Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all....

We had three ships in port in Grand Turk today with over 80 people through the museum on tours and museum visits. A very interesting group as well: a retired Italian journalist, a retired conservative protestant minister, a retired anthropologist, and a retired couple who had met on a previous cruise to Alaska...all provided lively conversation as they were very interested in specifics about the museum and life on Grand Turk. I have always wondered who takes a cruise over Christmas week. Retired people!

We had a great day, though with limited staff because of the holidays we worked hard. Now we are off to celebrate our Christmas...and to all a good night.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Busy Day at the Guinep House

Christmas week is a busy week on Grand Turk. There are nine ships in this week.

Yesterday, was a trial day. We had four ship tours through the building. Two tours were here at the same time! It also rained all day. We were determined that everyone who came to the museum would think that this was the best stop on their cruise. Lina carried the day and I think that the hundred plus visitors who came through the museum had a great time.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

U.S. Navy Seabee on our shores again

Bob and Janet stopped by the museum on our Historic Homes and Museum tour yesterday. Robert had been stationed on Grand Turk during the summer of 1959 with the SeaBees along with 300 other young men of MCB7 who came to build North Base.

After their scheduled tour, we took an unscheduled tour up to the base and looked around. When Bob was here, they were just building the water catchment and first barracks, so it looks very different today. But he had many stories as the memories returned.

For the museum his visit could not have been more timely. We were just talking about where one would begin research on the construction of the bases...evidently with the U.S. Navy Seabees. Thank you very much and we hope you enjoyed your tour.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Liked it so much we became a member!

This week Ken and Francie stopped the museum . They enjoyed themselves so much that they became $100 members. Ken had worked on the salvage of a salt schooner recovered off of Martha's Vineyard in the early 1990s. Evidently, the captain had died while loading salt in Grand Turk and the crew tried to get the vessel home, unsuccessfully.

Donations such as this are very important to the museum. One of the things we are working on right now is trying to match a matching grant of $10,000 toward the development of museum programs on Providenciales. We have an ongoing campaign at the end of this year to raise $1000 memberships to meet the match. we are half way there. If you have not become a member - please do so quick!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Britian's Favorite Cruising Holiday

P&O Cruises make Grand Turk a port of call on several ships. In the last week the Ventura and the Artemis have been on Grand Turk. The latest ship we had in is from Barbados. Brits fly in from London, get on board, and spend 14 days in the sun, which does not shine in England November through March.


The National Museum has received over 100 visitors from these two ships. The British are very interested in the colonial history of the islands and also about our fabulous weather here!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

The Museum Now Takes Cache

This week, Bob Pratt and several "cruising cashers" came to the museum off of the Carnival Liberty. They were on a special cruise where they are completing a series of geocaching activities throughout the Bahamas. They also left a cache here. So now if you are ever geocaching near Grand Turk please stop by the Geocaching USA website and find our information. And Thank you very much to Bob for the nice write up!

See Turks and Caicos National Museum at GeocachingUSA.com

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Museum Day a Great Success


The National Museum would like to thank everyone who came out to the Museum Day presentation last night. Museum Day is the annual celebration of the founding of the museum in 1991. It was a great evening and we heard from at least one person that it was the "best event" they had ever attended here.

On Sunday, the original day that we were doing the adult program, it rained so hard that we had to postpone the program until Tuesday. But it turned out great.

I would like to especially thank Alessio for putting together a few musicians to jam afterward, and to Mitch for bringing the "rock." The band playing had fun and I think the people who staid around really enjoyed themselves.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

VIV Tour

Some Very Interested Visitors stopped by the museum on Friday off of the Emerald Princess

Will and his fiancee, Joanne, came by the museum for a behind the scene tour. Will works with non-for-profits in the Los Angeles area and had come across the museum website while searching for things to do on their cruise. He contacted the museum to say he was very interested in what we were doing and wanted a closer look. Lucky for them, we were just completing the research on the Ft George buttons and they were intrigued by the clues that could be seen under the microscope. Will pointed out that he thinks the belt wrapping the RI in the Royal Irish button is a heraldry symbol used by infantry. It is possibly the symbol for brotherhood. Something new to research.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Button, Button, Who's Got the Button

We just finished the Winter issue of the Astrolabe. The whole issue will feature information about the Ft. George archaeological survey we have just completed. One of the articles will be about buttons found on Ft. George.

This week we have been researching the regimental buttons. These are the pewter buttons worn on the "redcoat" of the British army during the 1790s. Each regiment had their own buttons.

One particular button we found, actually four buttons we found, is marked in the center with R.I.

