Archives
Lāna‘i Archive Resources
Lāna‘i Culture & Heritage Center maintains a growing collection of more than 40,000 items which help tell the story of Lāna‘i and the many people who have called the island home. The collections are still being catalogued with indices and finding aids being developed. In 2017-2019 The Hawai‘i State Legislature Grant-in-Aid program provided funding to engage in a major conservation program, including providing online access to many of our archival resources.
Mālama i ke Koehana Waiwai o Lānaʻi
“E Mālama i ke Koehana Waiwai o Lānaʻi” (to care for the valuable artifacts of Lānaʻi) seeks to inventory, catalog, and begin digitization of the Lānaʻi Culture & Heritage Center’s (Lānaʻi CHC) robust collection of Native Hawaiian cultural artifacts specific to the island. This project is supported through the Institute of Museum & Library Sciences Native Hawaiian Museum Services grant.
Activities include conducting a comprehensive inventory of all 2,500+ Hawaiian artifacts in Lānaʻi CHC’s care, cataloging and inputting data into a content management system following professional standards and best practices of indigenous objects, and digitizing 10% of these artifacts. This project also includes the preservation and environmental improvement of the collections through the installation of compact mobile shelving and object rehousing. The environmental improvement of the archive was supported by Pūlama Lānaʻi and the Atherton Foundation.
This project represents an important step towards preserving the unique and valuable history of Lānaʻi. It will involve the work of Lānaʻi CHC staff, board, interns, and volunteers---a true community effort to steward our cultural heritage. This project will run through the end of 2025.