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…

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.