We spent four days searching on the internet to find a similar button that would indicate what regiment this button belonged to. We thought it might be the Royal Irish, the 18th of Foot, who were stationed in Jamaica from 1807-1817. After searching through hundreds of websites, Tiffany finally found this button which was for sale by a private collector.

Finally, this was the proof we were looking for. The R.I. on this button with the 18 is just like our R.I> and the only other button we have seen with these letters. The button we have must be from the 18th of Foot, Royal Irish Regiment. They must have been on garrison duty at Ft. St. George while they were stationed in Jamaica. But that requires a little more research.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Ft George Presentation

Link to Ft George Project

Dr Donald Keith gave a presentation about the results of the Ft George Project at the museum on Wednesday evening. The presentation was to staff of the Governor's office and staff of the DECR. We showed several of the artifacts related to the fort and gave a presentation about erosion that is taking its toll on the remaining areas of the fort. The presentation was well attended and the information was well received. This week has been very busy as we have been trying to share the results of the project with as many people as possible.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

New Air Conditioners

www.tcmuseum.org

The new air conditioners have arrived and are being installed here by Paul and Alvin from Climatech. All the air conditioners will be replaced in the next four weeks. Our AC has been operating very poorly since the September hurricanes.
The new air conditioners are more efficient and will be controled by humidity as well as temperature. They will provide better cooling of the Guinep House and will provide a better invironment for storage in the Science Building. They will also cost less to operate and will save on the rising costs of electricity.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Volunteering at Ft George


I have been volunteering on the Fort George archaeological survey with the National Museum. I am writing this blog on day five of the survey from the comfort of my hotel suite in Provo. The other team members are slaving away in the hot sun while my wife and I had to take a day off and recuperate. Reality is slowly setting in. Not that the work is particularly arduous, in fact, it is incredibly interesting as we are learning new things almost by the minute. But it is especially gratifying and rewarding from an inner sense and perspective.

During the weeks leading up to the exploration I had high hopes of discovering an artillery uniform button that might help pinpoint the timeline as to when the British troops occupied the fort. While other evidence provides some degree of the timeline, I thought the discovery of a button might nail it down more precisely.

I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be stationed here a hundred years ago. Your choice would be between being in the open blazing sun in full military dress or moving into the jungle for shade where a million mosquitoes would eat you alive. Not my idea of spending time in a beautiful Caribbean island. But for the next two weeks anyway this willbe our home away from Provo. Yikes, what have we done?

There are nine of us on this project and Elizabeth and I are the only wanna-be’s in the group. Everyone else has been here or been there and done that-many, many times. Thankfully everyone is so patient in explaining every step of what we are doing and why. I feel like a little kid always asking questions and always greeting answers with more questions.

On the third day of the project, and our first surveying the water, I was able to see very clearly the five cannons submerged in 4 feet of water (low tide). Now this is getting exciting! I imagined troops standing behind the cannons loading them and firing them at the enemy out on the reef. If I were a button that's where I'd fall off - right behind a cannon. Not surprisingly one of the more common items we were finding on land and in the water were pieces of shot, bits of iron and other metal fragments consistent with what would be expected to find in an old fort. So when my detector beeped again behind one of the partially buried cannons it was nothing special. It was just another chunk of shot which I replaced in the hole I had dug.

For some unexplained reason I happened to look in my sand scoop which was empty and caught between the two screens I spied what I thought was a nickel. It was about the right size but appeared a bit curved and devoid of any writing. Closer examination told me I had found my button! Dr. Neal Hitch told me that a few of these buttons had been found previously but only on land. The ocean took its toll on this button and a bit of the detail has been worn off from being submerged for some 200 years. That afternoon back at Pine Cay, Neal and I found a British website with over 100 British regimental uniform buttons on display. The new button matched one perfectly although not in as good a condition and it is dated 1795. Neal pointed out that we don't know what that means exactly: was the button made in 1795 only? Was the first appearance of the button in 1795 and was it made for 100 years for instance? More answers more questions…

Saturday, October 24, 2009

The Most Fun I've ever Had by Jessica Brody

“This has been the most fun I’ve ever had.” That is what I told the director as we drove to the airport.

“But you didn’t go to Gibbs Cay. And you didn’t do the bike tour. What have you been doing that was fun?” he joked.

I have been working, of course, that’s what I came here for. I just didn’t know it would be so much fun.

I didn’t know anything about the Caribbean or maritime history before I landed on Grand Turk. I’d never wondered where escaping American loyalists might go after the American Revolution or how important salt production was to the British Empire. Now I can go home and impress my friends and family with everything I learned at the National Museum.

Of course, I didn’t come down just to learn, that was an extra bonus. The project I came to work on was the organization of the libraries and archives collections. These projects are now well underway. My colleague Tiffany and I have cataloged 50% of the library books and prepared the archives collections for accessioning into the database (which Tiffany will continue). With the help the museum’s regular staff we have also digitized 60% of a slide collection that was donated around the time I arrived.

So, yes, we’ve done a lot of work, but I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. Working with the museum staff has been fabulous. Sharing what I’ve learned about the TCI with the visitors from the cruise ships was so much fun. Living on the island of Grand Turk was unforgettable, and encouraging the museum’s young friends was so rewarding.
Simply put: my TCI experience has been the most fun I’ve ever had.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Ft. George Survey

The Archaeological Exploration of Ft. George and Grouper Cays starts today.

Dr. Keith, Dr. Carrell, and Dr. Davis all arrived to Providenciales last night. Getting into Provo is always a challenge, I think. Getting into Provo at night is worse. Dr. Carrell's bags did not arrive. We loaded several cases of equipment and took a night time boat ride to Pine Cay.

Dr. Davis, Robert, Andrea, and Will and myself are drinking coffee this morning looking over at Ft. George Cay. Within the hour we will begin the initial equipment assessment, pulling everything we have brought over out of the several boxes that are here. It is very hot, rainy, and the mosquitoes are already biting.

This sounds like every other archaeological survey I have ever been a part of!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Eliza Simons Primary School

Today, we have had a full day of cruise ship visitors, a couple divers, and then at two the six grade classes from Eliza Simmons Primary School came for a field trip.

The museum has been full all day. This is at a time when we are down a temporary staff member as Jessica has completed her volunteer work in the archives and has returned to Boston. She had been covering the guided cruise ship tours as well.

Lina came in this morning to guide the first tour. The Aliatte came in between classes at the college to give the children's tour. Aliatte has become of the key staff leaders of the children's program and though she is now well into her second year of a teaching certificate, she still comes into work at the museum often to assist with both tours and children's club planning.

Big Tuesday

Tuesday was a very big day this week. Dr. Donald Keith flew in to Grand Turk with just enough time to pack field survey supplies from the conservation labs and then fly right out the next day. The Fort George Archaeological Field Survey on Ft. George Cay begins this week and the archaeological field crew is scheduled to fly into Provo on Thursday.

Also on Tuesday the technicians from Climatech came to begin the replacement of all of the Air Conditioning units in both the science building and the Guinep House.

And Jessica finished her seven weeks of volunteering in the museum archives and flew back to Boston yesterday.

Very Important Visitors

Janet Cole Hawxhurst and her family visited Grand Turk on the Holland America Eurodam on Monday. Janet is a long serving museum specialist in the State of Ohio.

She was on the Eurodam with several family members, but her family chose to spend the day at the museum. They received a tour of the island and a special VIP tour of the Molasses Reef exhibit. They were also able to get out to one of our amazing northwest beaches, which most cruise ship visitors never see.

A six hour port visit seems like a lot of time, but it goes very fast. We took a little time for conversation and a light lunch of freshly grilled lobster salad wraps, and it was just a few minutes after we arrived back at the cruise port that the first all aboard signal was heard from the ship.

We had a great day. As always, I hope that Grand Turk will be remembered as the best stop on their cruise.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Community College Visit


Today, the first year Social Sciences class from the Turks and Caicos Community College visited. The staff gave them an overview of the history of the Turks and Caicos and then they received a private tour, usually reserved for cruise ship excursions. The class was amazed at the size of the sheet anchor from the Molasses Reef Wreck. There was also a lively discussion of whether it was called the sheet anchor or the "sheep" anchor. The staff quickly set them straight.
After touring the museum, the staff brought the students back to the labs and offices for a close look at the work of the museum. Pieces of Lucayan pottery and documents from the 1800's illicited a choir of "ooo's". One student found a number of her family names on a record from nearby Salt Cay.
We also showed them the resources in the library and many of the students said they would be returning to complete research projects. We look forward to seeing them again.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Coin Enthusiast

Today the Carnival Destiny brought us unique patrons: numismatists. People who collect coins.

New to the collection of the National Museum is the Spiller coin. This is the oldest Western artifact ever found on the Turks and Caicos Islands, and it has just been returned to the museum in last few months.

