Statewide County HI Archives Biographies.....Wilder, James Austin May 27, 1868 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
J. Orr jessicanorr@gmail.com January 19, 2012, 8:06 pm

Source: The Story of Hawaii and Its Builders, Honolulu Star Bulletin, Ltd. Territory of Hawaii, 1925
Author: Edited by George F. Nellist

JAMES AUSTIN WILDER, Artist. An artist, globe-trotter, fellow of the Royal 
Geographical Society, and Boy Scout leader, James A. Wilder of the pioneer 
Wilder family of Honolulu has traveled widely throughout the United States, 
Europe and the Orient. Through his interest in Polynesian life he has spent 
long periods in the various islands of the South Pacific, and has the unique 
distinction of having been pledged a blood brother of King Imang of the Llong 
Patah tribe on the island of Borneo.
  Born in Honolulu, on May 27, 1868, Mr. Wilder is a son of the distinguished 
Samuel Gardner Wilder, founder of the Wilder Steamship Co., which was merged 
with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co., Ltd., and a prime minister under 
King Kalakaua. His mother was Elizabeth Kinau (Judd) Wilder, daughter of the 
late Dr. G. P. Judd, a notable figure in the early history of Hawaii.
  Mr. Wilder attended Punahou and St. Alban’s colleges in Honolulu, was 
privately tutored, and attended Stones’ School in Boston, schools at San Mateo 
and Belmont, California, and Harvard Academic and Law School, from 1893 to 
1895. At this time he began the study of art, and soon determined to abandon 
the law. He later studied under Jean Paul Laurens, Benjamin Constant, Lucien 
Simon and Cottett, all celebrated French painters. When in college he toured 
the United States with the Harvard Glee Club and introduced the first ukulele 
used in public on the mainland.
  Immediately upon leaving college he returned to Honolulu and entered the 
Wilder Steamship Co. as a clerk. Finding no interest in a business career, in 
the spring of 1896 he went to Japan and became sub-editor of a humorous 
magazine, “The Box of Curios.” His next adventure was a year later when he 
became a member of a scientific expedition to the Liu Kiu Islands and Borneo, 
financed by the Smithsonian Institute and the University of Pennsylvania. 
Plants, animals, insects and ethnological specimens were collected and Mr. 
Wilder did some painting.
  Several years later Mr. Wilder made a trip to the southwest Pacific on the 
schooner “Esmeralda,” and remained six months in Guam, supporting himself by 
painting portraits. The Spanish-American war intervened, and he was kept under 
surveillance by the Spanish, suspected of being an American spy, and on one 
occasion was ordered put to death. Returning to Yokohama, he made a full 
report on Guam dealing with arms, ammunition, strength of the natives, and 
other information, which was sent by the American consul-general to the state 
department at Washington, and was used as the basis for later reports that led 
to the seizure of Guam by the United States.
  For the next few years Mr. Wilder studied and lived in Paris and New York, 
where he became interested in the Boy Scout movement and served as special 
field commissioner of the Boy Scouts of America from 1915 to 1917 and became 
chief sea scout of the organization, which title he still retains. During the 
World war he was commandeered as scout assistant and assigned to the New York 
navy yard, where he worked organizing boys of the New England coast. He is 
also the author of the “Pine Tree System of Scouting” and drill book and a 
film picture and play, “Knights of the Square Table.”
  At the conclusion of the war he toured Spain and other European countries 
with his family, and in 1922 returned to Honolulu and re-established his 
studio where he is now engaged in portrait work. He has painted three 
portraits for the University Club in Honolulu, a portrait of the late Prince 
Kuhio, which he presented to the Territory and now hangs in the former throne 
room of the Capitol, and many other fine portraits.
  Mr. Wilder was a corporal, Co. I, Third Battalion, B.M.T.C., Plattsburg, in 
1915, a member of the Training Camps Association from 1915 to 1917, is a 
member of the Pacific, University, Oahu Country and “Quartz Arts” clubs of 
Honolulu; Harvard Club and “The Coffee House” of New York; Harvard Club, 
Boston; Fly Club, Cambridge; Yokohama Club, Japan; Royal Geographical Society 
and Royal Society of Arts and Commerce. He is also a director of the Academy 
of Design in Honolulu.
  In 1899 Mr. Wilder married Sara Harnden in Alameda, Calif., and they have 
two children, James Austin Harnden Wilder, with the Hawaiian Sugar’ Planters’ 
Association, Ltd., and Mrs. Charles B. McVay, wife of Lieutenant Charles B. 
McVay, 3rd, U.S.N.


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