How They Saw Us: Hawai‘i on Book and Magazine Covers

Print media today are a diminishing entity. How written material is made and disseminated, and by who, has changed foundationally in the last few decades. No longer are publishers in a few large cities the main creators and distributors of what most people in the USA read. But when this was still the case, the covers of magazines and books were a crucial element in how many copies of a particular publication might sell. Arranged with numerous competing titles on shelves and racks, it was the covers that attracted the eyes of potential buyers, so the more colorful or dramatic or – in some cases – sexy the design was, the greater the potential success.

Considering the criteria for what a cover was supposed to do, let’s look at how Hawai‘i was depicted in the American publishing world from the late 1800s to the early 2000s. What’s shown here is a fraction of what was printed overall during this period, since Hawai‘i as a subject was not common. What did the mass public of the United States see about us, and what did these publications make them think we were?

1888 book of Hawaiian ferns — In the 19th century, the forests of North America were increasingly cut down for lumber and for the wood pulp that was turned into cheap paper. In turn this created a boom in the production of reading material. Here’ s the elegant cover design of a hardcover book produced in 1888 (as a reprint of an 1879 text) showing the sprigs of four different Hawaiian ferns, debossed in gold ink. (Bishop Museum Library)

In American pop culture, and eventually internationally as well, several subjects became well-known as representing the Hawaiian Islands physically in addition to their indigenous people. The distinctive outline of Diamond Head is the first one we’ll view here. It is just by chance that Waikīkī, the most famous beach in Hawai‘i and the focus of the tourist industry for well over one hundred years, is backed by this extinct volcanic crater. The combination of the mountain and the beach have long since become a pleasant visual cliché.

Sunset Magazine cover 1916 — “Sunset” magazine, published in California, always spotlighted the American west, which included Hawai‘i. Originally containing articles on many different topics it eventually came to focus on cooking, gardening, travel, and home design and architecture This 1916 cover is an artist’s copy of a commercial photograph of surfers.

The House Without a Key cover — Earl Derr Biggers was a fiction writer who visited Hawai‘i in 1919. While here, he read newspaper accounts of what was, to him, an exotic and intriguing Honolulu Police Department detective named Chang Apana – in the continental USA at that time, no Asian would have had such a job. The vacation inspired Biggers to write this 1925 murder mystery, “The House Without A Key,” that introduced the fictional HPD detective named Charlie Chan, who immediately became a hit. Biggers wrote six very popular Chan books before his death in 1933 but the character also starred in a lengthy series of Hollywood films in the ‘30s and ‘40s. This paper dust jacket emphasizes that Waikīkī is the setting for this story although the artist has given Diamond Head an additional peak on the left. (DeSoto Brown Collection)

Gourmet magazine Hawaii cover — Aimed at cooks as well as those who appreciated fine foods, “Gourmet” magazine’ s April 1950 cover shows a dessert platter of raspberries and pineapple slices. Hawai‘i at that time was the main source of pineapples consumed in the USA, which is why Diamond Head is visible in the background in this illustration. A faceted glass decanter completes the dish with the raspberry liqueur it holds. (DeSoto Brown Collection)

Strength magazine Hawaii cover — Bodybuilder Timmy Leong strikes a pose on the sand at Ala Moana Park while a kneeling admirer holds an artificial lei for this 1957 “Strength & Health” cover. Leong, a self-taught weightlifter, competed in national American physique contests in the 1950s and made a name for himself in the field. He ran his own gym in Honolulu for decades.

It Happened in Hawaii book cover — Paperback books were first sold in the 1930s but did not become massively popular until the 1950s. Displayed in rotating wire racks in diverse locations like drug stores, airports and even supermarkets, paperbacks became known for their often sexy or violent cover illustrations. The impression that this Waikīkī couple is merely romantic is countered by the text at the top of the cover: ”Their Secret Love Turned A Tropical Paradise Into A Living Hell." (DeSoto Brown Collection)

Dance is integral to all of humanity. The hula, created by the Hawaiian civilization centuries ago, survived disapproval and suppression in the 19th century to return to its central role in our culture today. While the hula in its homeland retained its authentic aspects, and traveling Hawaiian musicians and dancers spread it internationally, it sadly was also co-opted in an often offensive form for tawdry and suggestive performances to show off female bodies. Outside of Hawai‘i, in whatever form it took, hula dancers (real or phony) often utilized grass skirts. These were not traditionally Hawaiian and had been introduced by Gilbert Island immigrants in the late 1800s, but they could be conveniently used as costumes anywhere. This is why you’ll see them depicted frequently in 20th century pop culture.

