LILI'UOKALANI, Queen.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Documents signed by Queen Lili'uokalani. Two documents signed by Lili'uokalani, the last sovereign of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, whose overthrow in 1893 brought an end to the monarchy and ushered in a period of American political control culminating in annexation in 1898.The earlier document, executed in 1888 while Lili'uokalani was still heir apparent, records a mortgage agreement with Bishop & Company, the Honolulu banking firm founded by Charles Reed Bishop and closely connected to the Hawaiian royal family. The document is signed by Lili'uokalani and her husband, John Owen Dominis. The later lease, drawn up in 1905 more than a decade after the monarchy's fall, concerns two pieces of land in the Hamohamo district of Honolulu, an area that later became part of Waikīkī. Lili'uokalani managed personal and royal estate holdings even during the politically turbulent decades surrounding the end of the Hawaiian Kingdom.Bishop & Company, founded in Honolulu in 1858 by Charles Reed Bishop, was the first successful banking institution of the Kingdom of Hawai'i and served many members of the islands' political and royal elite. Charles Reed Bishop (1822-1915) was the husband of Bernice Pauahi Pākī (1831-1884), the hānai (adoptive relative) of Lili'uokalani.Autograph material from Lili'uokalani is uncommon, particularly in legal documents relating to land ownership and administration in Honolulu during the transition from monarchy to American territorial rule.Provenance: Martin Schøyen.

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