Hale Nauā, given the English names "House of Wisdom” and "Temple of Science," was dedicated to preserving traditional Hawaiian knowledge, while also seeking connections to modern Western science.

When the first missionaries arrived in Hawaiʻi from New England in 1820, the literacy rate had been practically zero. The missionaries set out to translate the Bible into Hawaiian and teach the Hawaiians to read it. What began as a means to spread Christianity quickly became a revolution of literacy throughout the Hawaiian Kingdom.