surfresearch.com.au  peabody museum :  hawaiian collection, 1920

The Polynesian collections of the Peabody Museum of Salem are of great ethnological value representing as they do many specimens brought home in the early days of the East India Marine Society.
It is impracticable to exhibit these collections all at once but in order to bring them before the public it seemed well to treat one group of islands at a time by means of a special exhibition.
At the same time a few other objects loaned by friends of the Museum are temporarily exhibited adding to the popular interest in the collection.
With this end in view it was decided to make the first of these special exhibitions one of objects relating to the Hawaiian Islands.

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The canoes were dug out from a single log, with a gunwhale, which partly covered each end, sewed on the top with cocoanut fiber, and an outrigger boom supported by two curved spars.
They were beautifully executed notwithstanding the fact that the work was done with the simple stone adz.
The whole operation from selecting the tree to launching the finished canoe was under the direct superintendence of a priest and was accompanied by sacrifices and prayers, the work being considered a most serious matter.
The canoes varied in size from those of eighteen feet in length, carrying one person, to those of some fifty or more feet, canying forty or fifty people.
There were also double canoes composed of two hulls attached together by spars on which a raised platform was rigged.
These were very steady and would carry a large number of people.
Triangular mat sails were used.

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146.    Waa, or outrigger canoe, model. Length 3 ft. 6 in. (15542).
Gift of Stephen W. Phillips.

147.    Waa, model, with paddle. Length 1 ft. 6 in. (5342).
Gift of Capt. Joseph Hammond in 1864.

148.    Waa, model. Outrigger missing. Length 3 ft. 1 in. (11576).
Gift of Capt's C. Crowninshield and M. Folger in 1802.

149.    Waa, model. Outrigger missing. Length 1 ft. 5 in. (15019).
Gift of Stephen W. Phillips.

150.    Hoe, or paddle. Length 4 ft. 11 in., width of blade 10 in. (8155).
Gift of Dr. Charles G. Weld.
Old Boston Museum coll.

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The ancient Hawaiians had a great variety of games and amusements, such as boxing, wrestling, sliding down hill, surf-swimming, bowling, foot-races, dancing, etc., many of which were associated with gambling to which they were greatly addicted.
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208.    Holua, or sled runner of wood. Length 8 ft. (14016).
Gift of Dr. Charles G. Weld.
Sliding down hill on a sled over a track of dried grass was a sport much enjoyed by the nobility.
From the burial cave of Kanupa, Kohala, Hawaii.
J. S. Emerson coll.

Peabody Museum:  The Hawaiian Portion of the Polynesian Collections in the Peabody Museum of Salem Special Exhibition  August - November, 1920. Peabody Museum, Salem, 1920.

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