Ka'ahumanu, Hawaiian Chiefess and King Kamehameha I (1836)
ClassificationsArt
Credit LinePublished in Paris, 1836, in "Oceanie ou Cinquieme Partie du Monde", by M.G.L. Domeny de Rienzi, a noted French explorer of the time.
Object numberART.24
DescriptionBorn about 1777, Ka'ahumanu's grandmother prophesied that someday she would be ruler "and all your relatives will bow in your presence". Years later, she became the favorite wife of King Kamehameha I. After the king's death in 1819 and after her conversion to Christianity, as chiefess she fervently upheld the new religion, changed the social structure by ending the kapu system of idols and gods, and ruled with an iron hand. She died in 1832.On View
Not on view
c. 1980s