Life magazine cover Hawaii — Miguel Covarrubias, born in Mexico in 1904, emigrated to New York City in 1923 and achieved remarkably quick success there with his caricatures and other artwork published in various national magazines. This cover for “Life” from 1925 — when the contents of this publication were satire and commentary on current events — shows an imaginary Hawaiian landscape of fantasy plant life surrounding a group of musicians and a hula dancer. The latter, in the center, is the focus of the viewer’s attention. (DeSoto Brown Collection)

Book cover of Hula Moons — Metallic silver ink stamped on a vivid blue background illustrates Don Blanding’ s very influential 1930 book “Hula Moons” with an outlined dancer backed by multiple circles representing the moon. Blanding traveled from the midwest to Hawai‘i on a whim in 1915 and lived here into the 1920s while successfully creating a career as a writer, poet and artist. He invented the persona for himself of a carefree vagabond while actually working tirelessly to promote his writings and personal appearances. The hula dancer seen here only as a silhouetted figure was typical of his illustrations. (Bishop Museum Library)

Breezy magazine hula girl cover — One of a number of sexually suggestive fiction magazines of the 1930s, “Breezy Stories” always showed artwork of a scantily dressed young woman on its cover. This particular issue happens to use the established image of a hula dancer , well-known by then in the United States, as that month’ s eye-catching female. The excessively short “grass skirt” seen here didn’t appear even as a costume for carnival sideshow women in real life then. (DeSoto Brown Collection)

Fate magazine Hawaii cover — As can be seen by the slogan on this cover — “True Stories of The Strange, The Unusual, the Unknown“ — “Fate” featured what were supposed to be real experiences of mystical or somewhat creepy events. This hula dancer, however, is anything but other-worldly with her barely-covered breasts to attract potential buyers, which shows that sex sells even beyond the world of the flesh. (DeSoto Brown Collection)

1964 All About Hawaii Thrum's — The 1964 edition of what had begun in the late 1800s as “Thrum’s Hawaiian Annual,” later retitled “All About Hawai‘i,” continued this publication’s established format of a yearly listing of basic information and statistics about the Hawaiian Islands along with articles on various subjects. The hula dancer is the primary element of this artwork, but notice also the presence of flaming tiki torches in the center, known as nighttime illumination for hotels and outdoor shows aimed at tourists. Stylized mountains, coconut palms, a sailing canoe and a traditional hale pili (grass house) are contrasted with modern highrise buildings on the right — an acknowledgement of the booming economy of the time which saw new hotels rising constantly in Waikīkī. (Bishop Museum Library)

The active volcanoes of Hawai‘i Island are, fortunately, mostly non-explosive. Eruptions can usually be viewed in safety and after foreigners began to visit the Hawaiian Islands after 1778, they marveled at the astonishing sights of glowing molten lava lakes in Kīlauea’s Halema‘uma‘u Crater, or active flows moving down mountain slopes or into the ocean. It was natural that these Hawaiian wonders, comparable to almost nothing else on earth, would be featured by publications.

1894 book on Hawaii volcanoes — The complicated design of this 1894 book’s cover was the result of stamped debossing and various brightly-colored inks. At the bottom is the crater of Halema‘uma‘u at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, which was consistently filled with glowing lava at all times then and was thus a desirable attraction to visit by the handful of tourists traveling to Hawai‘i. Even in the 1890s the nearby Volcano House hotel made such visits comfortable though. (Bishop Museum Library)

1950s LIFE magazine Hawaii volcano cover — By the 1950s, LIFE magazine was hugely popular in the USA for its weekly photo coverage of news events along with various feature stories. The eruption of the Kīlauea Iki crater in Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park from November to December 1959 was spectacular enough to warrant this dramatic cover photograph. The crater, which had been created in the 1400s, had been dormant since then except for a brief eruption in 1868. The ‘59 event consisted of multiple eruptive phases, mostly short, but which sometimes produced amazing lava fountains, the tallest of which reached a record 1,900 feet. The lake of molten rock that remained in the crater afterwards was over 400 feet deep and stayed liquid under its crust until it finally solidified completely in the middle 1990s, over 30 years after the eruption ended. (DeSoto Brown Collection)

Surfing — or riding waves — did not originate in Hawai‘i, but it was Hawaiians of the past who turned it into its most evolved form by creating numerous surfboards of varying sizes and lengths, used by both males and females of all ages. The sport diminished in the 1800s but as it rebounded at Waikīkī early in the 20th century, it concurrently began to be depicted and written about in numerous publications. Before World War II, surfing had not yet spread widely to other locations, so when it appeared in photographs or artwork in that period it was inevitably representing Hawai‘i. Even in later years, though, surfing in print has rightfully continued to be associated with the Hawaiian Islands.