From card: "Refer. Collins' MS. p. 1367. The attribution of this to Wilkes Exped. is ? Date 1843?."
The Collins Manuscript entry on this artifact, which is referenced on the catalogue card, attributes this as possibly collected by the Wilkes / United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842, and also lists a possible date of 1843. However, the Collins Manuscript and catalogue card note that this attribution is unsourced and uncertain.
What follows concerning a possible provenance for this canoe is very very speculative. See National Institute for the Promotion of Science., Hunter, A. (1857). A popular catalogue of the extraordinary curiosities in the National Institute: arranged in the building belonging to the Patent Office. Curiosities collected from all parts of the world, by the officers of the Army and Navy of the United States ... 2d ed. Washington: A. Hunter. On p. 60 is listed as on display "A birch [sic] canoe from the Sandwich Islands [i.e. Hawaii]. - Presented to Commodore Chauncey, by Captain Bolton, and by him presented to the Institution." It is unclear from the publication if this canoe on display is full size or a model, though other entries in the book reference canoe models specifically, so the Chauncey canoe may be full size. Commodore Chauncey would be Isaac Chauncey Isaac Chauncey (1772 – 1840) who was a United States Navy officer. In the latter part of his naval career he was President of the Board of Navy Commissioners. Captain Bolton would presumably be William Compton Bolton Finch (he changed his name to William Compton Bolton in 1833), who visited Hawaii in Oct. - Nov. 1829 as Captain of the U.S.S. Vincennes. The collections of the National Institute were transferred to the Smithsonian in 1861, 1862, etc., see Accession Nos. 81 and 135.
