Hawaiʻi Once Ran on a Half-Hour the Continent Forgot
Tech From Here: Hawaiʻi, by RN Collins

Alt text, credits and the words on each frame (22 of 22 frames).

Frame 1 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-01.jpg
Alt text: The clock on the tower of Aliʻiōlani Hale, Honolulu, in a 1966 survey photograph, with the Hawaiian motto lettered above the dial. The story names the building as home to one of the city’s public clocks.
Credit: Photo: Jack E. Boucher, HABS/NPS
Words on the frame: Hawaiʻi Once Ran on a Half-Hour the Continent Forgot / How longitude, law, war, communications and software built the time displayed on Hawaiʻi’s clocks.
Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TOP_STAGE_OF_TOWER,_SHOWING_CLOCK_-_Aliiolani_Hale,_463_King_Street,_Honolulu,_Honolulu_County,_HI_HABS_HI,2-HONLU,3-7.tif

Frame 2 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-02.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: the USS California docking at Honolulu Harbor beside Aloha Tower on May 15, 1928, with the tower's clock faces at the left. Honolulu kept the half-hour standard from 1896 to 1947, apart from the war years, so this is a public clock of that era; it does not show the offset and is not a phone.
Credit: Photo: National Park Service
Words on the frame: Hawaiʻi once had a time zone your phone probably cannot show you today. / For more than fifty years, Hawaiʻi occupied a temporal position that would look strange on most American phones today: the equivalent of UTC−10:30.
Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_USS_California_docking_at_Honolulu_Harbor_by_Aloha_Tower,_May_15,_1928._(67d42b6b-1dd8-b71b-0bcd-ead33ae83b48).jpg

Frame 3 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-03.jpg
Alt text: The top of the front page of the Hawaiian Gazette, Honolulu, semi-weekly, Friday January 10, 1896: the issue that printed the Department of the Interior's standard-time notice on page 5. The scan shows the newspaper as an object; the notice itself is not on this part of the page.
Credit: Source: Hawaiian Gazette, Jan 10, 1896
Words on the frame: Standard time began in 1896 under the Republic of Hawaiʻi. / At noon on Monday, January 13, 1896, all public timepieces under the Interior Department’s control were to be set to Hawaiian Standard Time.
Source page: https://archive.org/details/honolulu-hawaiian-gazette-1896-01-10

Frame 4 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-04a.jpg
Alt text: United States Marines and sailors from the USS Boston landing at Honolulu on January 17, 1893, drawn up in ranks on a wharf, in a Hawaiʻi State Archives print. They are the troops from a warship that the sentence says backed the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani.
Credit: Source: Hawaiʻi State Archives
Words on the frame: In January 1893, a group of American and European businessmen and planters, / backed by United States troops who landed from a United States warship, deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani and set up a Provisional Government.
Source page: https://digitalarchives.hawaii.gov/browse/parent/ark:70111/1zTn

Frame 5 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-04b.jpg
Alt text: President Clinton signing Public Law 103-150, the joint resolution of November 23, 1993, at his desk in the Oval Office, with several people standing behind him. It is the signing of the law the sentence names.
Credit: Photo: White House, NARA
Words on the frame: In 1993 a joint resolution of Congress (Public Law 103-150) apologized to Native Hawaiians / for the overthrow, which it said took place with the participation of agents and citizens of the United States. Its preamble calls it the illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy.
Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Photograph_of_President_William_Jefferson_Clinton_Signing_Public_Law_103-150_in_the_Oval_Office_at_the_White_House_in_Washington,_D.C._-_DPLA_-_d894e2ef7e8ac2b0082f7dcf4955c37e.jpg

Frame 6 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-05.jpg
Alt text: The Republic of Hawaiʻi cabinet seated around a table, in a Frank Davey photograph from the Hawaiʻi State Archives. The mount carries the signatures of five of the ministers, including J. A. King, whom the archive lists second from the left. The story says King signed the January 1896 notice.
Credit: Photo: Frank Davey (HSA)
Words on the frame: The Provisional Government declared itself the Republic of Hawaiʻi on July 4, 1894. / On January 8, 1896, the Republic’s Minister of the Interior announced Hawaiian Standard Time: ten and one-half hours behind Greenwich mean time. It was signed by J. A. King.
Source page: https://digitalarchives.hawaii.gov/browse/parent/ark:70111/1xfv

Frame 7 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-06.jpg
Alt text: The Hawaiian flag being lowered at the annexation ceremony at ʻIolani Palace on August 12, 1898, photographed by Frank Davey, in the Hawaiʻi State Archives 8 by 10 print. It marks the 1898 annexation the story names.
Credit: Photo: Frank Davey (HSA)
Words on the frame: Annexation followed in 1898, / and the Territory of Hawaiʻi was created by the Organic Act in 1900.
Source page: https://digitalarchives.hawaii.gov/browse/parent/ark:70111/1CLZ

