Alphabet Soup Exhibit: Literacy, Language, and Learning

I went to the Mission Houses Museum's exhibit on the development of a written Hawaiian alphabet.The exhibit had 1 main room and 3 side rooms. I went around 10AM on a weekday morning so it wasn't crowded at all and there's a staff member that has to let you in with a key and waits for you to finish. My guide was really nice and so it was just him and me for the time that I was there. If you'd like to know more about the mission houses museum here the link to their website.

Here is a link to more of my photos with some comments (Sorry if some of the photos are blurry; they do not allow flash photography.)

"I ka 'olelo no ke ola; i ka 'olelo no ka make"-In the language there is life; in the language there is death. ~Old Hawaiian Proverb, anonymous This quote is on a sign in the main area near comments area. I thought it was an appropriate quote for the exhibit and the quote could be thought about on a number of different levels. Generally, I interpreted it to mean that language holds part of the life of its speakers and there is also this capacity to alter language not only in a beneficial way, but also negative way that could lead to its destruction - such as outside influence by missionaries.

The exhibit does explain that the missionaries came to create a Hawaiian dictionary so that Hawaiians could read, write, and understand the word of God to gain salvation. They even have one of the earliest translated bibles (picture of black book below). They also have a reconstructed printing press that was recreated from the original blue prints (picture above). They give samples of the copper made print blocks that were used. The book in the picture below was made from one such block. Notice that certain letters are present the t, b, r, d, and v are present that were later voted out of the language (picture below).

The exhibit does not focus on the changes that were made to Hawaiian language by the missionaries, as much it instead focuses on some of the methods and means by which they helped make Hawaiians literate. Generally, missionaries taught Hawaiians with the "Alphabet method", i.e. the alphabet was learned before moving up to syllables and simple words. Thus, there was a strong emphasis on teaching the alphabet and multiple items were used: "horn books" (looks like a tablet, it is a sheet of printed paper on cow horn), "samplers" (embroidery with alphabet on it, also helped teach needlework), alphabet books, and alphabet blocks. I would criticize that the exhibit does not consider any of the negative consequences and implications that were associated creating a writing system in Hawaiian (but we discussed that in class).

One interesting thing I learned from the tour guide is that the author of Anatomia (that was translated into Hawaiian) used the book to train Hawaiians in Western medicine (about 10 people) and created a medical school (Judd school of medicine died when he died though). I'm a Biology major so I found the images from the book to be interesting, especially how the skeletons or bodies were positioned. Notice how the skeleton in the picture below is in a kneeling position as if praying (sorry, part of the picture got cut off) - it really shows how the missionaries really saturated everything they taught with a religious ideas.