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Capturing Kahanamoku: How a Surfing Legend and a Scientific Obsession Redefined Race and Culture
The fascinating untold story of one scientist’s pursuit of a legendary surfer in his quest to define human nature, for fans of
Why Fish Don’t Exist
and
Lost City of Z
.
Deep in the archives of the American Museum of Natural History in New York sits a wardrobe of heads—some fifty plaster casts of human faces a century old. How they came to be is the story of one of the most consequential, and yet least-known, encounters in the history of science.
In 1919, the museum’s then-director Henry Fairfield Osborn traveled to Hawaii for a surfing lesson. His teacher was Duke Kahanamoku, a famous surf-rider and budding movie star. For Osborn, a fervent eugenicist, Kahanamoku was a maddening physically “perfect,” and yet belonging to a notionally “imperfect” race.
Upon his return to New York, Osborn’s fixation grew. He dispatched young scientist Louis Sullivan to Honolulu with an odd task—to measure, photograph, and cast in plaster the Hawaiian people, Kahanamoku in particular. This outlandish assignment touched off a series of events that forever changed how we think about race, culture, science, and the essence of humanity.
In Capturing Kahanamoku, historian Michael Rossi draws on archival research and firsthand interviews to weave together a truly fascinating narrative—at once an absorbing account of obsession, a cautionary tale about the subjectivity of science and the afterlives of eugenics, a meditation on humanity, and the story of a man whose personhood shunned classification.
Deep in the archives of the American Museum of Natural History in New York sits a wardrobe of heads—some fifty plaster casts of human faces a century old. How they came to be is the story of one of the most consequential, and yet least-known, encounters in the history of science.
In 1919, the museum’s then-director Henry Fairfield Osborn traveled to Hawaii for a surfing lesson. His teacher was Duke Kahanamoku, a famous surf-rider and budding movie star. For Osborn, a fervent eugenicist, Kahanamoku was a maddening physically “perfect,” and yet belonging to a notionally “imperfect” race.
Upon his return to New York, Osborn’s fixation grew. He dispatched young scientist Louis Sullivan to Honolulu with an odd task—to measure, photograph, and cast in plaster the Hawaiian people, Kahanamoku in particular. This outlandish assignment touched off a series of events that forever changed how we think about race, culture, science, and the essence of humanity.
In Capturing Kahanamoku, historian Michael Rossi draws on archival research and firsthand interviews to weave together a truly fascinating narrative—at once an absorbing account of obsession, a cautionary tale about the subjectivity of science and the afterlives of eugenics, a meditation on humanity, and the story of a man whose personhood shunned classification.
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Published October 21, 2025
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About the author
Michael Rossi
38 books83 followersMichael Rossi's new memoir, Off The Reservation: Stories I Almost Took to the Grave and Probably Should Have, is his debut book. Equal parts moving and shocking, these stranger than fiction stories are an honest account of an incredible life--not an incredibly good life, but an extremely unlikely one, and at times an utterly disastrous existence. Michael is the father of two wonderful children, and currently lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his girlfriend and her animals.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 22, 2025
This is disgusting… me he mea la aohe kanaka hawaiʻi e heluhelu ana ai… It’s actually a biography if white men slobbering over Hawaiians. Totally demeaning and objectifying.
August 15, 2025
Well written but much less Duke/surf history than I expected. Still plenty thrilling!
October 7, 2025
This book is probably the most painless way a reader can learn about eugenics. That’s because only parts of it is on that topic. The rest is on the history of Hawaii, surfing, swimming, beach boys and Duke Kahanamoku. Author Michael Rossi does an excellent job of interweaving the two main topics, so readers preferring one topic over the other will likely not feel the book is bogging down at any point.
Let’s get eugenics out of the way first, though. The way author Mr. Rossi covers it may not be like some would wish. He doesn’t concentrate on the horrors of practices like forced sterilization that were conducted in the United States, but instead focuses more on those who supported it, and on why they supported it. There’s also plenty of anthropology thrown in, such as how casts were made of the faces of those belonging to different cultures, and how the cast of David Kahanamoku’s body was made.
