 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Good morning and aloha everybody. My name is Mark Schlaufe. I am usually the host of Think Tech Hawaii's Law Across the Sea. I still am the host of that show, but today we're going to do a little bit different, a special program. This is a special Think Tech Hawaii program and it's titled Remembering Queen Kapiolani. My guest is Colette Higgins. Our story is about how the queen went on a long journey across the sea. And Colette Higgins, who is the Dean of Academic Affairs at Windward Community College, followed that trip. In 1887, Queen Kapiolani undertook a journey from Hawaii to London and back. Dean Higgins traced that journey in her blog in the footsteps of Kapiolani, and we'll give you that link sometime during the show. And Dean Higgins has been a frequent speaker on the life and legacy of Queen Kapiolani. And today we're going to discuss why the queen went, why she undertook that strenuous trip. Where she went, what she saw, who she met. And what we should take from that trip, from Queen Kapiolani's travels, life and personality. So first, Dean, welcome, hello. Thank you for having me. Nice to have you. And may I call you Colette? Colette, that's fine, okay. Colette. Queen Kapiolani. Yes. Who was, who was Queen Kapiolani, first of all, before we get into her show? Sure. So her claim to fame is that she is married to King David Kalakawa. So he becomes King in 1874, but they had gotten married in 1863, so she marries him before he becomes King. And he reigns as King until 1891. And so she's Queen, basically, Queen consort for 17 years, his whole reign, you know? And I think of, when I think of Kapiolani, most people, when I ask them what do you know about Queen Kapiolani, they'll say, they'll name the boulevard, they'll name the park, the hospital, the college. And then the clever ones, you know, a little bit of Hawaiian issues will remember that she was married to Kalakawa and that she lived at Iolani Palace, but really they don't know much about her. And your blog, which I read, which I really enjoyed, you call her Forgotten Queen, and that's what you're thinking. Right. Right, because even in Hawaii, when I ask people, what do you know about Queen Kapiolani, that they'll name me, those places named after her, but they really don't know much about her. So they don't know, for example, that she had two charities that she was really concerned about, right? The people with leprosy, who had been sent to Kulau Papa, and also the hospital she established, the Kapiolani maternity home, or what's the hospital today, right? And that truly is her legacy. They're still important today. Right, right? I was born there. Those are things, our son was born there, and my dad was the doctor there for a while. Right, yeah. So a lot of Hawaii people have connections to Kapiolani Hospital, but we don't know much about the Queen who established that hospital and why she may have established that hospital. So there are a couple ideas of why I think she established the hospital. One is, I think, when she was married to her first husband, Bennett Namakeha, she had a stillborn child, and so she understands the grief of having lost the child. And then when she was on this journey in 1887, she saw a hospital in New York, Charity Hospital, a maternity ward that was all modern with the modern sanitation and whatnot, and I think that inspired her to come back and open the hospital in 1890. Okay. 1887. Yes. All right. 1887. Why was she going on this trip? Oh, wow. What was that about? 1887, Queen Victoria, Queen of England. She's celebrating 50 years on the throne in 1887. And so all the monarchs around the world know about this and that she's going to celebrate this in June. There's going to be a big ceremony at Westminster Abbey in June. And so our kingdom sends a representative there. I guess they sent an invitation or something. Well, actually, no. I tried investigating this. There's a book about this that was published in 1975, A Royal Journey by Emily Warrener, and she actually had done the footwork trying to figure out where the invitations were. There were no actual invitations sent. It was just one of those things the royals knew. Everyone, the royalty knew that this big event was happening, so it wasn't an official invitation that was sent out. But yeah. So if you wanted to send someone to represent your kingdom, then that was the place to be in 1887 in June. In June of 1887, 50 years on the floor. Right. Right. Right. Queen Victoria. And they decide to send a queen consort, the queen who was married to King Calacao. That's correct. He'd been around the world a few years before that. Yes. In 1881, he had met Queen Victoria in 1881 on his world tour. So he was gone about 10 months when he did his world tour, and he had met Queen