The remains of Kaniakapp--King Kamehameha III's summer residence--bear no traces of the feast that once served ten thousand of his subjects gathered in celebration of Hawaiian sovereignty. Although not all historic Hawaii residences are still standing, the pictures, photographs, and comprehensive maps in this book can provide a wealth of knowledge. Discover the site of Queen Ka'ahumanu's death, Princess Ruth Ke'eliklani's house, which rivaled the splendor of King Kalkaua's official palace, and Lili'uokalani's home, where Robert Wilcox plotted an armed insurrection to overthrow the Constitution of 1887. Using accounts by missionaries, ship captains, early visitors, and reports in English and Hawaiian-language media, this groundbreaking book provides an extensive look into the now-lost residences of the kingdom's elite. Learn about the historic events that took place in the residences of Hawaiian royalty and see how the island chiefs lived their everyday lives.

From the hiding of the bones of Kamehameha the Great, to the half-mile-long funeral procession of King Kamehameha III, to the somber return of the embalmed remains of King Kalakaua from San Francisco, Hawaii experienced changing responses to the deaths of Hawaiian royalty. Missionary journals, government publications, and articles in Hawaiian and English language newspapers provide the source material for the first comprehensive look at the transformation of funerary practices following permanent contact with the West. The documentary evidence tells the story of the adoption of new ways of honoring Hawaii royalty and the persistence of traditional practices. Although the funeral observances for British royalty provided an extravagant model for their Hawaii counterparts, indigenous practices survived. While mourners no longer knocked out their teeth or tattooed their tongues, other traditional forms-the mass wailing, feather standards, and composing of funeral dirges-continued well into the twentieth century. Besides the contemporaneous accounts, dozens of historic drawings and photographs provide rarely seen glimpses of the obsequies of the Kamehameha and Kalakaua dynasties. Burial locations, too, saw transformation as secret burial caves and thatched structures housing ancient bones gave way to coral sepulchers, Gothic mausoleums and underground crypts. The description of the burial sites includes the locations of the final resting places of the royalty of Hawaii.