It was when the Nazis started showing great interest in the eugenics movement in the United States that eugenic beliefs started biting the dust. How horrible what the Germans were doing! What sort of people would believe and support the practice of such things? Eventually, eugenics was seen as nothing but a pseudoscience that never should have been seriously studied in the first place. It disregarded the importance of culturalization and the existence of individuality. Moreover, it was actually rooted in mysticism!
Moving right along . . . this book was a fun, educational read about Hawaii and surfing. Lots of Hawaiian history in general is provided, as well as surfing history. Surfing was originally a well-embraced activity by both men and women. After the missionaries arrived, though, it would sadly become mostly a men’s sport. With the constant arrival of tourists during the 1900, many Hawaiian men soon became part-time or full-time beach boys. The beach boys taught the tourists about surfing and swimming, as well as entertained and educated them in other Hawaiian ways. Both Mark Twain and Jack London tried surfing when visiting Hawaii.
The most famous beach boy and surfer was Duke Kahanamoku, a native Hawaiian who would also go on to win five Olympic medals in swimming. Only when Johnny Weissmuller came along did his glory days of competitive swimming end. Mr. Kahanamoku caught the attention of those preaching eugenics early on due to his powerful body and Hawaiian bloodline. They wanted to do a full-body cast of him, but he wasn’t available at the time, so his brother David took his place. Unfortunately for David Kahanamoku, the plaster was put on and then everyone went for a long lunch, leaving him in increasing physical distress. He survived, but his brother refused to have a cast made after that incident.
When his Olympic swimming days were over, Duke Kahanamoku would go on to give swimming and surfing exhibitions in various countries, making his name synonymous with surfing. He was even in some Hollywood movies, but always returned to Hawaii, the place of his birth and death. While a full-body cast could have captured his magnificent body, it would not have captured his personality, morality, spirit and soul. All so much more important than the shell encasing those things.
(Note: I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher or author.)
Let’s get eugenics out of the way first, though. The way author Mr. Rossi covers it may not be like some would wish. He doesn’t concentrate on the horrors of practices like forced sterilization that were conducted in the United States, but instead focuses more on those who supported it, and on why they supported it. There’s also plenty of anthropology thrown in, such as how casts were made of the faces of those belonging to different cultures, and how the cast of David Kahanamoku’s body was made.
It was when the Nazis started showing great interest in the eugenics movement in the United States that eugenic beliefs started biting the dust. How horrible what the Germans were doing! What sort of people would believe and support the practice of such things? Eventually, eugenics was seen as nothing but a pseudoscience that never should have been seriously studied in the first place. It disregarded the importance of culturalization and the existence of individuality. Moreover, it was actually rooted in mysticism!
Moving right along . . . this book was a fun, educational read about Hawaii and surfing. Lots of Hawaiian history in general is provided, as well as surfing history. Surfing was originally a well-embraced activity by both men and women. After the missionaries arrived, though, it would sadly become mostly a men’s sport. With the constant arrival of tourists during the 1900, many Hawaiian men soon became part-time or full-time beach boys. The beach boys taught the tourists about surfing and swimming, as well as entertained and educated them in other Hawaiian ways. Both Mark Twain and Jack London tried surfing when visiting Hawaii.
The most famous beach boy and surfer was Duke Kahanamoku, a native Hawaiian who would also go on to win five Olympic medals in swimming. Only when Johnny Weissmuller came along did his glory days of competitive swimming end. Mr. Kahanamoku caught the attention of those preaching eugenics early on due to his powerful body and Hawaiian bloodline. They wanted to do a full-body cast of him, but he wasn’t available at the time, so his brother David took his place. Unfortunately for David Kahanamoku, the plaster was put on and then everyone went for a long lunch, leaving him in increasing physical distress. He survived, but his brother refused to have a cast made after that incident.
When his Olympic swimming days were over, Duke Kahanamoku would go on to give swimming and surfing exhibitions in various countries, making his name synonymous with surfing. He was even in some Hollywood movies, but always returned to Hawaii, the place of his birth and death. While a full-body cast could have captured his magnificent body, it would not have captured his personality, morality, spirit and soul. All so much more important than the shell encasing those things.
