Hawaiian Mission Houses (HMH)

Archival, object, and building collections programs include preserving and interpreting one of the largest collection of Hawaiian language books in the world and one of the key archival and object collections for understanding Hawaiian history in the 19th century. This also includes one of the largest collection of letters written by Hawaiian ali'i, preserving the two oldest Houses in Hawaii and making the collection available to the public through on-site programming and via the internet. Public programming focuses on the theme of collaboration between protestant missionaries and native hawaiians in introducing christianity, literacy, constitutional government, polyphonic music, and combining western and Hawaiian medicine. We do this through dramatic performances, music programs, exhibitions, tours, classes, lectures, demonstrations, and other methods. For the first time in 2019, the organization provided history theater programming in new england, which is consistent with the current programming in honolulu. These programs ran from january 2020 through march 2020. For the rest of 2020, all programming was cancelled due to the covid pandemic.