Queen Emma - 'Iolani School Archives - People of 'Iolani

Founding Patroness

Queen Emma
Image: Hawaii State Archives, call # PP-96-4-009

Royalty: Queen Emma | Photograph Collection - Glass Plate Negatives | Hawai'i State Archives
Various images of Queen Emma, digitized from glass plate negatives.

Prince Albert Edward

Image: Hawai'i State Archives, PPWD-15-2-023

Prince Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Leiopapa a Kamehameha
Ka Haku o Hawai'i (Prince of Hawai'i)
Son of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma
Life, May 20, 1858 - Aug. 27, 1862 (4 years old)
Named after the Prince Consort to Britain's Queen Victoria
Godparents: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

Excerpts from:
Staley, Mildred E. A Tapestry of Memories: An Autobiography. Hawaii: Hilo Tribune Herald, 1944, p. 16-17.
Dr. Mildred Ernestine Kaholamoana Staley, daughter of Bishop Thomas Nettleship Staley.

"It was in 1861 that Archbishop Sumner selected father to be the first Bishop of Honolulu...
This decision was in response to a request to Queen Victoria by King Kamehameha IV and his Queen to 'give all the assistance she could in sending out to Hawaii a bishop of the Church of England, with clergy.'"

"In 1850 the King had visited England and had been deeply impressed by the reverence and beauty of Anglican worship, which he craved to bring to his own people. He and the Queen desired to have from England one who could direct the education of the young Crown Prince, heir to the throne, and whose experience would be of benefit to the state schools of Hawaii which they were establishing."

"Father and Mother, with seven children, a nurse and a governess, landed at Honolulu, via the Isthmus of Panama Railway, on October 11, 1862, to find the King and Queen Emma in sad grief for the loss of the little Prince, who had just died. The King died the following year."

More related to Queen Emma

Queen Emma: A Narrative of the Object of Her Mission to England, 2nd edition by A.I.
Publication Date: 1866
Held by the British Museum.
Digitized and full-text available through the Google Books website or PDF download.
The Sandwich Islands and their People by M.A. Donne
Publication Date: [1866]
“This work intended to provide background knowledge to the British public and SPCK members following the visit of Queen Emma of Hawaii (1836-1885) following her visit to Queen Victoria for an audience, but also granted the rare honor of spending the night with the British royal family at Windsor Castle. Drawing from Cook's voyages, in-house journals of the SPCK, the writings of Manley Hopkins, and Missions to the Heathen, the author details Cook's voyages to Hawaii, customs, an interesting section on the Hawaiian language, and details the plummeting population caused by British and other foreign seamen bringing smallpox, measles, dysentery, influenza, and venereal disease to the islands. Queen Emma & Queen Victoria maintained a long close correspondence with one another, after Victoria had agreed to be Godmother to Prince Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Leiopapa a Kamehameha (1858-1862), followed in 1863 by the death of King Kamehameha IV. ”
Summary from abebooks.com

“My Dear Friend”: Letters of Queen Emma and Queen Victoria | Hawaiian Journal of History | eVols | University of Hawai’i
Article by Rhoda Hackler
Hawaiian Journal of History, Volume 22, 1988
Queen Emma of Hawaii | National Portrait Gallery (U.K)
Sitter in 3 portraits
by Camille Silvy
albumen print, 16 September 1865
NPG Ax64561 and Ax64562
by Richard James Lane
lithograph, circa 1825-1850
NPG D22438
Queen Emma Summer Palace
Located in Nu'uanu, the home was used as a summer retreat foir Queen Emma, King Kamehameha IV and their son, Prince Albert Edward. It is now maintained by the Daughters of Hawai'i as an historic home and museum.

Thank you to Hawaiian Language Faculty member Malia Morales who helped create this page,
and kumu hula Kū Koanui-Souza for providing the oli.

Quick Facts

Name : Emma Kalanikaumaka’amano Kaleleonālani Na’ea Rooke
Life : January 2, 1836 - April 25, 1885
Regnal Name : Queen Emma
Spouse : Queen Consort to King Kamehameha IV
Child : Prince Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Leiopapa a Kamehameha
[Life : May 20, 1858 - August 27, 1862]
Founder, The Queen's Hospital
Founder, St. Andrew's Priory for Girls - now called St. Andrew's Schools
Patron, The Cathedral of St. Andrew

Timeline of a Request - Queen Correspondence

King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma preferred the religious teachings of the Church of England.

When they had a child, Prince Albert, they desired him to be educated with those teachings as foundation. After several requests, the first Anglican bishop and priests arrived to establish a mission of the Church of England in October 1862. Unfortunately, the four-year-old Prince Albert fell ill and died before the clergymen arrived sending a nation into mourning.

In 1863, Bishop Thomas Nettleship Staley and Reverend George Mason, with the patronage of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, began St. Alban's College. This is the beginning of what would become 'Iolani School. More about the history of 'Iolani School can be found at School History.

October through December 1862, missionaries arrived, founded the church in the islands, and prepared to open the school.

