Browse Items (114 total)

This image is from the 1921 aerial survey, done as part of the first coastal aerial survey performed in the United States. This very rare image was found in a collection files marked under as Japanese, and also contained a number of Palmyra aerials…

According to several sources from the early 1900’s, this story, written by Jack London for the Saturday Evening Post, was inspired by elements of Palmyra’s pirate legends. The first likely comes from the story of the Esperanza, where a Spanish…

This light hearted article describes the journey of the USS West Virginia to Palmyra in 1912, where they found, as the subtitle says, "One Friendless, Starving Gin Bottle, Also One Large, Unidentified Toothbrush!", among other things. It mentions as…

This shorter but detailed article covers some interesting topics of Palmyra's history up to that point, including the possible treasure buried there, the disputes over ownership, and a mention of a possible Jack London story based on Palmyra.

The…

This image, taken from a newspaper article briefly detailing Cooper sailing to Palmyra to look for buried treasure, shows the judge at the helm. The quality is low, but the image striking in its very intimate portrayal of the first man to wholly…

This brief article described the historically significant but not quite exciting (at the time at least) acquisition of Palmyra as a Hawaiian possession. The original written report of Captain Zenas Bent is included, describing how he left a flag, a…

These sketches show the proposed locations for various buildings and structures around the atoll, mostly on Cooper Island where the main operations were located. Various memos around this same time describe the minor changes made as these sketches…

This document gives an extensive inventory of the facilities and staff during the naval occupation of World War 2. This includes everything from vehicles, to fuel, to leisure sports equipment, to small fire arms.

This inventory was taken near the…

This lengthy article (only the excerpt describing Palmyra has been transcribed), describes the search by the crew of the steam C.R. Bishop for the lost ship Lady Lampson and her crew.

They visited several islands and atolls in the Pacific, but…

This brief article gives a very good, concise account of the Esperanza legend, and offers plausible dates for the events it describes. It also posits the Esperanza as the ship which survived the battle fought with another vessel, something other…