(Note: I received a free ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher or author.)
January 16, 2026
I've been fascinated by the story of Duke Kahanamoku since I first visited Hawaii decades ago. He and his brother David were both champion surfers, and the originators of surf culture. Duke was slso a U.S.Olympic swimming champion in both 1920 and 1924.
This book follows their lives as they crossed paths with eugenicists Henry Osborn and his protégé Louis Sullivan, and their quest to capture "racial types," especially of "pure Hawaiians." It disgusts me that eugenics ever passed as science, because it not. It's racism cloaked in political fervor, and it only fell out of favor in the mid 20th century because the Nazis used it to justify their atrocities.
I'm disheartened that, as a culture, we still focus on race instead of social determinate to push down and "other" marginalized groups.
If you liked The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Barbarian Days, you'll love this book as much as I did. I'm also grateful that there was not one mention of Doris Duke in the book either.
This book follows their lives as they crossed paths with eugenicists Henry Osborn and his protégé Louis Sullivan, and their quest to capture "racial types," especially of "pure Hawaiians." It disgusts me that eugenics ever passed as science, because it not. It's racism cloaked in political fervor, and it only fell out of favor in the mid 20th century because the Nazis used it to justify their atrocities.
I'm disheartened that, as a culture, we still focus on race instead of social determinate to push down and "other" marginalized groups.
If you liked The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Barbarian Days, you'll love this book as much as I did. I'm also grateful that there was not one mention of Doris Duke in the book either.
April 25, 2026
This book has 2 stories, that of the eugenics movement and that of Duke Kahanamoku. The writer, Micheal Rossi, shows how these stories intersect.
Were I not so interested in reading about Duke, I would have put it down in the first 70 pages when he is only mentioned. These pages cover the eugenics movement, how strong it was and how its adherents and activists were placed in high places in government, academics and museums in many countries.
Key people in the eugenics movement were introduced.
• Louis L. Sullivan - a researcher who calls himself an “anthropomentrist” for his work in measuring physical features. His goal was to use his findings (p.8) “to promote better, stronger, and smarter humans ”.
• Henry Fairfield Osborn who was president of the American Museum used this institution to (p.10) “to improve the health and morals, first by preventing or diminishing immoral or unhealthy members of our population…”
Both Osborn and Sullivan believed that the physical characteristics (primarily facial) had some link to deeper racial characteristics that when analyzed would reveal the superiority of the white race. Once this was demonstrated and widely understood, it would lead to genetic improvement of future generations.
They agreed that Hawaii would be the best laboratory for their research. They said it was the multicultural (by this they meant many races; their research had very little to do with culture) population and (in 1920) they could see “natural” culture adjusting to “civilization”. Unsaid, was that it in Hawaii they could study non-white races in a place with white people in charge.
At this time, Duke Kahanamoku was dazzling the world with his Olympic performances. Osborn and Sullivan became obsessed with the handsome and athletic Kahanamoku brothers whom they considered to be perfectly formed as specimens - (p. 31) “akin to living fossils, like living versions of petrified bones.”
After reading about Osborn and Sullivan, I was glad to get to the pages on Duke and the Kahamoku family. This book had more than I knew or had read about them before. It showed how Duke was critical in developing the “beach boy” culture and profession, and the popularity of surfing.
There is quite a bit on the racism of competitive swimming at the time (challenges to Duke’s timing, and the need to “perfect” his techniques- when it was he that could teach them, etc.) Later in the book there is a lot on Duke’s heroism and his post-Olympic careers in Hollywood, PR for Hawaii and in law enforcement.
Back to Sullivan. I had to check myself from laughing out loud and remind myself of the serious ramifications of his thinking and research techniques. You watch him traveling around Hawaii measuring people. He went to churches, retirement homes, social clubs, plantations, schools, businesses, etc. where he could measure many people at one time.
To recruit volunteers he had to explain what he has doing any why. It was hard to explain. Subjects, presumably, accepted it would improve the human race if he could take their measurements. These are some or the measurements he took:
• Distance between the eyes
• Space between the lip and the nose
• Length between nose and knees
• Measures of waist and shoulders…. And more.