10/11/1862 - Bishop Thomas N. Staley, Rev. George Mason, Rev. Edmund Ibbotson arrive
10/12/1862 - First service in the Hawaiian Kingdom
10/25/1862 - Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church charter accepted at the courthouse
11/08/1862 - Notice in the Polynesian newspaper that a "Collegiate Grammar School for Young Gentlemen" would be opening soon.
12/14/1862 - First service on Lahaina
12/27/1862 - Polynesian newspaper announcement that school will start January 12, 1863 at the Parsonage House, Kukui Street (behind the temporary cathedral; temporary; Mason residence; beginning of St. Alban's College). "The Warden will receive a limited number of boarders."

Correspondence: Confirmation and First Communion of the King and Queen | Polynesian, Dec. 6, 1862 | Chronicling America
First hand account of an attendee at the ceremony in which King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma received their sacraments; after the arrival of the missionaries of the Church of England.
Polynesian, Dec. 6, 1862, page 2.
Anglicanism in Hawai'i | Project Canterbury
Information about the history of the Anglican / Episcopal Church in Hawai'i.
Includes transcriptions of historical writings.
more...less...
For example:
"Extracts from a Journal of the Bishop of Honolulu: September to November, 1862"
http://anglicanhistory.org/hawaii/staley_extracts1862.html
The subpage includes journal excerpts from Bishop Staley, Rev. Mason, King Kamehameha IV's remarks, as well as other sources.
Special Notices: Hawaiian Cathedral Grammar School | Polynesian, Dec. 27, 1862 | Chronicling America
"Special Notices: Hawaiian Cathedral Grammar School" newspaper announcement that school will start January 12, 1863 at the Parsonage House on Kukui Street. This was the beginning of St. Alban's College which would become 'Iolani School.
Polynesian, Dec. 27, 1862, page 2.

Available in the Tsuzuki Group Library (Upper School)

Emma: Hawai'i's Remarkable Queen: A Biography by George S. Kanahele
Call Number: H 996.9027 Emma B
ISBN: 0824822404
Publication Date: 1999-01-01
"Emma: Hawai'i's Remarkable Queen is a biography of a beloved and influential woman in Hawaiian history. Her enduring legacy includes renowned institutions that thrive in Hawai'i today: The Queen's Medical Center, St. Andrew's Priory, 'Iolani School, and St. Andrew's Cathedral." "Emma at age twenty married Alexander Liholiho, or Kamehameha IV, who had been an admirer of Emma since their days together at the Chief's Children's School. The new queen quickly became involved in the king's business, especially that of saving the Hawaiian people from extinction. Together the king and queen raised the initial funds necessary to build a hospital, which we know today as Queen's." "In the midst of these achievements, however, Emma experienced two profound tragedies: the death of little Prince Albert at the age of four, followed by the death of her husband at the age of twenty-nine. Emma's grief seemed only to stregthen her resolve. In 1874 she even became a candidate for the throne. But politics was not Emma's strong suit. Humanitarianism was."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
He Lei No 'Emalani (Chants for Queen Emma Kaleleonālani) by Puakea Nogelmeier (Editor, Translator); Queen Emma Foundation Staff (Contribution by)
Call Number: H 782.42 HEL
ISBN: 1581780095
Publication Date: 2001-07-01
"This book presents the largest collection of Hawaiian poetic compositions written for Queen Emma Kaleleonālani, the wife of Kamehameha IV. The 204 mele give readers invaluable and unique perspectives into the life and times of the queen. The songs were gathered from nineteenth-century Hawaiian-language newspapers, as well as unpublished collections in the Bishop Museum and Hawaiʻi State Archives, many handwritten on loose sheaves of paper dating back over one and a half centuries." - Bishop Museum Press
In Haste with Aloha: Letters and Diaries of Queen Emma, 1881-1885 by David W. Forbes (Editor)
Call Number: H 996.9027 Emma B
ISBN: 9780824857837
Publication Date: 2017-04-30
This ambitious volume assembled by scholar David W. Forbes features a collection of ninety previously unpublished letters, as well as excerpts from two diaries, written between 1881 and 1885 by Hawaiian royal consort Queen Emma Kaleleonālani. In Haste with Aloha illuminates the last five years of the Queen's life and makes available an important record of royal social life and customs in nineteenth-century Hawai'i. Much of her earlier correspondence has been published in two books by the late Alfons L. Korn: The Victorian Visitors: An Account of the Hawaiian Kingdom, 1861-1866 and News from Molokai: Letters between Peter Kaeo and Queen Emma, 1873-1876. In her letters, almost all of which were written in English, Queen Emma provides a rare account of ali'i (royal) perspective, endowing modern readers and researchers with insight far beyond the limited available documentation of public speeches or printed statements. Besides the nuances of correspondence between the Queen and her recipients, there is much to be considered and analyzed in her descriptions of ali'i, many of them relatives to Emma, including Bernice Pauahi Bishop and Ruth Ke'elikōlani. With few comparable Hawaiian historical primary resource texts in print, In Haste with Aloha is a welcome addition, making accessible a preserved and treasured collection of documents drawn primarily from the Hawai'i State Archives, along with diaries in Bishop Museum Library and Archives. Fully transcribed and with annotation by Forbes, editor of the monumental four-volume Hawaiian National Bibliography and annotator of Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen Liliuokalani, this text sheds light on the lives of Hawai'i's ruling class in the decade leading up to climactic political transition.

'Iolani School Archives - People of 'Iolani: Queen Emma