Wender·Vista
Howland Island
shown on ceramic, 12-inch tileUnited States
in the central Pacific, just north of the equator

Howland Island

— — the island that was waiting for her in 1937.

— Where it lives

Not only on a wall.

A small tile on the nightstand catching the morning. A larger one above the fire. Yours, wherever you spend the slow hours.
— On the nightstand, a 6-inch on a walnut stand
— Among the books, a 6-inch leaning into the spines
— Beside the kettle, a 12-inch propped
— Down a quiet hall, an 18-inch floating off the wall
— Above the fire, the 24-inch in a walnut surround
— a note from the studio

“A coral island the size of a large farm, in the central Pacific just north of the equator, more than 1,600 miles southwest of Honolulu. The lighthouse on its western end was built in 1937 for an aircraft that never arrived. Seabirds own it now. Visits require a special-use permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

from the studio
Howland Island
— bring it home

Howland Island, on ceramic.

Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.

What kind of piece?
One tile — square or rectangle.
How big?
the popular one — counter, shelf, nightstand
6 × 6 in · 15 cm · 1.6 lb
Surface finish
A clear glossy finish — the artwork reads as if under resin. Ideal for show-pieces and framed wall art.
How it sits
A hidden cleat — sits ¼″ proud of the wall.
$58
Hand-finished and shipped from our studio at the foot of the Smokies. On your wall in about ten days.
— size
6 × 6 in
15 cm
— weighs
1.6 lb
solid in the hand
— surface
ceramic, hand-finished
art rests beneath a thin glossy finish
— from
Knoxville, TN
our family studio, at the foot of the Smokies
— start a Coaster Set

Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.

— about Howland Island

The place, in three passes.

A little of what's known, in case you fall down the rabbit hole — or want to go see it yourself.
— the place

Howland Island is a small, uninhabited coral island in the central Pacific, about 1,650 miles southwest of Honolulu and just north of the equator at roughly 0.81°N, 176.62°W. It is around 1.6 square miles in area and rises only a few metres above sea level. The island is part of the United States Minor Outlying Islands and has been a National Wildlife Refuge since 1974, today managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service within the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. The nearest neighbour is Baker Island, about 43 miles southeast.

— the silence

There is no permanent population on Howland, no operating airstrip, no harbour. Access is restricted to occasional U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ships and a small handful of permitted research visits a year. The reef around the island holds large numbers of grey reef sharks, jacks, and trevally, and the land itself is a nesting site for sooty terns, brown noddies, frigatebirds, and red-tailed tropicbirds in their tens of thousands. The runway built for Amelia Earhart's planned 1937 landing has long since reverted to grass and crab burrows.

— the visit

Howland is closed to general visitors. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issues only a small number of special-use permits each year, typically for scientific work tied to the National Wildlife Refuge. There is no scheduled transport to the island. Howland carries Earhart Light, a navigation beacon built in 1937 ahead of Amelia Earhart's planned landing on her round-the-world attempt; she never arrived, and the search that followed remains one of the largest air-and-sea searches in U.S. Navy history.

— where
United States · Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument
— within
Howland Island National Wildlife Refuge
— elevation
3 m · 10 ft
— position
0.8073° N · 176.6175° W
— the neighborhood

What's nearby.

A handful of named places within an hour's walk or short drive. Some we've already painted; some we will.
69 km SE
Baker Island
uninhabited coral island
720 km E
Jarvis Island
uninhabited coral island
1 km W
Earhart Light
navigation beacon
N
Howland Island
Baker Island
Jarvis Island
Earhart Light
— common questions

What people ask.

A few questions we get about Howland Island — and about bringing the piece home.
— about the place

In the central Pacific Ocean, just north of the equator at roughly 0.81°N, 176.62°W. It lies about 1,650 miles southwest of Honolulu and 43 miles northwest of Baker Island.

It was the destination Amelia Earhart was trying to reach when her Lockheed Electra disappeared on July 2, 1937. A runway and a lighthouse had been prepared on the island ahead of her landing.

Not without a special-use permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and there is no scheduled transport. The island is a closed National Wildlife Refuge inside the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

The United States. Howland is an unincorporated, unorganized U.S. territory administered by the Department of the Interior as part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

Seabirds, mostly. Sooty terns, brown noddies, frigatebirds, and red-tailed tropicbirds nest there in large numbers. The surrounding reef holds grey reef sharks, jacks, and trevally in waters that see almost no human pressure.

— about the piece in your home

It carries well for an Earhart reader or an aviation collector. The island was the destination of her last flight, and the piece keeps it as a place rather than a footnote. A Small reads cleanly on a study shelf.

The pale coral whites and deep ocean teals read well in Coastal-Modern, Library Modernist, and Pacific-Tropical rooms. The piece anchors a wall above a writing desk or a leather reading chair.

A single Large carries a six-foot sofa or a console; a 4-tile Mural opens the reef along a longer wall; a 9-tile Mural sets the whole atoll at scale, well suited to an entry hall or a stairwell.

Yes. For those rooms order the Dura Satin or Matte finish. The colour is slowly infused into the ceramic surface and lives in the body of the tile, so it handles splashes, steam, and salt air.

Yes. Every WenderVista piece is painted in our studio in Knoxville, Tennessee, in our stained-glass and alcohol-ink visual language. Nothing is licensed in. Reid chooses each place that enters the atlas.

— if this one stayed with you

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