Frame 8 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-07.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: the clock panel at a Mutual Telephone Company operator position in Honolulu, 1934, with separate clocks labeled Far Eastern, Pacific, Mountain, Honolulu, Central, Eastern and Greenwich. It shows equipment that kept several standard times side by side for coordination; it is not a timetable or a telegraph line, and the operator is cropped out.
Credit: Source: Hawaiʻi State Archives
Words on the frame: A common hour is an infrastructure of coordination. / It lets a departure printed in one place correspond to an arrival in another. It makes a telegraphed observation comparable.
Source page: https://digitalarchives.hawaii.gov/browse/parent/ark:70111/1Bmx

Frame 9 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-08.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: the transit telescope room at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, between 1909 and 1919, with the instrument that observed the clock stars to fix the time. It stands for the authority that sets a standard by a meridian; it is not in Hawaiʻi and not the 1896 order.
Credit: Source: Library of Congress
Words on the frame: Before agreement, a clock answers to the sun where it stands. / After agreement, it answers to an authority that has selected a meridian. Hawaiʻi’s 1896 choice used the half step between two such zones.
Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Naval_observatory_transit_telescope_which_observes_the_%22Clock_Stars%22_(...)_secure(?)_the_time(?)_LCCN2016821018.jpg

Frame 10 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-09.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: a hand setting back the hands of a large clock at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Washington, 1918, in a Library of Congress photograph captioned as turning back the clock, cropped to the dial. It stands for a clock change; it is not Hawaiʻi and not the 1933 acts.
Credit: Photo: Harris & Ewing, LOC
Words on the frame: In 1933, the Territorial Legislature approved daylight saving on April 26 / and repealed it on May 21, less than a month later, leaving Hawaiʻi on standard time for the rest of the decade.
Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NAVAL_OBSERVATORY._C.B._WATTS_TURNING_BACK_THE_CLOCK_LCCN2016869006.jpg

Frame 11 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-10.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: a war-bond display in a downtown Honolulu shop window at Hotel and Fort Streets in 1942, watched by uniformed police, with a street clock reflected in the window glass. It shows wartime Honolulu in the year Hawaiian War Time began; it is not the military order.
Credit: Photo: U.S. Army Signal Corps
Words on the frame: Nearly nine years later, a different authority acted. / A military governor’s wartime order, not a revival of the 1933 law, imposed year-round “Hawaiian War Time” starting February 9, 1942. That measure lasted until September 30, 1945.
Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SC_151472_-_The_Hub_Store,_Hotel_and_Fort_Streets,_submits_this_display_of_ordnance_equipment_to_foster_the_sale_of_War_Bonds_in_downtown_Honolulu,_T.H._(52015763700).jpg

Frame 12 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-11.jpg
Alt text: The Senate of the Twenty-Fourth Legislature of the Territory of Hawaii, a group portrait taken in 1947 and held by the Hawaiʻi State Archives, cropped to the photograph and brightened from a dark negative scan. It is the territorial legislature that passed the 1947 act the sentence names.
Credit: Source: Hawaiʻi State Archives
Words on the frame: When wartime practice ended in 1945, the old half-hour standard returned. / In 1947, Territorial Act 161 (Session Laws of Hawaii 1947) moved Hawaiian Standard Time thirty minutes ahead. The change took effect on Sunday, June 8, 1947.
Source page: https://digitalarchives.hawaii.gov/browse/parent/ark:70111/51zq

Frame 13 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-12.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: the clock face and ALOHA lettering at the top of Aloha Tower, Honolulu, photographed in 2015. The tower's clocks have run since 1926, so this is a public clock that was in place in 1947; the photograph is modern and does not show the 1947 change.
Credit: Photo: Gerald Watanabe
Words on the frame: The act replaced Hawaiʻi’s half-hour reference meridian with a whole-hour one. / The adjustment sounds tiny. At the moment of change, thirty minutes of local civil time disappeared from the clock.
Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alohatow4.jpg

Frame 14 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-13a.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: the clock stage of the Aliʻiōlani Hale tower, Honolulu, with two black clock faces, in a Historic American Buildings Survey photograph. It shows a public clock; it is not a document or one of the dates on the record card.
Credit: Photo: HABS/NPS
Words on the frame: The record, in dates / Jan 13, 1896, noon: Hawaiian Standard Time, UTC−10:30 / Apr 26 to May 21, 1933: Daylight saving approved, then repealed / Feb 9, 1942: Hawaiian War Time begins, UTC−9:30
Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TOWER_DETAIL,_FROM_EAST_-_Aliiolani_Hale,_463_King_Street,_Honolulu,_Honolulu_County,_HI_HABS_HI,2-HONLU,3-6.tif

