(cloth made from tree bark).
John Webber (1751-1793) was an expedition artist noted for his images of early Alaska and Hawaii, which he created while serving as official artist on Captain James Cook’s exploration of the Northwest and the Pacific. On this voyage, where Cook lost his life in a fight in Hawaii, Webber became the first European artist to make contact with Hawaii, then called the Sandwich Islands. He did numerous watercolor landscape sketches of Kauai and the Big Island of Hawaii and also showed many of the Hawaiian people and their activities. About Cook’s Voyages: Captain Cook’s 1776–1780 Expedition consisted of two ships, the Resolution and the Discovery and 182 men. the bark of the paper mulberry tree. Tapa or Kapa cloth is and was made from the bark of the paper mulberry tree, and was used in the Pacific islands. The process of making kapa was done primarily by women. Young girls would learn by helping their mothers, over time doing the majority of the work, and when older could make kapa by themselves. Colors were taken from native barks, leaves and roots.