Royal Hawaiian Feather Cape (Ahuula)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1 Mar 1945
name: label: Donor Name
content: Smithsonian Institution
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "A fully feathered cape consisting of tufts of black and yellow feathers of the oo bird (Moho nobilis) and of red feathers of the iiwi (Vestiaria coccinea) mounted on a medium meshed net of olona fiber (Touchardia latifolia), tailored, pieced, and cut to form a foundation in the shape of a flattened, irregularly margined semicircle. The 3-color design is obtained by adding to the basic red iiwi, a border, two centrally-spaced, horizontal crescents, and 2 vertical triangles of pale yellow oo, the latter each centered with a smaller triangle of black oo. Two small, rectangular panels of black oo are inserted in upper margin near center of neck cut out. Full feathering is produced in part by tufts of cut black oo feathers mounted at the base of the pale yellow oo tufts. The owner of the cape claimed that it was described and figured by W.T. Brigham in "Hawaiian Feather Work", Memoirs of the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Vol. I, no. 1 as no. 48, fig. 89, on pages 69 and 70, and that it formerly was on loan at the Museum fur Volkerkunde, Berlin. Purchased through John Wise, Ltd., 15 East 69th Street, New York City, for $1,500."
label: Notes
content: Ahu'ula, feathered cape, olona fiber (Touchardia latifolia), feathers from 'i'iwi (Vestiaria coccinea) and 'o'o (Moho nobilis).
label: Notes
content: Object was on display in National Museum of Natural History exhibit "Na Mea Makamae o Hawai'i - Hawaiian Treasures", 2004-2005.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 29 Mar 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Hawaii (Hawaiʻi), United States, Polynesia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Polynesian
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 169696
label: USNM Number
content: E383640-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Cape
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 41.9 cm
label: Maximum Length - Object
content: 51 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 74.9 cm