Cleaning Fish

This week we are taking advantage of some slow days and late ship calls to get some spring cleaning done.

Jonathon has been volunteering at the museum for the last several weeks. His parents are here as missionaries who have been rebuilding one of the Grand Turk churches following the hurricane.

At first he was just helping out in the museum shop. But we soon discovered that he has pretty good mechanical skills and is very detail oriented.

Matching volunteers to their passion is important in museums. After some training, Jonathon has become very good at the highly detailed work of dusting exhibits. Today, he showed up very early to help Joseph clean our reef exhibit.

This exhibit interprets the reef wall that surrounds Grand Turk. When coming into Grand Turk visitors can clearly see the teal blue line that surrounds our island. What you can't see is the 1000 foot drop off the edge of the reef. Well, unless you come to the museum...

Spontaneous Behind the Scenes Tour

Mark and Shannon stopped by the museum today. This was a good day as it was raining all over Grand Turk. But like we told them...it is never raining in the museum.

They have an international business and are traveling through the Caribbean looking to expand. They love museums and were here for nearly three hours.

Mark was very interested in why more cruise ship passengers did not come to the museum and wanted to know what other kinds of tours we offered. They jumped on the chance to see the "behind the scenes" tour of the conservation labs and saw several of the artifacts that have just come into our collection, including the bell from the SS Beta, which wrecked on Grand Turk in 1908.

The rain allowed a lot of discussions today. Though the museum was packed, I think Mark and Shannon had a visitor "experience" that was away from the crowds and was very personal. I think this will turn out to the be the best stop on their cruise.

Another Excellent VIP Diver's Tour

Linda and Paul took time out to visit the Museum and left very pleased they had gone to the trouble. They had booked a weekend of dives through Blue Water Divers and thought that they would not be able to get to the museum between diving and cruise ships that were in port this week.

Blue Water called to arrange a "Behind the Scenes" diver's tour. Through the dive shops, this can be booked anytime, even outside of regular hours. This is why they were so pleased.

They were treated to an in-depth look at collections in the labs and then got a crash course on "how to read a shipwreck." After the museum, the Director continued the tour on the dive boat, joining the couple for a 2:00pm dive on the "Anchor" site. After a brief discussion about the history of the Grand Turk anchorage, the couple got to see even more maritime arifacts, though these were obviously not in the collections of the museum.

Museum at Work!

Last week the Museum was a busy busy place (as if this ever changes).

Among the usual whirl of Historic Homes Tours and After School Program visits we also had a visit from some Museum members. They would be leaving Grand Turk for a while and wanted to check up on a loan they'd given to the museum. 3 maps respectively from the 1690's, 1790's, and 1830's.

The map from the 1690's depicts the Caribbean Islands including the "Isles Turques" and a very distorted Florida state. This map is the oldest that the Museum holds. The others show the Caribbean, the Turks and Caicos and their relation to North and South America. No other map in our collection shows this comprehensive view of the Atlantic World and this member's collection gives it to us across the decades. After viewing our map collection and how important their pieces were to our collection, the members decided to gift the maps to the Museum and put them in our permanent collection.

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We also had an visit from the Provo architects. They were looking at how the Museum's spaces are used for our daily functions. They spent all day touring the museum, the offices, and the climate controlled storage area. There were plenty of discussions on how optimal space usage should be designed around flexible spaces. It's exciting to watch a small change of a line on the paper can re-create a room.

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We also had a Children Club activity: Snorkeling and a Cook Out at the Cruise Center with Oasis Divers. See the Children Club Blog for more pictures.

Clement Howell High School Tour

The students of Clement Howell High School visited Grand Turk last Friday and the Museum was on their list of places to see. The Children's Club Coordinator gave them a special tour of the Molasses Reef Wreck artifacts and the Lucayan room. There were quite a few shutter bugs in the group who were madly taking pictures of everything they saw!