Museums and other institutions with string figure artefacts

- an inventory of string figures mounted on card, string figures on film, string figure photographs, and recordings of string figure songs

Compiled by Martin Probert

Acknowledgement: I wish to thank DeSoto Brown, Collection Manager, Archives, for supplying details of the following artefacts.

Hawaiian string figures (34) glued and pinned on paper

Associated notes and transcribed chants in K35, "Hawaiian Cats Cradles" by Joseph Swift Emerson (77 pages).

Film: "Ka Po'e Hula Hawai'i Kahiko (The Hula People of Old Hawai'i)"

Originally filmed by Vivienne Mader, 1930-35, and used in this Bishop Museum production by Dr. Elizabeth Tatar in 1984. Several string figures are created towards the end of the film.
Reference: 1984.563.004

Sound recordings of Hawaiian string figure chants ("mele hei")

DeSoto Brown writes that "The Helen Roberts Collection, which contains both original cylinder recordings (from 1923-'24) and mele lyrics transcribed from the cylinders, probably has string figure chants. This is the most likely location for such in our audio collection but there are undoubtedly others". Several string figure chants were used in the soundtrack of the film "Ka Po'e Hula Hawai'i Kahiko (The Hula People of Old Hawai'i)".

Photographs of Hawaiian Islands figures

Photographs of Austral Islands figures

Photographer: John Stokes
In Bishop Museum binders: Book 20 (pp. 148-153, 22 photos); Book 21 (pp. 49-53, 18 photos; pp. 59-60, 3 photos). Associated written notes in MS SC Stokes, Box 6.7

Photographs, and contact prints from now-deteriorated movie film, of Austral Islands figures

Photographer: John Stokes
Photo Collection, Album 1991.466, in 12 envelopes. Associated written notes in MS SC Stokes, Box 6.9

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