Alexander and Baldwin Museum: Sugar Industry of Hawaii

The museum showcases many exhibits that illustrate the history of the sugar industry of Hawaii and the sugar industry’s impact on the Hawaiian culture. The sugar industry was a major industry in Hawaii since 1835 until 1960’s. It contributed greatly to economic development in Hawaii, laying out important infrastructures, such as water supplies, transportation and local financial groups like various factor agencies. The sugar industry also introduced various ethnic immigrants into Hawaii, making Hawaii such an ethnically diverse society today. The many ethnic groups from China, Japan, Philippines and Portuguese islands also brought their own unique culture with them, and these separate cultures intermingled to become a unique Hawaiian culture today.

The exhibits include the miniature model of the Maui island, the pictures of water tunnel construction, the drawing of Henry Baldwin’s courageous anecdote in Maliko gulch, artifacts of immigrant laborers, aerial picture of plantation camps, and various tools and machines used in the sugar mills.

The museum visit was a memorable experience for me whereby I saw the astonishing accomplishments by Samuel T. Alexander and Henry P. Baldwin, two local entrepreneurs of Hawaiian missionary ancestry. They started one of the largest industries in Hawaii, and their legacy remains one of the most powerful companies in Hawaii, the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar company. Although the museum is owned and run by the HC&S company, I didn’t find its exhibits biased or partial. For example, the exhibit on the lives of immigrant laborers in plantation camps explained the dual purpose of the camps: to ease the transition to the new land by ethnic groups and to discourage cooperation among ethnic groups. The museum exhibits were very interesting in that they also included many artifacts of labor immigrants and their labor contracts. The exhibits reminded me of the lectures in my Hawaiian history class about the sugar industry and multi-ethnic labor immigrants. The museum was both educational and inspirational to me in that it showed me the past hardships and efforts that led to the current greatness.