From Our Files

October archives

In 1888, King Kalakaua issued a royal charter, commissioning a magazine. Then titled Paradise of the Pacific, this publication became HONOLULU Magazine, making it the oldest magazine west of the Mississippi.

1949

Thousands of military dignitaries and civilians attended the dedication of the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl Crater. “The cemetery will be the final resting place of all World War II dead whose next of kin wish them to remain overseas and local boys returned ‘home,’” writes Paradise of the Pacific. “It will take the place of other temporary cemeteries.” The cemetery was built in 1948 and dedicated the following September, and contains more WWII dead than any other cemetery in the world. Those who died during the Pearl Harbor attack were first to be buried at the cemetery.
 

1969

“The two-year medical school at the University of Hawaii is a glowing success. Why then the insistent voices for a four-year school?” asks HONOLULU Magazine. The answer was simple: A four-year institution would bring more research—and money—into the university, and pump out more Island doctors. The faculty advocated for the additional two years of student training, especially in surgery and pediatrics. “To keep pace with population, we need 3,000 more graduates in medicine each year,” writes HONOLULU. In 1973, the UH medical school became a full-fledged, four-year institution. 

1989

“Most new poetry and fiction appears in literary journals and reviews, the so-called ‘little magazines’ produced by independent or university-affiliated small presses,” writes HONOLULU. The newest little magazine on the block in 1989 was Manoa. It was the brainchild of co-editors Frank Stewart and Robbie Shapard, both faculty members in the English Department at UH Manoa. The inaugural double issue consisted of more than 250 pages of fiction, essays, poems, literary reviews and photography. Manoa has since published 40 volumes, spanning about 8,000 pages, and is still going strong.