryan continued his work in entomology at the Museum while also teaching courses at the University of Hawaii. Every few years thereafter, he would accompany other of the Museum’s expeditions to the Pacific. World War II took him away from museum work and he entered the military service, steadily moved up in rank from Captain to Major and finally Lt. Colonel. During these war years Bryan’s extensive knowledge of the little-known Pacific Islands was instrumental to the U.S. Army and in some cases, battles were less bloody and losses were reduced because of this. He was awarded the bronze star for meritorious service. During that time he became well known for his map making abil- ities and produced an atlas of maps of the Pacific Islands that was an essential reference for his fel- low servicemen and officers. His service during the war changed Bryan’s vision about his future and he began to focus more energy on obtaining as much information as possible on everything regarding Pacific Islands. He had a dream of creating a clearing-house of this information at the Bishop Museum. In 1960, his dream came true and the Pacific Science Information Center was formed with him at the head. This center and Bryan’s affiliation with the Museum in that regard continued until his death in 1985.