He managed to measure over 1000 people. For some there were photographs and blood samples and others, a plaster cast of the face, and others, a full body cast.
There is something homoerotic about Sullivan’s measuring, but Rossi does not develop this. His only hint is a chapter title: “A Passion for Measuring Naked Men”.
Sullivan saw Duke, with his athletic build, as the perfect specimen. You read of his efforts to recruit and measure him. The closest he comes to this is taking a full body cast of Duke’s brother, David, but due to Sullivan’s own arrogance (leaving David alone with this painful and oxygen restrictive cast) Sullivan strikes out with the Kahanamoku family.
A chapter on a Eugenics Congress in NYC in 1921 inspired more laughs from the descriptions of the exhibits including Sullivan's face and body casts and the papers linking random facts to race. There were not at all funny political proposals, such as sterilization, and/or euthanasia of the unfit. Attendees included Alexander Graham Bell, the son of Charles Darwin and others not as well known in history.
In the 1930’s a larger conference in the Field Museum of Chicago featured bronzed statues of “The Races of Mankind”. These, by Melvina Hoffman, showed something of the lives of the subjects. The one of David Kahanamoku, derived from Sullivan's cast. representing Polynesians, featured him in the barrel of a wave.
A chapter with the title “The Discovery of Nothing” covers the yield of the research and conferences.The eugenicists never explained how the collections of data could show anything about the person. Sullivan’s pages and pages of data, along with the work of others were never tabulated. What finally ended the eugenics movement (besides the natural retirement and/or death of its leaders) was Nazi Germany’s demonstration of the ultimate result the eugenicist's world view.
A few caveats.
• I was surprised and disappointed in the Bishop Museum’s cooperation with Sullivan.
• The most recent census reports less than 1% of the Hawaii's population is of 100% Hawaiian blood. Sullivan, in the 1920’s, had trouble finding full Hawaiians for his study, so this is not a new phenomenon.
• Rossi presents evidence that the missionaries tried to ban surfing (along with the more famous and effective hula ban) which they deemed erotic.
• Loren Thurston, a descendant of missionaries, best known for the revolution that gave the Kingdom of Hawaii to the US, wrote an editorial denigrating Duke. Its premise was (unsurprisingly) racist.
If you are interested in the Kahanamuku family, while they are less than 1/3 of the text, you might want to read this book. It is a good summary and description of then and of Hawaii in their lifetime.
If you are interested the eugenics movement, this is a good place to start. There is more information on the political power of the eugenics movement in US in The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America.
The book is well written and while the material can be complex, it is easy to follow. There are notes in the documentation. There are b & w photos to introduce each chapter. There is no index.
Were I not so interested in reading about Duke, I would have put it down in the first 70 pages when he is only mentioned. These pages cover the eugenics movement, how strong it was and how its adherents and activists were placed in high places in government, academics and museums in many countries.
Key people in the eugenics movement were introduced.
• Louis L. Sullivan - a researcher who calls himself an “anthropomentrist” for his work in measuring physical features. His goal was to use his findings (p.8) “to promote better, stronger, and smarter humans ”.
• Henry Fairfield Osborn who was president of the American Museum used this institution to (p.10) “to improve the health and morals, first by preventing or diminishing immoral or unhealthy members of our population…”
Both Osborn and Sullivan believed that the physical characteristics (primarily facial) had some link to deeper racial characteristics that when analyzed would reveal the superiority of the white race. Once this was demonstrated and widely understood, it would lead to genetic improvement of future generations.
They agreed that Hawaii would be the best laboratory for their research. They said it was the multicultural (by this they meant many races; their research had very little to do with culture) population and (in 1920) they could see “natural” culture adjusting to “civilization”. Unsaid, was that it in Hawaii they could study non-white races in a place with white people in charge.
At this time, Duke Kahanamoku was dazzling the world with his Olympic performances. Osborn and Sullivan became obsessed with the handsome and athletic Kahanamoku brothers whom they considered to be perfectly formed as specimens - (p. 31) “akin to living fossils, like living versions of petrified bones.”
