23 Jul MaPS Helps Bring Historical Resource to the Public
Brother Gabriel Bertram Bellinghausen of the Society of Mary arrived in Hawai‘i as the nineteenth century was coming to a close. Over the next twenty years, Brother Bertram shot over 2,000 images of the Hawaiian Kingdom on 8×10- inch glass plates. In 2012, Chaminade University created a traveling exhibit of these photographs curated by Dr. Albert Lum and entitled “Na Pa‘i Ki‘i ‘o Brother Bertram, Photographs of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, 1883 to 1905.”
CRDG’s graphic designer Darrell Asato worked with the Chaminade team on the technical aspects of mounting the exhibition. His initial work involved restoring and printing the photographs in a way that was visually appropriate for the time period they depict. This involved research on such things as what tones of black (cold, warm, neutral, etc.) and what types of paper might have been used in Hawai’i at that time. He then travelled with the team to help mount the exhibition on Kaua‘i, Maui, and the Big Island and at the National Geographic Museum at Explorers’ Hall in Washington, DC. Following the initial exhibit, Asato has continued to serve as a technical consultant for additional groups that want to display Brother Bertram’s photographs, most recently the Catholic Women’s Guild in Honolulu and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.