From a first glance of a digitized glass plate negative, hula dancers perform outside ʻIolani Palace during King David Kalākaua’s coronation. Up close, you can see the intricate patterns of the dancers’ kapa skirts.
The photo, taken sometime in the late 1800s, is part of more than 22,000 glass plates from the James J. Williams Collection that the Hawai‘i State Archives, a division of the state Department of Accounting and General Services, has acquired in the last few years.
The archives recently acquired another thousand plates that will be digitally archived…