After reading about Osborn and Sullivan, I was glad to get to the pages on Duke and the Kahamoku family. This book had more than I knew or had read about them before. It showed how Duke was critical in developing the “beach boy” culture and profession, and the popularity of surfing.
There is quite a bit on the racism of competitive swimming at the time (challenges to Duke’s timing, and the need to “perfect” his techniques- when it was he that could teach them, etc.) Later in the book there is a lot on Duke’s heroism and his post-Olympic careers in Hollywood, PR for Hawaii and in law enforcement.
Back to Sullivan. I had to check myself from laughing out loud and remind myself of the serious ramifications of his thinking and research techniques. You watch him traveling around Hawaii measuring people. He went to churches, retirement homes, social clubs, plantations, schools, businesses, etc. where he could measure many people at one time.
To recruit volunteers he had to explain what he has doing any why. It was hard to explain. Subjects, presumably, accepted it would improve the human race if he could take their measurements. These are some or the measurements he took:
• Distance between the eyes
• Space between the lip and the nose
• Length between nose and knees
• Measures of waist and shoulders…. And more.
He managed to measure over 1000 people. For some there were photographs and blood samples and others, a plaster cast of the face, and others, a full body cast.
There is something homoerotic about Sullivan’s measuring, but Rossi does not develop this. His only hint is a chapter title: “A Passion for Measuring Naked Men”.
Sullivan saw Duke, with his athletic build, as the perfect specimen. You read of his efforts to recruit and measure him. The closest he comes to this is taking a full body cast of Duke’s brother, David, but due to Sullivan’s own arrogance (leaving David alone with this painful and oxygen restrictive cast) Sullivan strikes out with the Kahanamoku family.
A chapter on a Eugenics Congress in NYC in 1921 inspired more laughs from the descriptions of the exhibits including Sullivan's face and body casts and the papers linking random facts to race. There were not at all funny political proposals, such as sterilization, and/or euthanasia of the unfit. Attendees included Alexander Graham Bell, the son of Charles Darwin and others not as well known in history.
In the 1930’s a larger conference in the Field Museum of Chicago featured bronzed statues of “The Races of Mankind”. These, by Melvina Hoffman, showed something of the lives of the subjects. The one of David Kahanamoku, derived from Sullivan's cast. representing Polynesians, featured him in the barrel of a wave.
A chapter with the title “The Discovery of Nothing” covers the yield of the research and conferences.The eugenicists never explained how the collections of data could show anything about the person. Sullivan’s pages and pages of data, along with the work of others were never tabulated. What finally ended the eugenics movement (besides the natural retirement and/or death of its leaders) was Nazi Germany’s demonstration of the ultimate result the eugenicist's world view.
A few caveats.
• I was surprised and disappointed in the Bishop Museum’s cooperation with Sullivan.
• The most recent census reports less than 1% of the Hawaii's population is of 100% Hawaiian blood. Sullivan, in the 1920’s, had trouble finding full Hawaiians for his study, so this is not a new phenomenon.
• Rossi presents evidence that the missionaries tried to ban surfing (along with the more famous and effective hula ban) which they deemed erotic.
• Loren Thurston, a descendant of missionaries, best known for the revolution that gave the Kingdom of Hawaii to the US, wrote an editorial denigrating Duke. Its premise was (unsurprisingly) racist.
If you are interested in the Kahanamuku family, while they are less than 1/3 of the text, you might want to read this book. It is a good summary and description of then and of Hawaii in their lifetime.
If you are interested the eugenics movement, this is a good place to start. There is more information on the political power of the eugenics movement in US in The Guarded Gate: Bigotry, Eugenics and the Law That Kept Two Generations of Jews, Italians, and Other European Immigrants Out of America.
The book is well written and while the material can be complex, it is easy to follow. There are notes in the documentation. There are b & w photos to introduce each chapter. There is no index.
