We often connect with descendants of those who were children at industrial schools in prior eras. On this page (a work in progress), we share resources about where ʻohana may look for more information about their kupuna.
How to do research about reformatories and industrial schools in Hawaiʻi
General resources available online
Board of Education Reports
To learn more about a particular institution in a particular year, you can view the annual or biennial reports published by the Board of Education (and successor agencies, including the Department of Public Instruction). These reports contain information about all schools in Hawaiʻi, and contain sections of reports from industrial school superintendents. These reports do not name individual children but report more broadly on what was happening at the school in the designated year or two. They usually include demographic data detailing how many children were at the institution, what their crimes were, and their racial and ethnic backgrounds.
The Hawaiian and English annual and biennial reports from Hawaiʻi’s Papa Hoonaauao, or Board of Education, from 1845-1901, have been digitized by UH and are available here: https://hdl.handle.net/10524/68265.
Most later years are on HathiTrust here: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100074456. The exception are reports from 1902-1904, currently available in hard copy at the Hawaiian Pacific Collections at UH-Mānoa’s Hamilton Library.
Board of Industrial School Reports
From 1916-1939, the industrial schools were governed by their own Board of Industrial Schools. A few annual reports of the Board of Industrial Schools have been digitized and are available here:
Board of Industrial Schools report July 1, 1927-Dec 31, 1928 with 1931/32.
Department of Institutions Reports
From 1939-1958, the training schools (renamed as such from “industrial schools” in 1931") along with Waimano Home and Oʻahu Prison were governed by a Department of Institutions. A few annual reports have been digitized and are available here:
Department of Institutions Annual Report, 1940, via Hathi Trust
See other available years here: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000544308
Newspaper Clippings
Our team has over the years collected a large amount of English-language newspaper articles related to the industrial schools that are digitized on the subscription-based site Newspapers.com. Even without a subscription, anyone can view our clippings - find them linked by site below.
Please be aware that some of the linked news articles contain distressing descriptions of physical abuse, and even occasionally deaths, of children at these institutions.
Hawaiʻi State Archives
Conducting Research at Archives
The majority of the official records of the reformatories and industrial schools are held at the Hawaiʻi State Archives, because the schools we study were all run by the government (first, the Hawaiian Kingdom, and later the Territory of Hawaiʻi). These records are not publicly digitized. Our researchers have collected a lot of what is at the Hawaiʻi State Archives and are working on building a website (in progress) to appropriately share some of those materials.
We will be working on sharing more how to navigate the finding aids at HSA for those wishing to do their own research there in person.
