author
Sheldon Dibble
1809–1845
A New York–born missionary in Hawaiʻi, he became one of the earliest writers to gather and preserve Hawaiian history in book form. His work at Lahainaluna helped encourage Hawaiian students to record traditions that might otherwise have been lost.
1 Audiobook
Thoughts on Missions
by Sheldon Dibble
About the author
Born in Skaneateles, New York, in 1809, Sheldon Dibble studied at Hamilton College and later at Auburn Theological Seminary before sailing to Hawaiʻi in 1831 as part of the fourth company of American Protestant missionaries. He spent much of his time at Lahainaluna on Maui, where he taught and wrote.
Dibble is remembered less for missionary work alone than for his role in early Hawaiian historiography. At Lahainaluna, he encouraged students to collect oral traditions and historical accounts, and he drew on that material in his own History of the Sandwich Islands, one of the first substantial histories of Hawaiʻi prepared in the nineteenth century.
He died in 1845 at just 35 years old, but his influence lasted well beyond his short life. Through his teaching and writing, he helped preserve important accounts of Hawaiian culture and history at a moment of rapid change.