During the 1860s and 1870s, Abraham Fornander (a Swedish-born citizen of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i and Maui circuit court judge) sent learned Hawaiians to seek out the mo‘olelo (ancient stories) of Kānaka ‘Ōiwi who had an uninterrupted connection to the generations of ancient Hawaiians before them.

The collectors included S.N. Kamakau, S. Haleole, and Kepelino Keauokalani — Hawaiians born in the early 1800s, who collected stories from sources born before European contact. The men and women who shared their knowledge did so with clear and present recollections of what had been passed down to them.

The three-volume set includes Fornander’s Collection in its entirety. The original collection was first published by Bishop Museum Press in 1919 in a three volume collection, part of a larger collection of texts called the “Memoirs of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum.”