Early Photography of Waikiki

Welcome to our collection of early photography of Waikiki. This was once the favorite hang-out of King Kalakaua. The Merrie Monarch enjoyed holding forth and bending an elbow with his cronies, including the writer Robert Louis Stevenson, some of whose stories had their origins here. These halcyon days changed with the end of Kalakaua’s reign, which gave way to the rise of the sugar barons and Republican oligarchy. This opened the gates to what would become a flood tide that poured into Hawai’i by ship and Pan Am China Clipper. The charming innocence of Waikiki buckled under the moneyed onslaught.