Victoria on that tour. And so he had already been, and so he thought he'd sent his wife instead. And then he asked Princess Lillio Colani to join her because Colani didn't speak any English, right? He knew and understood some, but she was not fluent in English, so she needed others traveling with her to interpret for her. To me, it's so interesting that King Calacao then would send the queen on this long, in those days, it's a long journey today. Right. But a long journey then. Now, all right. Who else was, who else was along? So the entourage was nine people in the traveling party, so it's Kapi'olani, she's the named person. Then it's Princess Lillio Colani, her husband, John Owen Dominus. Then there's other dignitaries, courtesy Alkea. He's like the diplomat. He has this long title, but he's the diplomat traveling. And then we have James Boyd. He would later marry Helen Cleighorn, so the sister of Princess Lillio Colani. But he was actually, James Boyd traveled as the aide de camp. And then they had four servants. So one lady's maid, Susan O'Connell. And then there's Maguire, James Maguire, who kept a diary that was very helpful for me in the research. And then he was in charge of all the luggage, lots of luggage, just 55 bags of luggage. And then two guys that I think was the muscle, the guards, Joe Aya and Charles Kayaike. And so there's some descriptions of how they served as guard a couple of times. So I've only seen one picture of them. It doesn't have everybody in the traveling party, but I think there's a picture of either Joe or Charles and some others on a boat that transported them from the ship to San Francisco. So you take the big ship to San Francisco and then a little boat to get to shore, right? And there's a picture that was taken on that little boat. It's the only picture I've seen of the traveling party. It's not complete. We have some photos of Queen Capilani. That's her traveling outfit. Yeah, that's her traveling clothes, right? Yeah. Let's look at that. Well, when you think about it, Victorian era, that's what women wore. That's her casual outfit compared to her sophisticated ball gowns and whatnot. That's her traveling outfit. I don't think I do very well in Victorian England. I like my pants. Okay. And that's one of her nice beautiful gowns. So she had beautiful gowns that she wore on this journey. She was representing Hawaii. And so the gowns that she wore represented Hawaii in a very unique way. And so it was kind of the talk of the town, whether it was in D.C. or in London, very unique. So this one is her feathered gowns. You can see the feathered pattern, right? Okay. And so she took off from Hawaii. Where did she go? So the journey starts from Honolulu to San Francisco. So you have to take a ship to San Francisco. It takes about a week. And then from San Francisco, she took a train across the continent. And so she changed trains in Chicago, stayed there only maybe two hours waiting for the next train. And then to D.C. And then after D.C., so San Francisco was about a week and D.C. about a week. And then up to Boston. And then for about a week, and then from Boston to New York, and then from New York. Okay. It's all over. Yeah. When she was in the United States. Right. Okay. San Francisco, I guess all the ships went to San Francisco. That's correct. Right. So if you wanted to get to the continental U.S., yeah, the ship route was Honolulu to San Francisco. They did a lot of that run. So that's the first place you'd have to stop. Yeah. It's a nice place to go. Yes. Nice place to go. Right. Sure. Sure. And what did she do in San Francisco? Well, in San Francisco, she stayed at the Palace Hotel. And she did, she played tourists a little bit. So she went to the old mint. Now Kalakau had his coins minted there in 1883. So these Kalakau coins that were minted there were the same like the American coins. So the dollar, the half dollar, the court of the dime was minted there at the old mint in San Francisco. So it was still an operating mint when she went to visit. So his coins were minted in 1883. In 1883, she's visiting in 87. So she tours the old mint, right, and Maguire writes about it in his diary. She tours the old mint, and when I went on my journey, I'm retracing her footsteps trying to go in every room that she went in and reading the description that Maguire had. And she wanted to see how the coins were made, you know, and so she visits the old mint. And I think it was John O'odhamma, she writes back in a letter home. He writes that the queen and the princess are enjoying themselves in San Francisco. They're now at the old mint. So something like that. So they were touring the old mint to see where Hawaiian coins had been made. So she was very curious about a lot of different things. This trip was like an educational experience for