Queen Liliʻuokalani

📍ʻIolani Palace, 364 South King Street, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA

“I was raised in the Hawaiian tradition of hānai, given at birth to be brought up by another chiefly family, and educated with the other royal children at the Royal School in Honolulu, where I learned English, music and the piano. Music became my language: I wrote hundreds of songs, among them Aloha ʻOe. I became queen in 1891, the last monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and lived in ʻIolani Palace, the elegant palace my brother King Kalākaua had built, with electric light before the White House had it. In 1893 American businessmen, backed by United States Marines, overthrew my government. In 1895, after a failed attempt to restore me, I was tried and confined to a single upstairs bedroom of my own palace for eight months, with guards at my door. There, with my companions, I stitched a quilt of velvets and silks embroidered with messages for my people, and composed songs, some smuggled out with hidden meanings and printed in Hawaiian newspapers. After my release I lived at my home, Washington Place, nearby. The room of my imprisonment can still be seen.”

Sources: sfgate.com sfgate.com allclassical.org