Frame 15 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-13b.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: the blue-faced clock with Roman numerals on the gray stone tower of Kawaiahaʻo Church, Honolulu, against a clear sky, photographed in 2022 by w_lemay. The story names this church as home of the Kauikeaouli public clock. The card lists the dates Hawaiian War Time ended and Act 161 took effect; this is a Honolulu public clock today, not an image from 1945 or 1947 and not a document.
Credit: Photo: w_lemay (Flickr)
Words on the frame: Sep 30, 1945: Hawaiian War Time ends / Jun 8, 1947: Act 161 takes effect, UTC−10:00
Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kawaiaha'o_Church,_Punchbowl_Street,_Honolulu,_HI_-_52238443573.jpg

Frame 16 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-14.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: three wall clocks labeled London, Berlin and Jersey at the Jersey War Tunnels museum, 2009. They stand for clocks kept by named jurisdictions, the idea behind the database; the photograph has no connection to Honolulu or to the IANA database.
Credit: Photo: fw190a8
Words on the frame: The IANA Time Zone Database records rules for named jurisdictions, including historical transitions for Honolulu. / That history matters whenever a computer converts an old local timestamp, calculates elapsed time across a change, or schedules something in the future.
Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clocks_London,_Berlin,_Jersey._Jersey_War_Tunnels_(Hohlgangsanlage_8),_WW2_German_underground_hospital._2009.jpg

Frame 17 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-15a.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: Aliʻiōlani Hale with its clock tower, seen from ʻIolani Palace around 1888. The boundary slide says the sources do not name the people who performed the clock work in 1947; this photograph shows a government clock tower, not those people and not that year.
Credit: Source: Hawaii State Archives
Words on the frame: What We Actually Know / What we know: Standard time began in 1896 under the Republic of Hawaiʻi. In 1947, Territorial Act 161 (Session Laws of Hawaii 1947) moved Hawaiian Standard Time thirty minutes ahead.
Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aliiolani_Hale,_1888_(PPWD-1-7-017).jpg

Frame 18 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-15b.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: the exposed timing mechanism of an antique clock, brass wheels, a lever arm and a round pendulum bob mounted on a wooden board inside a circular frame, in a 1949 photograph by Raymond Sato held by the Hawaiʻi State Archives, which labels it Queen Liliʻuokalani's clock. The boundary slide says the sources do not record how Hawaiʻi's clocks were reset in 1947 or who did it. This shows the kind of machinery such work acts on, not the 1947 work or those people.
Credit: Source: Hawaiʻi State Archives
Words on the frame: What we do not know: The sources used here do not record the precise implementation, but the mechanism is clear. The sources used here do not name the people who performed that work in 1947.
Source page: https://digitalarchives.hawaii.gov/item/ark:70111/1zWS

Frame 19 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-16a.jpg
Alt text: Kawaiahaʻo Church, Honolulu, with the round dial of its tower clock clear on the tower and a group of men at the churchyard gate, from a Hawaiʻi State Archives glass plate negative, cropped and contrast-adjusted. The story names the church as home to the Kauikeaouli public clock.
Credit: Source: Hawaiʻi State Archives
Words on the frame: The clock remembers authority even when the public story does not. / The forgotten thirty minutes teach a precise lesson: infrastructure is often most powerful when we mistake a negotiated standard for nature. / Location
Source page: https://digitalarchives.hawaii.gov/browse/parent/ark:70111/48g0

Frame 20 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-16b.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: Fort and Merchant Streets, Honolulu, around 1897, looking toward the harbor, a dirt-and-rail street between stone commercial blocks with a round street clock hanging over the sidewalk at left (the archive record says the business with the clock is Pacific Hardware), from the Hawaiʻi State Archives. Standard time began in Hawaiʻi in January 1896. The frame item is the single word Date; this shows a public clock of that moment, not a dated record.
Credit: Source: Hawaiʻi State Archives
Words on the frame: Date
Source page: https://digitalarchives.hawaii.gov/item/ark:70111/1Ds0

Frame 21 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-16c.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: a plantation worker time clock standing in a small open wooden shed at Pioneer Mill, Lahaina, Maui, a round clock dial above a large wheel ringed with numbered pegs and a long lever, photographed by Jack E. Boucher for the National Park Service in July 1966 (Hawaiʻi State Archives). The close slide item is the single word Offset. This is an everyday Hawaiʻi timekeeping machine, not a Honolulu public clock and not a time offset.
Credit: Photo: Jack E. Boucher, USNPS
Words on the frame: Offset
Source page: https://digitalarchives.hawaii.gov/item/ark:70111/4TM4

Frame 22 of 22: tfh-hi-c14-14-16d.jpg
Alt text: Illustrative photo: the stone clock tower of Aliʻiōlani Hale, Honolulu, seen looking steeply upward from the side, a round clock dial under a flag, with palm fronds at left, photographed in 2006 by Mordomo. It is the government building whose clock opens the story. The close slide item is Governing time rule; this photograph shows the tower, not a rule.
Credit: Photo: Mordomo (Commons)
Words on the frame: Governing time rule / Read the complete edition and Source Desk
Source page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ali%CA%BBi%C5%8Dlani_Hale_from_side.jpg
