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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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

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.