Feather Cape

From card: "Center length 18 3/4"; width at neck 11 1/4"; overall frontal width 36 3/4". Background of yellow o-o feathers with symmetrical pattern of red, yellow and black feather cresents. Base netting of olona fiber. Neck ties of yellow ribbon. Note: In Princess Kawananakoa's Will this is referred to as "The Poomaikelani-Nui cape." In Additional Notes on Hawaiian Feather Work by Wm. T. Brigham. Bishop Museum Memoirs Vol. VII. No. 1. is a color plate (Plate IV) and description (p. 54) of this cape: "THE POOMAIKALANI CAPE ... "The name Poomaikalani was that of a sister of Queen Kapiolani, well known to the author, but it is quite possible that she was named by some ancestor not recorded by Fornander." A further statement appears in papers accompanying letter of Clarice B. Taylor of March 17, 1947: "This cape is an authentic cape of ancient manufacture. ... The cape has been in the family several generations the first record of it being the cape of the High Chiefess Po'omaikalani of the Maui Royal family. It came into the possession of the present Kawananakoa family through an aunt names Poomaikalani for her grandmother, the High Chiefess of Maui.""

Ahu'ula, feathered cape, olona fiber (Touchardia latifolia), feathers from 'i'iwi (Vestiaria coccinea) and 'o'o (Moho nobilis).

Cape on display in National Museum of Natural History exhibit "Objects of Wonder", 2021.

21 Apr 2025

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