HONOLULU -- The Bishop Museum on Thursday said it hopes to bring back a voice from Hawaii's royalty.

There is a chance the only known audio recording of King David Kalakaua can be brought to life more than 100 years after his death.

A recording of his voice is on an old and fragile wax cylinder.

Four days after recording the short but historic message in San Francisco in 1871, Kalakaua died.

Thanks to new technology and donation of cash and services, efforts are underway to find a way to retrieve the recording.

Help from Hawaiian Airlines and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory may make that happen.

A laser scan will create a visual imprint of what is left of the recording. With some enhancement, the voice of royalty may reach out from the past.

"Nothing needs to touch that very delicate surface that picture of the groves of the cylinder, and hopefully can be transferred into audio. So, we hope we can once again hear King Kalakaua speaking to us," said DeSoto Brown of the Bishop Museum.

The museum received the historic recording in 1918 by James Pratt, who at the time was the only person in the islands who had a Gramophone to play it. At the time, Pratt said the audio was very weak and distant.

Brown is cautious about the old and fragile artifact. He does not want to raise the public's hopes and then have them dashed because there is a chance the cylinder is too old.

"It could go either way, but I'm very hopeful. Let's it put it that way. But, I think the possibility is good that we could get something," Brown said.

Kalakaua was known to love modern technology, installing a telephone and electricity at Iolani Palace.