The United States Exploring Expedition, under the command of Commodore Charles Wilkes, made an extensive survey of many Pacific island groups. After rounding Cape Horn in March 1839, the expedition visited the Tuamotu Archipelago, Society Islands, Samoa, Tonga, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, and the Phoenix, Tokelau, Gilbert and Ellice (now Tuvalu) Islands. The expedition returned to the United States via the Cape of Good Hope in June 1842.

There are three sets of documents:<BR><BR>1. A narrative of the expedition by George M. Colvocoresses, a lieutentant.<BR>2. Sketchbooks made by George F. Emmons, 1839-41, an officer of the <I>Peacock</I><BR>3. Sketchbooks made by Henry Eld, Jr., 1838-42

A catalogue of the ethnographic items collected by the United States Exploring Expedition to the Pacific (1838-42) led by Commodore Charles Wilkes. The Expedition visited the Tuamotu Islands, Tahiti (in French Polynesia), Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Lord Howe Island, Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa, Gilbert Islands (Kiribati), Marshall Islands, and Hawaii. The catalogue was prepared in 1846 by Titian Ramsay Peale, an artist-naturalist with the Expedition. A typescript version, prepared by the PMB, follows the original document on the microfilm. See also the Bureau's newsletter, Pambu, October-December 1971:25, pp. 4-7 and PMB MS 89 and MS 146.