You may have to register before you can download all our books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Between 1866 and 1969, an estimated 8,000 individuals—at least 90 percent of whom were Native Hawaiians—were sent to Molokai’s remote Kalaupapa peninsula because they were believed to have leprosy. Unwilling to accept the loss of their families, homes, and citizenship, these individuals ensured they would be accorded their rightful place in history. They left a powerful testimony of their lives in the form of letters, petitions, music, memoirs, and oral history interviews. Kalaupapa combines more than 200 hours of interviews with archival documents, including over 300 letters and petitions written by the earliest residents translated from Hawaiian. It has long been assumed that those s...
Young Rachel Kalama, growing up in idyllic Honolulu in the 1890s, is part of a big, loving Hawaiian family, and dreams of seeing the far-off lands that her father, a merchant seaman, often visits. But at the age of seven, Rachel and her dreams are shattered by the discovery that she has leprosy. Forcibly removed from her family, she is sent to Kalaupapa, the isolated leper colony on the island of Moloka'i. In her exile she finds a family of friends to replace the family she's lost: a native healer, Haleola, who becomes her adopted "auntie" and makes Rachel aware of the rich culture and mythology of her people; Sister Mary Catherine Voorhies, one of the Franciscan sisters who care for young g...
In Kalaupapa Place Names, John Clark presents a unique history of the leprosy settlement on Moloka‘i, based on his meticulous research of more than three hundred Hawaiian-language newspaper articles. He first assembled an extensive list of familiar and long-forgotten place names associated with the Kalaupapa peninsula and then searched for them in the online repository of Hawaiian-language newspapers. With translation assistance by Iāsona Ellinwood and Keao NeSmith, he discovered articles that show a community of Hawaiians from every island except uninhabited Kaho‘olawe. Their stories reveal an active community with its members trying to live their lives as normally as possible in the f...
“St. Marianne shows us that this world’s ways can lead us to the Most High in both darkness and light.”—Sr. Margaret Carney, from the foreword “I am hungry for the work. I am not afraid of any disease.” Mother Marianne Cope, July 12, 1883 A letter of invitation in 1883 beckoned her to travel from Syracuse, New York to the islands now known as Hawai`i. Surprised by grace, she gave an emphatic yes to God, even after she learned that her work would be among persons stricken with Hansen’s disease, known then as leprosy. After ministering on several of the islands, she finally came to the settlement at Kalaupapa on the island of Moloka`i, where Fr. Damien de Veuster worked with thos...
Mysterious and misunderstood, distorted by Biblical imagery of disfigurement and uncleanness, Hansen's disease or leprosy has all but disappeared from America's consciousness. In Carville, Louisiana, the closed doors of the nation's last center for the treatment of leprosy open to reveal stories of sadness, separation, and even strength in the face of what was once a life-wrenching diagnosis. Drawn from interviews with living patients and extensive research in the leprosarium's archives, Carville: Remembering Leprosy in America tells the stories of former patients at the National Hansen's Disease Center. For over a century, from 1894 until 1999, Carville was the site of the only in-patient h...
Ma‘i Lepera attempts to recover Hawaiian voices at a significant moment in Hawai‘i’s history. It takes an unprecedented look at the Hansen’s disease outbreak (1865–1900) almost exclusively from the perspective of “patients,” ninety percent of whom were Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian). Using traditional and nontraditional sources, published and unpublished, it tells the story of a disease, a society’s reaction to it, and the consequences of the experience for Hawai‘i and its people. Over a span of thirty-four years more than five thousand people were sent to a leprosy settlement on the remote peninsula in north Moloka‘i traditionally known as Makanalua. Their story has seld...
The fourth volume in a history of photography, this is a bibliography of books on the subject.
The essential guide to the land and history of the US national historical parks and sites. It is the sequel to Exploring National Parks and Monuments.
Nineteenth-century Hawai’i. Thirteen-year-old Pia’s life is forever changed by leprosy. Pia has never known his real father. But Kamaka, a family friend, has taught him how to work, explore, and take on physical challenges. Pia believes Kamaka is fearless. He never suspects that a time will come when Kamaka could actually be afraid of him. Neither does he expect his own body to betray him, or his government to tear him from his family and send him into exile. When Pia finds himself abandoned on Moloka’i, in Hawai’i’s leprosy settlement, he turns to the skills he learned from Kamaka to help him survive. But the conditions are harsh. Pia discovers that he must choose between lawlessness and aloha, revenge and forgiveness, his own willfulness and the example of someone worthy of being like a father. This fictional account was inspired by the experiences of the many Hawaiians who were sent to Moloka’i’s isolated Kalaupapa peninsula starting in 1866 and by the life of Father Damien deVeuster, who chose to live and work there in the late 1800s. The author conducted extensive research, working with experts and visiting the leprosy settlement.