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Ke Ali`I Bernice Pauahi BIshop
December 19 , 1831 – October 16 , 1884


Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop was born December 19, 1831 in Honolulu , Hawaii to High Chiefs , Abner Paki and Laura Konia Paki . She was the great granddaughter of King Kamehameha I , the warrior chief who united all the islands of Hawaii under his rule in 1810 .


She was a visionary , ali’i , a Hawaiian philanthropist , a women of intelligence and a compassionate person who understood that her kuleana as a Hawaiian was to serve the people . At the age of eight , Pauahi went to a Chief’s Children’s School until about 1846 . She enjoyed horseback riding , swimming , music, flowers and the outdoors .


Planned from childhood Pauhi was to marry her hanai brother , Prince Lot Kapuaiwa. Instead Pauahi married a wealthy , respected businessman , Charles Reed Bishop from Glen Falls , New York . He was a successful man through banking , real estate , and other investments, and he was also one of the wealthiest men in the kingdom . Pauahi had no children of her own , but later decided to adopt a son from Pauahi’s cousin Ruth Ke’elikolani in 1862 , but he later died at the age of six months .


Pauahi believed that education this will offer her people hope and a future . She wished that a portion of her estate be used “to erect and maintain in the Hawaiian

Islands two schools …one for boys and one for girls , to be known and called Kamehameha Schools. After her death , husband Charles Reed Bishop started work in carrying out her will . The original Kamehameha Schools  or Boys was established in 1887. The girls’ was established in 1894 nearby . Later in 1955 , the schools moved to Kapalama Heights . Later , Kamehameha Schools established two more campuses on outer-islands : Pukalani on Maui and the Kamehameha Schools Hawaii Campus in Kea’au on the island of Hawaii . Charles Reed Bishop founded the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in 1889 as another memorial to Pauahi , using the building that was the original school .


 

 

 

 

 

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East Hawaii Cultural Center

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