The 6 Best Museums in Maui You’ll Want to Visit

Before Western settlers and missionaries came, Maui was a small, peaceful island with a long history. It has a long and complicated history, and museums all over the island are full of artifacts that tell stories about it. From the time before Europeans came to Maui to the time of the missionaries and even after the tourism boom, these historical sites show how each time period affected the culture of Hawaii today.

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Alexander & Baldwin Sugar Museum

Museum

It’s hard to miss the big red caterpillar tractor outside the sugar museum in the plantation town of Puunene. Before the 1960s, when tourism in Hawaii took off, sugar was the most profitable business on the island. Here, people can get a small look at how people lived during the time when so many people from all over the world came to live here. The people who came to work in Hawaii from as far away as China, Japan, the Philippines, Korea, and Portugal had a big impact on the culture we see today.

Lahaina Heritage Museum

Museum

This heritage site is so interactive that it has a map of Maui that lights up when you touch different parts of it. The museum might have the most interactive technology on the island. It even has video footage of Maui’s Humpback Whale Sanctuary that lets people see what it’s like there. In addition to its technological features, the building is home to priceless artifacts that tell the story of Lahaina’s role as a hub and center for trade on Maui. Here, you can see things like the flag of the old Kingdom of Hawaii.

Baldwin Home Museum

Museum

In Lahaina, Reverend Ephraim Spaulding was known as the best host because he always welcomed strangers into his home. People from the Hawaiian royal court and even captains of whaling ships were known to stay on his property. The house is surrounded by kou and kukui trees, and it grew bananas and figs. This shows that a single home can be self-sufficient. The family could also live off the land because they had animals and gardens. People can join tours of the house that start at dusk and use candles to make the experience more real.

Hale Pa‘i Printing Museum

Museum

The Hawaiian language was taught from one generation to the next for hundreds of years without ever being written down. People told stories to each other by word of mouth or through dances like the hula. When missionaries came to Lahaina for the first time, they set up the first seminary school. The school taught people how to read and stressed the importance of books. As a way to get the students more interested, a printing press was brought in and they were taught how to use it. This made them want to write down the history of the Hawaiian Islands and even print the first paper money that was used in the Hawaiian Islands.

The Wo Hing Cookhouse and Museum

Museum

The Wo Hing Temple is a tribute to the Chinese people who first lived on Maui. It still stands as a sign of how strong the Chinese community and culture are on the island. The first Chinese people came on ships that were used for trading and hunting whales. They were hired to build the tunnels and water systems that made plantation life possible on the island. As more Chinese people moved to Maui, they started the Wo Hing Society to keep their culture and history alive while they were so far from home.

Hale Hō‘ike‘ike

Museum

Hale H’ike’ike, also known as the Bailey House Museum, is a place where people can learn about the culture of Maui. It is surrounded by lush gardens full of Hawaiian plants. The home was built on the land of the last chief of Maui. It is made of lava rock and koi wood. During World War II, it was even the center of the defense. The museum has artifacts from before Europeans came to the island, such as a copy of an ancient Polynesian sailboat and, more importantly, the last statue of Kamapua’a, the Hawaiian demigod, made before religion was banned on the island.

Topic: The 6 Best Museums in Maui You’ll Want to Visit

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