Shifting Focus to Identify Hawaiians in Historical Photographs

Abstract

Three panoramic photographs of the Laie Hawaii Temple from the early 1900's show hundreds of native church members and mainland missionaries. No serious attempts have been made to date these photos or to identify the people depicted in them. Methods will be described firstly for determining the correct dates for the photos, and secondly for identifying individuals in them. We will describe pre-pandemic efforts and then pivotal changes which were needed to continue the identification process. Other libraries and archives can benefit from these same procedures in working with their own the correct dates for the photos, and secondly for identifying individuals in them.