Did Not Finish
April 12, 20264.10.2026
DNF@26%
Kindle/NetGalley ARC
Scribd Audiobook
Nonfiction/Biography/History/Science
Thank you to NetGalley, Michael Rossi and HarperOne for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
DNF@26%
Kindle/NetGalley ARC
Scribd Audiobook
Nonfiction/Biography/History/Science
Thank you to NetGalley, Michael Rossi and HarperOne for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
October 6, 2025
Sometimes an author finds the perfect lens to illuminate a major concept, and this is one of those books. Duke Kahanamoku is a legend in his own right and his story really deserves to be more widely known, but he and his brother David were also sought out by eugenicists to prove their theories and Rossi uses their fascinating lives to explain how that period of American and social science history unfurled. In the current moment, when we're being absolutely haunted by the poltergeist that was born of the eugenicist era, this is an especially important book.
It was a bit disconcerting to have a native Hawaiian narrator for a book written by a haole scientist, but Kaleo Griffith is a fantastic narrator.
Thank you to NetGalley for the audioARC.
It was a bit disconcerting to have a native Hawaiian narrator for a book written by a haole scientist, but Kaleo Griffith is a fantastic narrator.
Thank you to NetGalley for the audioARC.
August 30, 2025
When I received this book, I was expecting a different kind of book but overall this was an interesting book. A great look at the way that the white society viewed the other and how the science of the time viewed bodies and humanity. Although there wasn’t as much Duke or surfing, found the history bits in Hawaii or eugenics and other science fields interesting. Overall good books!
I received a free advanced copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received a free advanced copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
November 7, 2025
Fun story about the eugenic history. Was mostly interested because of the premist that the surfing history was interwoven with the book.
January 10, 2026
Read only 57 percent. I got another long awaited book from the library. Loved the history & info about Hawaii, but I can’t stomach any more about eugenics.
Went back & finished out of sheer stubbornness.
Went back & finished out of sheer stubbornness.
April 19, 2026
Review:
I thought this was going to be a book about surfing, it was not. I kept waiting for the story to explain how the eugenic racist scientists came to terms with Duke Kahanamoku being the ideal human specimen, but I don't think it ever got there.
Tropes:
-Hawaii
-Scientists
I thought this was going to be a book about surfing, it was not. I kept waiting for the story to explain how the eugenic racist scientists came to terms with Duke Kahanamoku being the ideal human specimen, but I don't think it ever got there.
Tropes:
-Hawaii
-Scientists
December 30, 2025
I was really interested at what I thought was the premise of this book, which is how in the world did white eugenicists latch on to non-white Duke Kahanamoku and his brothers, godlike as they were, as an example of the human ideal? How did white supremacy align with the "scientific obsession" for these Polynesian men?
As lengthy as this book was, I didn't get a robust answer. I understand that the Kahanamokus were seen as a magnificent example of "pure race" humans, and their very existence compared to Hawaiians who were of mixed Polynesian heritage was showcased as a type of warning bell to other cultures about the "inferior" offspring that "blood mixing" would produce. But, as other reviewers noted, this wasn't a very deep dive into eugenics. There's no mention of whether eugenicists found (or looked for) superlative types in other non-white races, and the very direct question of how white supremacists, truly, could have genuinely idealized a non-white race or culture was not addressed. It seems like this book has one foot in Hawaiian surf history, and one in eugenics, but goes only knee-deep in both of them.
(Another thing I didn't like is this book doesn't have an index, and the footnotes are super brief to the point of being unhelpful.)
As lengthy as this book was, I didn't get a robust answer. I understand that the Kahanamokus were seen as a magnificent example of "pure race" humans, and their very existence compared to Hawaiians who were of mixed Polynesian heritage was showcased as a type of warning bell to other cultures about the "inferior" offspring that "blood mixing" would produce. But, as other reviewers noted, this wasn't a very deep dive into eugenics. There's no mention of whether eugenicists found (or looked for) superlative types in other non-white races, and the very direct question of how white supremacists, truly, could have genuinely idealized a non-white race or culture was not addressed. It seems like this book has one foot in Hawaiian surf history, and one in eugenics, but goes only knee-deep in both of them.
(Another thing I didn't like is this book doesn't have an index, and the footnotes are super brief to the point of being unhelpful.)
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews