Editor’s note: On Dec. 3, the Kaua‘i Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary. Museum leaders have chosen 50 stories from exhibits, collections and the archives of the museum to share with the public. One story will run daily through Dec. 3.
Editor’s note: On Dec. 3, the Kaua‘i Museum celebrates its 50th anniversary. Museum leaders have chosen 50 stories from exhibits, collections and the archives of the museum to share with the public. One story will run daily through Dec. 3.
LIHU‘E — Today marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Kaua‘i Museum on Rice Street in Lihu‘e in 1960.
Special “We Are Kaua‘i” buttons promoting the museum’s special legacy and its aloha.
To celebrate this special milestone, the Kaua‘i Museum and The Garden Island provided the community with a countdown of 50 historical stories starting in October and ending today, in time for the annual Kaua‘i Museum Christmas Craft Fair, which just happens to fall on this special day.
The seeds of the institution go back to May 24, 1924 when the Kaua‘i Public Library Association opened the distinctive cement, lava-rock and blue-tile-roof building on Rice Street in Lihu‘e.
Its donor, Emma Wilcox, dedicated the building as a legacy to her late husband Albert Wilcox, and donated a large sum of money and a collection of valuable books for a future museum addition.
Others followed her lead, donating collections and money towards a museum, including Dora Rice Isenberg, Alexander McBryde, and Mabel Wilcox.
In 1954, Juliet Rice Wichman took up the torch and, with a committee of Kaua‘i notables, got the project organized, an architect selected, and the project moved forward until it opened on Dec. 3, 1960 as the Kaua‘i Museum adjacent to the Lihu‘e Library.
Its first staff were Dora Jane Cole, Helen Ellis and Katherine Hulme.
As chair of the museum committee, Juliet Rice Wichman then oversaw the museum into the next phase when, in 1971, the old library and original museum were combined into one — the buildings renamed as the Albert Spencer Wilcox Building (the 1924 library building) and the William Hyde Rice Building (the 1960 museum building).
Fifty years later, the Kaua‘i Museum has continued the legacy of its original visionaries — telling the story of Kaua‘i and Ni‘ihau, supporting the island’s artists and endeavors, and as a gathering place for cultural and historical activities for the community and visitors.
