"They were seven daughters of missionaries who grew up in Hawai'i and all spoke Hawaiian," said Maguire, who sits on the organization's board of regents. "They felt their adopted culture had disintegrated and they wanted to protect it."

Physical evidence of their success is found in the properties the Daughters maintain: the idyllic summer palace and, on the Big Island, both the Keauhou birthplace of King Kamehameha III and the seaside Hulihe'e Palace, the Kailua royal residence once enjoyed by King Kalakaua and his family.

Some of the Daughters of Hawai'i at the Queen Emma Summer Palace, from left: Leinani Bortles, Amber Smith, Aloha Gellert, Kalehuanani Kaho'ano, Leilani Maguire and Leiana Woodside. Photos by Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Leilani Maguire, left, and Leinani Bortles chat at the Queen Emma Summer Palace, which their Daughters of Hawai'i helped save.

After saving the Queen Emma Summer Palace from destruction in 1915, the Daughters of Hawai'i gradually refurnished it in royal style.

The organization boasts 1,200 members worldwide, but Daughters' gatherings tend to be sedate affairs, such as teas held at sites throughout the Islands, said Leinani Bortles, administrator at the summer palace.

And although many people assume the members are all descendants of missionaries, about half are Native Hawaiian, said Bortles, herself of Hawaiian descent. There is no ethnic requirement to join: By tradition, membership is restricted only to women who descend from someone living in the Islands before 1880.

Beyond the core membership of ultra-kama'aina, the Daughters have auxiliary Calabash Cousins, men and more recent arrivals of both genders.

It's easy to catch the spirit of cultural renaissance today, Bortles said, but in their early days the Daughters moved by baby steps. The first monument of sorts was a small plaque they installed at Nu'uanu Pali to commemorate the site of Kamehameha's historic kingdom-forging battle.

It was only 10 years later, in 1915, that the Daughters rallied to save the summer palace, then under territorial control and on the verge of being razed for a baseball field. Similarly, it took a campaign by the organization in 1927 to stop the demolition of Hulihe'e.

At their points of salvation, both palaces were in need of restoration, and many of their furnishings had scattered in auctions. Over the years, the Daughters have acquired artifacts and personal items to re-create the look of the royal residences.

The ground floor of the summer palace is a bittersweet collection of family keepsakes that include Queen Emma's piano, which visitors are allowed to play ("It keeps the music alive," Bortles said); the cradle and bathtub of Prince Albert Edward, whose tragic illness and death at age 4 lend sadness to his cherubic portrait in the foyer. Opposite is a framed portrait of King Kamehameha IV, the husband Emma lost a little more than a year after her son's death.

Learning of this crushing bereavement gives visitors a context for viewing the furnishing of the house, Bortles said. Beds were moved to the front room because Emma, in her solitude, wanted to be closer to the household servants.

The Daughters of Hawai'i maintains the palaces through foundation grants and admission fees, as well as gift shop and publication sales. Keeping the antique furnishings presentable is a challenge, Bortles said: The lauhala matting carpeting the floor is in constant need of repair, and few are schooled enough in weaving to handle the job.

"The beauty of these homes is their openness. At 'Iolani Palace, it's closed in, and that helps with preservation. But what we want to present is more of a home, the real living environment of the royal family," Bortles said.

The summer palace was as enticing a setting in the queen's day as it is now, Maguire said.

"You can tell that it's cooler here than in town," she said. "Nothing was paved, and there were horses everywhere. It was dusty. Reckless horseback riding was a major crime in those days — mayhem! This is a retreat."

O'ahu members feel a special bond to the summer palace, Bortles said, whereas on Hawai'i Hulihe'e provides a natural anchor. But it's the broad commitment to honoring history that keeps the Daughters together, on the remaining islands and elsewhere, where there is no palace to call home.

"It doesn't matter to people where they are," Bortles added. "It's a heritage, and it goes daughter to daughter.

"A lot of us are daughters of Daughters," she noted, pointing to Maguire. "Her mother and her daughter are both members!"

"I dragged them all in," Maguire acknowledged. "My daughter was 9 months old when she joined."

She laughed, fingering her feather choker. "She tried to eat the lei."