Bishop Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in honor of his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last descendant of the royal Kamehameha family. The Museum was established to house the extensive collection of Hawaiian objects and royal family heirlooms of the Princess, and has expanded to include millions of objects, documents and photographs. Today, Bishop Museum is the largest museum in the state and the premier natural and cultural history institution in the Pacific, recognized throughout the world for its cultural collections, research projects, consulting services and public educational programs. It also has one of the largest natural history specimen collections in the world.
This amazing museum has several buildings with different exhibits. We learned so much about Hawaiian and Polynesiaian culture. The friendly staff can answer any questions you may have. I highly recommend coming here!
December 2025
It was very rainy so this was the perfect day to go visit the museum. I very much appreciated the mix of cultural history in the main museum and the small science museum with kid friendly hands on activities.
December 2025
An amazing experience. Great history, wonderful science exhibitions and fantastic staff. We love how the museum was part of rebuilding Hawaii culture with the traditional sailing canoes. We did two days to soak in all of the details. Volcanos are great! Please fix the lava machine! The planetarium was a hit!
