ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the photograph, Scene in Hassinger Garden. It reflects on research methods to explore connections between my day-to-day existence in Hilo and how research is done here. The chapter emphasizes upon autoethnography to examine the significance of this reflection. Subaltern autoethnography is when marginalized subjects insert themselves into the discursive spaces of the dominant, such as texts and photographs, and in idioms that may not be their own but to which they have access. DeLyser's (2015) work on archival autoethnography brings autoethnography into dialogue with historical research. The Lyman Museum is named for David and Sarah Lyman, Hawai'i Island's first American missionaries. Postcolonial researchers often look to archival sources for instances in which those who are excluded from the written record may make their presences known in instances of resistance to colonial control. Within the Lyman Museum archive's folders and scrapbooks there is a tension between unity and haphazardness, public records and intimate documents.
