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| Bernice P. Bishop Museum Press | |
|---|---|
| Name | Bernice P. Bishop Museum Press |
| Founded | 1903 |
| Country | United States |
| Headquarters | Honolulu, Hawaii |
| Parent | Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum |
| Topics | Hawaiian studies, Pacific anthropology, natural history, ethnography |
Bernice P. Bishop Museum Press is the scholarly publishing imprint of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. The Press issues monographs, edited volumes, field reports, and catalogs focused on Hawaiian and Pacific natural history, anthropology, linguistics, archaeology, and cultural heritage. Its publications support research associated with museum collections, expeditions, and collaborations with universities, governmental archives, and international research institutions.
Founded early in the twentieth century during the tenure of trustees influenced by figures such as Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the Press emerged alongside collecting and research initiatives connected to the Bishop Museum and Pacific expeditions. Early decades saw connections with collectors and scholars tied to the Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society, the U.S. Fish Commission, and Pacific exploration documented during voyages like those of HMS Challenger. Throughout the mid-twentieth century the Press published work by researchers linked to Yale University, Stanford University, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, and the Smithsonian Institution. Postwar expansion paralleled federal initiatives including projects coordinated with the National Science Foundation and conservation efforts involving the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service. In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries the Press adapted to changes in scholarly communication influenced by digital repositories such as JSTOR, cooperative catalogs of the Library of Congress, and institutional partnerships with archives like the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site and Archives.
The Press publishes peer-reviewed titles across series that reflect the museum’s strengths: Pacific ethnography, natural history, Hawaiian archaeology, linguistics, and museum catalogs. Series contributors include curators and academics affiliated with Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Oxford, University of British Columbia, and regional institutions like Victoria University of Wellington. Notable formats include technical reports on collections from fieldwork on islands such as Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Molokaʻi, Maui, and Hawaiʻi (island), archaeological syntheses addressing sites like Puʻuloa (Pearl Harbor), and linguistic grammars for languages including Hawaiian language and other Oceanic languages of the Polynesia and Micronesia regions. The Press has issued museum catalogs documenting artifacts associated with figures like King Kamehameha I and collections linked to expeditions by naturalists in the tradition of Alexander Agassiz and Thomas Wilson.
The Press operates within the museum’s scholarly division, coordinated by editorial staff who work with peer reviewers drawn from institutions such as University of Chicago, Columbia University, University of Michigan, and Australian National University. Its mission emphasizes stewardship of material culture from collections associated with donors like Charles Reed Bishop and research that supports curatorial activities involving departments of Entomology, Botany, and Anthropology. Editorial governance follows standard academic press practices with advisory input from learned societies including the American Anthropological Association, the Linguistic Society of America, and the Society for American Archaeology. Administrative coordination frequently engages legal and cultural protocols overseen by agencies such as the State of Hawaiʻi historic preservation offices and tribal or community stakeholders including Hawaiian cultural practitioners and organizations like Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
The Press’s catalog includes influential monographs and edited volumes authored or edited by prominent scholars and museum staff associated with names such as Donald Emory, Peter Buck (Te Rangi Hīroa), William D. Westervelt, Yosihiko H. Sinoto, Kenneth Emory, and contemporary authors affiliated with Noelani Arista-related scholarship. Titles have addressed subjects ranging from botanical surveys and coral reef studies to ethnographic accounts and lexicons. Collaborators have included researchers from the Bishop Museum's Pacific Collection and visiting scholars from institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University, University of Auckland, and the University of Cambridge.
Distribution historically relied on museum channels, academic distributors, and university presses. The Press has formed distribution and co-publication arrangements with organizations including University of Hawaiʻi Press, regional university presses across the Pacific Islands Forum membership, and international partners such as Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. Library networks such as the OCLC cataloging cooperative and consortia like the Council on Library and Information Resources increase discoverability. Collaborative projects have been undertaken with heritage institutions such as the Hawai‘i State Archives, the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum Libraries and Archives, and international museums including the British Museum and Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle.
Works from the Press have been cited in scholarship across disciplines and referenced in policy and conservation planning by bodies such as the U.S. National Park Service and regional resource managers in the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat. Reception in scholarly reviews has placed its outputs alongside titles from established university presses, with particular recognition for primary-source publications, annotated catalogs, and field reports used in research on Pacific biogeography, precontact settlement, and language revitalization efforts linked to institutions like the Kamehameha Schools and community language programs. The Press’s role in preserving and disseminating collections has been acknowledged in exhibitions, museum outreach, and collaborative repatriation dialogues involving cultural institutions and community stakeholders.
Category:Publishing companies of the United States Category:Academic publishing