In 1952, a survey of important private collections of Hawaiian artifacts was made on Kauai by Miss Mary Stacey of Honolulu, a member of Dr. Kenneth Emory’s class in anthropology at the University of Hawaii.
Among the private collections surveyed by Miss Stacey, under the supervision of Dr. Emory, were those of Eric Knudsen, Hector Moir, Elsie Wilcox, Mabel Wilcox, William Moragne, L. E. Miller, Paul Rice, William Goodwin, and the Walter McBryde collection at the Kauai Public Library.
Miss Stacey’s survey encompassed locating, cataloguing, labeling, photographing, sketching and measuring roughly 2,000 Hawaiian artifacts, after which copies of her survey were sent to Bishop Museum, the Kauai Historical Society and the collectors.
One outstanding artifact surveyed was a spear-like object belonging to Eric Knudsen, which Dr. Emory identified as a bow used in archery. Dr. Emory explained that the Hawaiians never used the bow and arrow in warfare, but had developed skill in its use for killing rats.
Knudsen also possessed a wooden idol given to him by his father, Valdemar Knudsen, in 1853, which had been rescued and hidden under mats by a caretaker after Kaahumanu (1768-1832) had ordered all the idols in Hawaii destroyed in 1819.
Another artifact surveyed was a stone carved bowl dug up in a taro patch at Hanalei in the 1940s by John Hanohano Pa, the use of which could not be determined, according to Dr. Emery.
A stick of hardwood, with two sets of holes used to hold steamers of tapa, which was used as an offering stick stuck into the floor of a heiau, was surveyed as well, as was a maile wand with a needle-like slot in the end through which strips of dog hide dangled that was utilized by the masters of ceremonies who directed the games of ancient Hawaiians.
Following graduate work in anthropology at the University of Hawaii, Miss Stacey joined Bishop Museum, and in 1957, she married Dr. Charles S. Judd Jr. in Honolulu.
During the 1960s, Dr. and Mrs. Judd and their children lived in Samoa, where Dr. Judd practiced medicine.
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Hank Soboleski has been a resident of Kauai since the 1960s. Hank’s love of the island and its history has inspired him, in conjunction with The Garden Island Newspaper, to share the island’s history weekly. The collection of these articles can be found here: https://bit.ly/2IfbxL9 and here https://bit.ly/2STw9gi Hank can be reached at hssgms@gmail.com.
Kaahumanu was a real destructive degenerate disgrace of the Hawaiians who not only destroyed many ancient artifacts, but also wanted to destroy all traces of Hawaiian religious items that connected them to the old traditions.
Her agenda was to force Hawaiians to accept the white Christian ways in order to horde all the power to herself, the irony of this approach is that she kidnaped Kauai’s King Kaumali’i and forced him to marry her so she could legitimize her standing with other remaining Ali’i who outranked her in her quest to remain in power since the passing of Kamehameha.
She tried to kill off all the remaining Ali’i on Kauai during a miscalculation but could not do so. That is the primary reason why she did not have the ranking to be a leader, but like Kamehameha who also is of low Wohi rank restored to violence. She was nothing but another tyrant a disgrace to all Hawaiians.