Gallery: Archival Projects

Volcano House Register

CSAV is digitally archiving the Volcano House Register (1865 - 1939) with the assistance of UH-Hilo Geology Professor Steve Lundblad and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Visitors to the Volcano House recorded their observations and made drawings of volcanic activity; since Jaggar did not arrive until the early 1900's, the written record of the VHR is invaluable to scientists looking for clues to early behavior of Kilauea Volcano. Download a transcript of the Volcano House Register covering 1865 - 1922; watermarked digital images are also available.

Darcy and TracyDarcy Bevens (left) and Tracy Lacqua carefully prepare a volume of the Volcano House Register for photographing, in the Archives Room of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. A few sample pages are shown below.

A page from the Volcano House Register includes a drawing of a lava landscapeFrank S. Dodge drew a map in the Volcano House Register, of Kilauea summit and Halemaumau, in August 1892

A page from the Volcano House Register includes a drawing of a group of happy peopleMany drawings in the Volcano House Register were of people who had come from far away to see the lava

A page from the Volcano House Register includes a business card and many signatures of visitorsA typical page from the Volcano House Register includes a description of the traveler's experiences

Robert W. Decker Slide Collection

Over the course of his illustrious career, Robert W. Decker amassed a collection of 30,000 slide photographs. Some were taken during his travels to Indonesia and Latin America, but many of the slides are duplicates which he obtained from colleagues such as the Kraffts, as well as NPS and USGS personnel. This collection has been donated to CSAV to digitally archive, complete with Meta Data, before handing the slides (and digital copies) over to the Smithsonian for permanent archival preservation. A limited number of the digital images will eventually be available for public downloading, as many are Public Domain. But others are copyright, such as those of the Kraffts, and cannot be used without permission.

Krafft SlidesEach slide is carefully and sequentially numbered; a few of Katia's are shown.

Cool ScanThe slides are scanned with a Nikon Cool Scan, which allows the technician to work on another project simultaneously, as it accepts up to 50 slides in a stack. Each slide is saved as a TIFF with 65 MB at 8-bit depth. Samples are shown below.

A vehicle is stopped at a huge crack in the road, resulting from the 1975 earthquakeIn November 1975, an earthquake of M 7.2 damaged roads on the Big Island

Firemen in yellow jackets use a hose to spray water onto molten lavaFiremen attempt to cool down a molten lava flow that is crossing the road

A lake of molten lava sends spatter into the air; photo by Richard FiskeA lake of lava in Halemaumau sent spatter into the air on 11/5/1967

A group of people watch spattering lava in the distanceIn August 1971, visitors enjoyed seeing fountains of lava in Kilauea Caldera

Jeff Judd photographed a hornito, a rootless vent of lava spatteringA hornito (rootless vent over a lava lake or flow) in Alae Crater, 5/20/1970

Cascades of lava pour into a crater on 7-19-1974, photo by Robert TillingLava pours into Keanakakoi pit crater, 7/19/1974

A vehicle has been destroyed by ash from the Mount Saint Helens eruption of 1980A vehicle was destroyed by the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens

A speed limit sign is almost buried in black pumiceTephra from the 1959 Kilauea Iki eruption buried the road and defoliated ohia trees

Jim Griggs took a photo of trees being buried by a lava flow in 1983, and only the molds remainA lava flow from Puu Oo on 1/7/1983 buried a section of forest; tree molds show the former lava height