her. She had heard about all these places, San Francisco, Boston, New York, London. She had never been. Her husband went in 81, right, but she'd never been to these places. Her only trip prior to this journey was to the Marquesas Islands, which was married to her first husband, so it would be the 1850s. But otherwise, it was just around these islands. So this is a big journey for her. She had never been to the U.S., she had never been abroad, she had never been to London. So I think this was an educational experience. She's learning and taking things in, and there's also some other royalty around San Francisco area. Oh, right. Her three nephews. So she had sent the three nephews there. So Kalakau had established a study abroad program. He sent 18 young scholars out there to study in like six different countries. And so the three nephews were in California, in San Mateo, and they were studying at the St. Matthews Military Academy. I think we have a 40 or 30 or so years. Right. There they are. So I'm on the left there. You look good guys. Yeah. Jonah Cahill. Kalaniane Ole is standing on the left. The city is Kawanakoa, David Kawanakoa. And to the right is Edward Kelly, Yahu Nui. These are her three nephews, her sister Kekalike's sons. Kekalike passed away in 84. So Kawanakoa and Kapiolani became the guardians of these three. So they send them to school at St. Matthews there in San Mateo, California. Your abroad program. King Kawanakoa is a pretty forward thinker. Yeah, she was. She thought if they go out and they study away, then they can come back and they can work for the kingdom and they'll gain that extra knowledge. And they did something for California, right? Sure, right. What did they do? They introduced surfing. Yeah, so it was these three nephews who introduced surfing at Santa Cruz there in California because they were in San Mateo for school, but every summer they'd go to Santa Cruz. And so in Santa Cruz, as where they actually introduced surfing, they had made these redwood surfboards, really big long surfboards. From California. Yeah, California redwood. And they went down to, there's a river there in San Francisco and they were actually surfing the waves near the river. And so that's where surfing started. Yeah. There's a plaque. Santa Cruz, the surfing museum there in Santa Cruz, I was able to visit that on my way back home. And there's a plaque that's established commemorating that in 1885 it was these three Hawaiian princes that introduced surfing there in California. Yeah. And you've talked a little bit. You retraced the steps, right? I surely did. You went on this tour. I did. And your tour was the same as the Queen's? Sure, right. So the Queen, actually, she was gone for 106 days. I was gone for 56 days. So I retraced it as best I could. So I took a plane to San Francisco because there's no ship that will take you there today. I did take a train across the continent though. And then I stood overnight in Chicago and then all the way to D.C. and then we took trains from D.C. to Boston and then to New York and then a ship across the Atlantic because I had to do one leg of the journey by ship because that's the way she traveled to get to San Francisco and then to and from England, right? So I'd never been on a ship before. I'd never been on a train before. So this was a big adventure for me as well. 36 days on the road. Wow. My husband and I. So only an entourage of two. Just me and my husband compared to nine in the Queen's traveling party. And nobody had company bags. Oh, we only had four bags, right? So it was my husband and I each had a rolling carry-on and a backpack. That's it. Because we knew we were traveling by train, by ship, but we'd have to be able to carry on subways as we were going around. So we weren't traveling like royalty in the sense that we don't have a large entourage and people meeting us everywhere. So we just had to go with what we could manage. Yeah, just the four. Okay. All right. So you decided to follow this route that the Queen had taken and we've gotten to San Francisco. Right. And then she went to across the continent. Right, across the continent. It took her about a week to get across the continent by train. She had a Pullman car, one of those private Pullman cars back in the day. So we took the Amtrak and we went across and she, by train, we took us three days, right? So I got to see snow in the Sierra Nevadas because we took the California Zephyr and she had seen snow in California because it was April, right? And I was wondering when I was reading about it in the diaries, you know, Anilio Calani and she writes about it in her book, about how the guys had gotten out of the train at one point and having a snowball fight. And I was thinking, April, you know, they got snow. Where's that? And it's up in the Sierra Nevadas, right? So I got to see this falling snow with these Christmas trees. It seemed, you know, up in the Sierra Nevadas and then the Rocky Mountains and then, of course, you get to Nebraska and other that, it's more flat, not as much to see, but it's just beautiful terrain. It's a wonderful way to travel. She had no choice. She had to do it that way. But I chose to retrace those footsteps, to try to see the same scenery around the same time of year that she saw it, right? And I saw all that snow and I understood that. And you really felt the same feeling. Right, right. It's a wonderful way to travel by train in modern times, right? Unlike planes. Well, we're going to take the next step after our break. OK, sure. We'll take the train back. Sure, all right. I usually drink, but won't be drinking today because I'm the designated driver and that's OK. It's nice to be the guy that keeps his friends in line, keeps them from drinking too much so we can have a great time. A little responsibility can go a long way because it's all about having fun on game day. Comfort zone where I find cool people with cool solutions to problems that all of us face. Now, the thing is, we're really cool and I only invite really cool people. But the thing is, I think you're kind of cool too. So I think you should come and watch that Thursdays at 11 AM here on OC16 television with Think Tech Hawaii. I'm RB Kelly, host of Out of the Comfort Zone, and I will see you next Thursday. We are back remembering Queen Kapiolani and her trip to London to see Queen Victoria. And I'm with Colette Higgins, who's the dean at Wynward Community College. And we have gotten as far as the United States. And now I'm going to ask her to briefly tell me what happened with the Queen and her entourage in the United States. And then let's get to London. OK, sure. So one of the things that happened was when she was going across the continent, she pulled into Salt Lake City, Utah. And there are about 20 Hawaiians living there already, some Mormons. We're living there. And so they get on the train and they're bowing to the Queen and they're crying and they're having this conversation. So they showed a lot of respect to the Queen. As she gets to DC, she has, of course, the state dinner with President Grover Cleveland in honor of her. So the Queen and the Princess attended that dinner. She met with the president of the United States. And then when she was in Boston, there's a big reception about 10,000 people that show up at the Mechanics Hall to get a glimpse of the Queen and the Princess from Hawaii. They even played Hawaii, Aloha Oi, there at this big reception. With the Queen Roe. Yeah, with the Princess Roe. The Princess Roe, right? Yeah, the Princess Lily of Kalani at that time, right? And so she wrote it. And then in New York, they're playing tourists in New York, but they also visited hospitals and schools and whatnot. So yeah, along the way, she's going to actually a lot of women's colleges. She's very interested in women's colleges and education, it seems. So she's learning. This is a learning experience. Yes, it's a learning experience for her, very much so. And then she needs to get to the main reason for a trip. That's correct. So what happens next? So she has to get on a ship in New York. And in those days, it was a New York to Liverpool run for the ship. So she pulls into Liverpool. It takes about nine days. So on my journey, we also did nine days across the Atlantic on the Queen Mary too. And how was the travel in those days? In those days, it's actually one of those ships that was both sales and steam. So it could go either way. So you can make it to your destination on time. And it was a nice, luxurious ship for her in those days as well. So that was her relax, right? So when you get on the ship, you can relax. Because it's going to be busy, busy, busy once she gets off that ship in Liverpool. So what happened? In Liverpool, it's her first stop. And they roll out the red carpet. The Queen Victoria had sent these military guards there. And the crowd shows up. And she's very much treated like royalty. She's a guest of Queen Victoria, right? So they're treating her with great honor and respect in Liverpool, right? And then from Liverpool, she goes on to Norwich. Norwich. Norwich, yeah. Tell me about that. Norwich is actually a small. That was an interesting time. Yeah. To me, it was my favorite place out of this whole journey. It's a small little southeastern town in England. It's famous for Coleman Mustards. So if you buy your Coleman Mustard, right? It's from Norwich. And so there, it was quite famous in the Middle Ages as a travel trade town, right? They have all of these broads and waterways that they have. And so in Norwich, she actually toured the whole city. She had lunch with the mayor, all of this. And