The director took this small group of people back to the conservation lab to view the rare coin on a special unscheduled behind the scenes tour. Tour member John Bailey (the enthusastic numismatist of present day, not the silversmith and swordmakers from 1780's New York) was thrilled to see the coin and gave an impromtu lecture on the manufcture of coins in the 14th century. "It's definitly before 1590," he said confidently. The uneven edge of the coin points to it's hammer and anvil manufacture.

The museum has dated the coin from between 1542 and 1558. The detour to see the coin made for an exciting and interesting morning.

Monday, October 5, 2009

Cleaning and Sorting

Today starts another week of cleaning and sorting various archival collections. Today, the volunteer archivists at the museum this month are going through of box dispatches from the 1860s, as well as return receipts for letters received by the Colonial Office in Jamaica during the 1890s. The letters are heavily soiled and are being cleaned.

One miscellaneous sheet of paper listing correspondence received on Grand Turk allows an insight to what may have been included in the missing "government archive."

A few letters showed the effects of the American Civil War on the Turks and Caicos.

1863, July 10: "The Treaty entered into between Great Britain and the United States of America for the suspension of the African Slave trade."

July 16th: "Respecting the neutrality to be observed during the escalating hostilities between the Federal and Confederate States of America."

Dec., 12: "Respecting the proceedings of the confederate ships of war Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and Georgia at the Cape of Good Hope."

One can only wish we were cleaning the actual letters...

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Slide to the Right for a While

This week Aliatte and Jessica continued to label, catalog, and scan slides from the Jimmy McCollum Collection. This project is a large undertaking, but will be finished in a few weeks.

October will be a busy month. Not only must this collection be processed, but the entire archive collection is being surveyed, the library is being cataloged and re-organized using the Dewey decimal system, and the museum will begin an archaeological project on Ft. George.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Jimmy McCollum Slide Collection

The day Jessica flew into the TCI, I received a call from a friend of the museum and we took possession of a collection of slides of the early development on Provo. We thought the collection was going to be a few folders, but it turned out to be over 1500 slides in carousels. It took some doing to get the collection to Grand Turk, but
a couple large cases and a flight later they arrived.

One of our current projects is to scan all of these slides into our digital collections. Aliatte is doing this in between her class schedule.

Of particular interest this week are the February 1977 images of the anchor and cannon at the DuPont property of which the museum just took possession. These images clearly illustrate the deterioration that happens to artifacts when they are removed from ship wreck sites and given no conservation treatment.

The collection will add to our on going efforts to preserve the early development history of the TCI. After the collection is digitized and cataloged we will be holding a showing and will film several people telling stories about the images.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Archivist Archiving Our Archives

Last week Jessica and Tiffany arrived at the museum. They are archivists volunteering for the next twelve weeks to survey and catalog the archival collections and the library at the museum. New shelving was built in the library this past spring and the new carpeting was finally laid in July.

But since the hurricane, our library books have been stacked out of the way. Or in fact they have been stacked in the way. The added professional help is pushing this project ahead and we have done more work in the archival collections in the past two weeks than we have in many months.

Monday, September 21, 2009

1999 Our Islands Our Heritage


Today, we hung a collection of art from the DECR 1999 Our Islands, Our Heritage children's art competition. In May, we had thirty if the pieces professionally framed. They are on display at the Salt Mills Cafe and at the Gartland Youth Center.
This is the ten year anniversary of the competition, and though the artwork was completed by amateur artists, many in high school at the time, the colors and topics covered our very similar and make the displays very visually interesting.
We are hoping that the exhibits of this artwork will lead to another environmental art competition. But for that you will have to stay tuned...

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Anchors Away

For the last year, the museum has been trying to acquire a large anchor and cannon that are sitting in the garden of the old DuPont proprieties on Provo. The properties are for sale and a few weeks ago we received the go ahead to move the artifacts to a location where they can be conserved. We moved them today with the help of AND construction.

A quick calculation of the weight of the iron suggested the cannon could weigh as much as 840 pounds while the anchor weighs in at maybe 600 pounds.

AND brought a 40 foot flatbed and a crane thinking we could lift the items, but these were way to big to get up the hill to the property. These were sent back and a front loader was brought up to the house.

In the end, they hand carried the anchor and placed it on a flatbed trailer. They tried to carry the cannon, but this only made it a few feet before it was decided to hoist it with the front loader. After this it became like clockwork and the move to the museum property went smoothly.

Project complete!

A New Day

Today, we are starting a new blog about the goings on at the Turks and Caicos National Museum. The blogs will be short, hopefully. And will be focused on keeping people who care what we do informed about what we are doing. I hope you all log on - and I hope you like what you read.

Neal Hitch
Director, Turks and Caicos National Museum