Jean P. Haydon Museum

The Jean P. Haydon Museum occupies a building put up in 1917 as a naval commissary in the days when the territory was administered by the United States Navy, and it holds the territorial collection: tapa cloth, tools, canoe models, weapons, material on the naval period and displays on the Samoan matai system. It is small, and the building itself, a low white structure on the harbour front, is part of the interest. The collection also includes material from the Manu'a islands, which is otherwise hard to see without making the flight east.

Background

The building is one of a few still standing that the United States Navy put up in 1917 from locally made rusticated concrete blocks. From 1950 to 1971 it housed the island's main post office, and in 1971 it opened as the museum. The National Register of Historic Places added it in 1972, and the American Association of Museums accredited the museum in 1978. Displays cover tapa making, traditional tattooing and natural history, alongside canoes, kava bowls, coconut-shell combs, pigs' tusk armlets, native pharmacopoeia and historic photographs. An American Samoa flag that Apollo 11 took to the Moon in 1969 is also kept here.

Source: Wikipedia, "Jean P. Haydon Museum"

What to look for

• The 1917 building - the former naval commissary the museum occupies.
• The tapa cloth - the beaten bark textiles in the collection.
• The naval period material - the record of the years of navy administration.
• The cultural displays - the matai system and traditional practice.

When to go

Year round; the museum keeps weekday hours and closes at weekends. An hour covers the collection. It closes on public holidays.

Good to know

The museum is small and closes at weekends, which catches out visitors on short stays. Displays are dated. Hours are irregular.

Nearby

Fagatogo Market is beside it, and Utulei Beach is nearby.

Key facts