Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 5, Number 3, 1 March 1988 — Kamehameha I Cloak Has 450,000 Feathers [ARTICLE]

Kamehameha I Cloak Has 450,000 Feathers

The magnificent Kamehameha I eloak, whieh had been in storage for 80 years, is now back on display with other 'ahu 'ula feather cloaks and capes at the back of the Bishop Museum's Hawaiian Hall. Historian J. J. Jarves wrote in 1843 that the eloak was finished during the reign of Kamehameha I, ending in 1819, but that its completion had oecupied eight previous generations of Hawaiian kings. According to former museum curator Edwin H. Bryan Jr., the six-pound eloak is covered with no fewer than 450,000 brilliant yellow feathers from about 80,000 mamo or Hawaiian honeycreepers. The eloak was acquired from Iolani Palaee in 1893.