Kalakaua I
Medium
Classification
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; purchased through generous contributions to the Victor Proetz Memorial Fund
Accession Number
S/NPG.68.18
Tags
About this artwork
Born in Honolulu and raised in the court of King Kamehameha III, David Kala¯kaua was elected king of Hawai‘i in 1874. His reign was marked by the political and economic rise of white foreigners, including the descendants of the New England missionaries who had arrived in the 1820s. Straddling the worlds of Ka¯naka Maoli, or Native Hawaiians, and the increasingly powerful Anglo-Americans in Hawai‘i, Kala¯kaua cultivated international diplomatic relations to strengthen his kingdom.