Religious Archives
Memoirs of Henry Obookiah
Artist: Unidentified
Writter: Opukahaia, c. 1792 - 1818
Date: 1818
Type: Book
Medium: Engraving on paper
Dimensions: Book closed: 16 × 10 × 1.5 cm (6 5/16 × 3 15/16 × 9/16")Sheet/Mount: 6 × 9.3 cm (2 3/8 × 3 5/8")
Credit Line: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights: CC0
Object number: NPG.2013.111
Exhibition Label: Born Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii The story of Opukahaia extends far beyond the pages of this small book. Orphaned during a Hawaiian civil war, Opukahaia made his way to the mainland, eventually settling in New Haven, Connecticut, where he was known as Henry Obookiah. Under Yale student Edwin Dwight’s tutelage, Opukahaia flourished—he created the first dictionary of the Hawaiian language, for example—and converted to Christianity. In 1815 Opukahaia began to preach in local churches, pleading for a special mission to his homeland. After Opukahaia’s premature death, Dwight published his memoirs, seen by many as the impetus for the first missionaries to the Pacific islands.
Memoirs of Thomas Hopoo
Writter: Hopu, c. 1792 - 1818
Date: 1816-1819
Type: Manuscript
Medium: Handwritten on paper
Credit Line: Digitalized by Mo’olelo Kū’i’o, Peabody Essex Museum
Restrictions & Rights: N/A
Object number: Memoir of Thomas Hopoo, 1822, II., Box: 2, Folder: 19. Andover Newton Theological School Collection of Linguistic and Missionary Material, 1751, 1805-1958, MSS 690. Phillips Library.
Exhibition Label: Thomas Hopu, the lifelong best friend of Henry Opūkaha’ia, along with William Kanui and John Honoli’i accomplished “Obookiah’s” goal of taking the message of Christ to his and their own people. Without the contributions of these Christian Hawaiian pioneer missionaries, the mission itself would have failed.
For a long time the tale of Thomas Hopu was but a footnote in the life of Opūkaha’ia, and like so many other Hawaiian stories, seemed to be lost in the shadow of the American missionary narratives.