then she goes to and she sees a tower. They take her to a tower just outside of Norwich. And there's a tower about four stories high. They had these garden towers. There's no purpose to them. It's just a tower. It's a view or something. It's a view. And so basically, she actually, after two hours of listening to music there in Norwich, she climbs the tower. She's actually in her Victorian gown. You can imagine her travel outfit. Going up this narrow spiral staircase. She gets to the top and she's waving to the people down below with her fan. And she seems to be enjoying herself, right? So today in Norwich, when we went there, there's that tower still there. And they won't tear it down because there's a plaque on that tower. And the plaque says Queen Kapi'olani or HM, Her Majesty Queen Kapi'olani, ascended this tower 6 June 1887. Before I left on my journey, someone at KCC at Kapi'olani Community College had asked me, are you going to see anything on this journey that's going to prove that our queen was there? And there it is in Norwich, England, a small little town in England. And you can still see it till today. You can still see it today, so I visited it. And you saw it, and how did you feel when you saw it? Oh, it's so thrilling to be able to see it up close and personal, right? And so the people that pressed came out to meet me. And it was a rainy day. It was the worst weather day out of our whole trip. But it was my favorite day because of the things we got to see that particular day. So Norwich. And then after the tower, then we went to Rackyth Hall. And Rackyth Hall is where the queen had stayed when she was visiting Norwich before she went into London. And there she planted a tree. And I think I found the tree that she planted there. And the people who were showing us Rackyth Hall didn't even know that Queen Kapi'olani and Princess Liliu'olani had actually stayed there. So this was a historic preservation officer who had got me access to the private tower there in Norwich. And then also this Rackyth Hall. And she didn't know that our queen had stayed there. So all these things happened over 100 years ago. Right, about 130. And now they're still there. They're still there. OK, so let's get to London. London, right? London. What happens in London? How is she received? How is she treated? Oh, she's treated with great respect. No, all kinds of fine gowns, right? So imagine you've got about a week worth of all of these balls and receptions. So you can't really wear the same outfit twice, right? So the queen and the princess are invited to many different events there in London, including many balls, receptions with the queen. Of course, she meets Queen Victoria, a private reception of about 15 minutes. They meet with her courtesy al-Qaiz translating. And of course, the main event is on the 21st of June. That's the big Thanksgiving ceremony at Westminster Abbey, right? And so they're there for that. Of course, when she's there, she has her photo taken with the Peacock gown, the beautiful Peacock gown. Right, you have a photo of the Peacock gown. Right, so there's her Peacock gown, right? And I think she wore it to the reception on that very day, June 21st. There was a baller in the evening at Buckingham Palace. So that would have been her outfit on that particular day. And the princess is there. The princess Lillio Colani is standing next to her as well. So on this journey, Lillio Colani was a princess at that time, right? So the same photographer, Queen Victoria's photographer, took this picture of our queen and our princess, yeah? And again, I mean, it's kind of amazing. Maybe they are in London, right? Right, we're in London at the Queen Victoria's photographer's studio taking this picture of this Peacock gown. It's a beautiful gown. So it's very different from what other people are wearing. It really has some Hawaiian flair to it. So she's wearing Victorian outfits, right? Victorian style gowns, but it has a Hawaiian flair, right? And so that Peacock gown was quite famous. It was actually made in New York at a store in New York where she had it fitted and whatnot. And I believe it was Maguire who designed it and probably collected the Peacock feathers for that gown. The Peacock, were they collected here? Yeah, I think so. I mean, here in Hawaii? I think so. Because they say that Maguire designed the gown, but the actual gown was made in New York, yeah? It was actually made in New York. And I understand the gown was kind of the talk of the town. Right, and her outfits were very different, right? And so there's another one that she wears, and it's on exhibit at Yolani Palace. It's the replica. It's yellow feathers, and there's a yellow gown called these yellow feathers on it. It's quite beautiful. So her gowns had a Hawaiian flair to it, yeah? And so she's representing