Alawi or Anauanii (Himatione Parva)

This remarkable Hawaiian bird lithograph is from Scott Barchard Wilson and Arthur Humble Evans’s Aves Hawaiienses: The birds of the Sandwich Islands. The work was published in London by Taylor & Francis for R. H. Porter between 1890 and 1899.

Each lithograph features original hand coloring and they are by or after Frederick William Frohawk. “…[t]he illustrations very fine examples of Frohawk’s careful work… Frohawk manages to have crisper, clear-cut profiles of his birds, and there is little wooliness about his bird pictures” (Jackson).

The work is considered “One of the two great ornithological works on Hawaiian birds.” (Forbes) It is believed no more than 250 copies were produced of this work. It is also important for depicting many now extinct birds due to deforestation and non-native diseases.