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Liliʻuokalani

monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom (1838–1917)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 17, 2026
Entity authorityQ107288 ↗
Source-derived summary

Liliʻuokalani (Hawaiian pronunciation: [liˌliʔuokəˈlɐni]; Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha; September 2, 1838 – November 11, 1917) was the only queen regnant and the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, ruling from January 29, 1891, until the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom on January 17, 1893, in a coup that was led by the Committee of Safety, composed of seven foreign residents (five Americans, one Scotsman, and one German) and six Hawaiian Kingdom subjects of American descent in Honolulu. The composer of "Aloha ʻOe" and numerous other works, she wrote her autobiography Hawaiʻi's Story by Hawaiʻi's Queen (1898) during her imprisonment following the overthrow.

Liliʻuokalani was born in 1838 in Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu. While her natural parents were Analea Keohokālole and Caesar Kapaʻakea, she was hānai (informally adopted) at birth by Abner Pākī and Laura Kōnia and raised with their daughter Bernice Pauahi Bishop. Baptized as a Christian and educated at the Royal School, she and her siblings and cousins were proclaimed eligible for the throne by King Kamehameha III. She was married to American-born John Owen Dominis, who later became the Governor of Oʻahu. The couple had no biological children but adopted several. After the accession of her brother David Kalākaua to the throne in 1874, she and her siblings were given Western-style titles of Prince and Princess. In 1877, after her younger brother Leleiohoku II's death, she was proclaimed heir apparent to the throne. During the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria, she represented her brother as an official envoy to the United Kingdom.

Liliʻuokalani ascended to the throne on January 29, 1891, nine days after her brother's death.

Editorial summary

“Liliʻuokalani” enters the record as monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom (1838–1917). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Liliʻuokalani, monarch and Hawaiian can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1838, 1917, 1891, 1893—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1838-09-02. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Liliʻuokalani, monarch and Hawaiian.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Liliʻuokalani” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Liliʻuokalani, monarch and Hawaiian provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q107288. VIAF identifies the subject as 71552236. The Library of Congress control number is n83043744. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1838, 1917, 1891 and 1893.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Liliʻuokalani”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Liliʻuokalani primary sources, Liliʻuokalani archive and Liliʻuokalani research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Liliʻuokalani”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Liliʻuokalani” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.