The “Official List of Subscribers, Honolulu Bell Telephone Company” is Honolulu’s 1885 telephone “book”, a single sheet of paper with 401 printed names and numbers, with another 16 penciled in at the end. Honolulu’s fledgling telephone system put it among the leading cities of the world at the time.

The subscribers list is part of the current major exhibition at the Honolulu Museum of Art, “Hooulu Hawaii: The King Kalakaua Era.” It runs through January 27, 2019.

The telephone list is an amazing document that reflects the makeup of Honolulu society at the time, sort of a Who’s Who of the growing city. Phone #1 was the Pilots’ Office, which I presume refers to the harbor pilot. Phone #2 was “Oceanic SS Co.,” which would be the Oceanic Steamship Company, founded in 1881 by John D. Spreckels & Brothers.

Then at #3 is the Hawaiian Hotel. A check of old newspapers shows the Hawaiian Hotel opened in Honolulu in late February 1872. Advertisements and news stories about the new hotel don’t indicate its address or location. Apparently Honolulu was small enough that everyone knew where it was. The hotel boasted gas lighting, along with hot and cold water baths were available for 50 cents each. Ice cream was served “in the Parlor” every evening from 6-9 p.m. Eventually I found a small article indicating it was located downtown along, appropriately, Hotel Street.

Anyway, here’s the telephone listing. You can click to view (and read) a larger version.

And here’s the caption that accompanied the list.

I visited the exhibit yesterday, which happened to be the day the Hawaii Supreme Court handed down its decision giving the proposed Thirty Meter Telescope the legal green light to proceed towards construction near the summit of Mauna Kea. Given Kalakaua’s interest in and support for modern science and technology, that somehow seemed appropriate.

Here’s the museum’s description of the Kalakaua exhibit.

Ho‘oulu: The King Kalakaua Era considers art and experimentation in the Hawaiian Kingdom during the reign of King David Kalakaua (1874–1891). Cosmopolitanism—the idea that local politics share systemic parallels internationally as part of a world citizenry—was a thriving philosophy in the Hawaiian Kingdom, and it was expressed through art.

People in Hawai‘i developed a visual language that merged art and politics, and that presented local iterations of global art styles. They expanded an existing visual culture using a combination of indigenous and introduced materials, concepts, and techniques. The show features experimental art works alongside academic art works to explore how both the avant-garde and the academic were deployed in the shaping of a national identity.

The exhibition prompts conversations about issues of adaptability, economy, ceremony, and, more important, gets at underlying perceptions about the Hawaiian place in the world at turn of the century. It also challenges ideas about tradition, modernity, and culture in Hawai‘i through the collection and loaned works.

It’s really worth seeing. Probably more than once.