our kingdom, quite well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so they had a good time. Yeah, right place for us as well, right? Queen Victoria gave them a speck. So right, so one reception on the Queen Victoria was sitting in the middle, and one side of her was Queen Kopiolani, and the other side of her was the Queen of the Belgians. And that was the receiving line, and the reception line was coming to meet the three queens in there. And then in another reception, it was the future King of England. It was Prince of Wales at the time that would be the escort for Kopiolani into the reception. Amazing. And then the second son of Queen Victoria would be the escort for Princess Lili of Kalani. So you can see that Queen Victoria was definitely honoring Queen Kopiolani when she visited. The horse, the John carriage that they sent to take them to Westminster Abbey was the same kind of carriage that Victoria had, just different color horses. So Victoria was really paying, being very respectful of our Queen Kopiolani, and the place she's given to her seat at Westminster Abbey is actually, when I was there standing at Westminster Abbey, I saved that for the very last day, our very last stop was Westminster Abbey, because that's the scene of this big event. Normally, you would see 2,000 people in Westminster Abbey. That day, they had 10,000 people. They had made all of these wooden bleachers, and people were sitting all up high, right? Those were the invited guests. Yeah, so our Queen was given a seat right up at front, near the altar area. And so when I stood there and I looked at it, it was like five steps away from where Queen Victoria was seated. So it was a place of honor. It was like the best seat in the house, right? And so if you were to look at modern day photos of William and Kate when they got married at Westminster Abbey, where they're seated right there, that's where our Queen was standing. So she was given a place of honor. Queen Victoria really did honor our Queen and our Princess from these small islands in the Pacific. Yeah, yeah, there was something going on there. Right, right. All right, Queen Kapiolani, what did this, what have you learned? What did this trick mean to you? I learned she was, oh my gosh, I don't have the kind of stamina that she has. She was so busy, morning, afternoon, evening, and balls that would start at midnight, yeah? It's crazy, her packed schedule. And she seemed to be very cheerful and glad about it all. Even in London, one of the newspapers can't make sense of this fact that she seems to be smiling all the time. She seems to be enjoying herself. She seems to wear her emotions on her sleeve. So when she's happy, you know she's happy. She's waving her fan and she's really smiling. She waves to the children. She encounters a lot of children along the way in different places. And she kind of goes out of her way to pay attention to the children. She loves children. And so she goes out of her way to pay attention to them. So I learned that she's also very curious and she's interested in things like firemen and what firemen do. Yeah, there was one incident there. In New York, right, so in New York, she's investigating fire stations in San Francisco, Boston, and New York. And in New York, the firemen put on a display. They go up and down the ladders. They show her the hose and how they rescue people. Then she calls them over and she asks them, so what does it take to be a fireman? And they said, pluck and nerve. And she says, if I was a man, I'd be a fireman. That's great. That tells you something about Queen Eleni, right? Her personality is very adventurous. She's going to do this. And she's learning along the way. She seems to be educating herself about these places, enjoying this journey. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity for her. And she brought it back. She brought it back. She brought it back. And I think the big thing she brought back was that hospital she saw in New York on Blackwell Island, in today's Roosevelt Island. She saw that hospital, and I think that inspired her to open up the maternity home. Because that's what the maternity home was. When she opened it in 1890, it was for the women could have their babies safely, right? So the babies would live. And so I think that was her great legacy. And I think it was inspired by this journey and this trip, what she saw in it. Yeah, and it persists to today. So we remember. We do. We remember Queen Kapiolani. And let's close out with a final photo of, there we go. Yep. There we go. That's a beautiful photo of her. There we go. Queen, thank you. Mahalo, Queen. It's very, we appreciate all you've done for us. And we will remember you. And thank you, Colin. Oh, you're very welcome. Thank you very much for being my guest today. Thank you. Aloha.