The Lyman House Memorial Museum, also known as the Lyman Museum and Lyman House, is a

Hilo Hilo () is a census-designated place (CDP) and the largest settlement in Hawaii County, Hawaii, Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States, which encompasses the Hawaii (island), Island of Hawaii. The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 United ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

-based natural history museum founded in 1931 in the Lyman family mission house, originally built in 1838. The main collections were moved to an adjacent modern building in the 1960s, while the house is open for tours as the island's oldest surviving wood-framed building.

The mission

Reverend

David Belden Lyman David Belden Lyman (July 28, 1803 – October 4, 1884) was an early American missionary to Hawaii who opened a boarding school for Hawaiians. His wife Sarah Joiner Lyman (1805–1885) taught at the boarding school and kept an important journal. Th ...

and his wife, Sarah Joiner Lyman, arrived in 1832, missionaries from the

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most imp ...

. It was one of the first houses on the island to be built in the style of their native New England, using native

koa KOA (short for Kampgrounds of America) is an American franchise of privately owned campgrounds. Having more than 500 locations across the United States and Canada, it is the world's largest system of privately owned campgrounds. It was founded in ...

and

ohia ''Metrosideros polymorpha'', the ''ōhia lehua'', is a species of flowering evergreen tree in the Myrtus, myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that is Endemism, endemic to the six largest Hawaiian Islands, islands of Hawaii, Hawaii. It is a highly variable ...

woods. Guests included

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

and

Isabella Bird Isabella Lucy Bird, married name Bishop (15 October 1831 – 7 October 1904), was a nineteenth-century British explorer, writer, photographer, and naturalist. With Fanny Jane Butler she founded the John Bishop Memorial Hospital in Srinagar ...

. In 1854 - 1859 the new

Haili Church The Waiākea Mission Station was the first Christian mission on the eastern side of the Island of Hawaii. Also known as the Hilo Station, the latest structure is now called Haili Church. The first mission The American missionaries Asa Thurston ...

was built across the street, replacing the thatched structures that served previously for the congregation. The mission house was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

on March 24, 1978, as site 78001012. nomination form on

web site It is located at 276 Haili Street in Hilo, coordinates .

The museum

Almost a century after the missionaries' arrival, a museum was founded in 1931 by their descendants. In the late 1960s, architect

Vladimir Ossipoff Vladimir ‘Val’ Nicholas Ossipoff (russian: Владимир Николаевич Осипов; November 25, 1907 – October 1, 1998) was an American architect best known for his works in the state of Hawai'i. Biography Early life and s ...

designed and built a Museum building adjacent to the mission house. Upon its completion, the Museum moved there and expanded its exhibits. It has extensive displays on

Hawaiian culture The culture of the Native Hawaiians encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms practiced by the original residents of the Hawaiian islands, including their knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits. Humans ...

and is renowned for its collection of shells and minerals, including a specimen of orlymanite, named for Orlando Hammond Lyman (1903–1986), the museum's founder and great grandson of David and Sarah Lyman. The Museum has been an affiliate of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

since 2002.

References

External links

Lyman Museum official website
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii Institutions accredited by the American Alliance of Museums Natural history museums in Hawaii Museums in Hilo, Hawaii Smithsonian Institution affiliates Ethnic museums in Hawaii Asian art museums in Hawaii Houses completed in 1838 Museums established in 1931 1931 establishments in Hawaii Houses in Hawaii County, Hawaii National Register of Historic Places in Hawaii County, Hawaii {{Hawaii-NRHP-stub

The mission

The museum

References

Further reading

External links