Mary Pitman Ailau.

About Mary Pitman Ailau

Mary Ann Kinoʻole Kaʻaumokulani Pitman, later Mary Pitman Ailau, was a high chiefess of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi of part Native Hawaiian and American descent. She was raised and educated in Hilo and Honolulu and served as a maid of honor and lady-in-waiting of Queen Emma, the wife of Kamehameha IV. In 1861, she left for the United States with her family, and she lived for the next twenty years in New England. She visited her distant cousin King Kalākaua during his state visit to the United States in 1875. She returned in 1881 to Hawaiʻi where she married musician John Keakaokalani Ailau, better known as Jack Ailau. In later life, she invested in Hawaiian curio shops selling artifacts of Hawaiiana; many of her collections are preserved in the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum.