For a group sailing from the Bahamas to Puerto Rico who came to Providenciales on March 17^th 2017, the Museum’s Grace Bay Campus was their ‘first stop’.  More accurately their first stop after coffee and donuts, but that is okay. We are happy to be right up there near the top.

Hayden and Rudeen Cochran, Don and Meloney Roy,  Lauren and Bill Phinney, Michelle Denton, and Charlie Oliver began their journeys from different points. They sailed from Nova Scotia, Maryland, California, Colorado and New Mexico and sailed together from the Bahamas onward.  It was a pleasure to meet and conduct the tour these wonderful couples. Happy sailing!

The winner of this year’s Turks and Caicos National Museum History and Cultural Heritage Quiz is the team from Raymond Gardiner High School from North Caicos.

Team Raymond Gardiner with Hon. Josephine Conolly.

Second place winner is H J Robinson High School from the nation’s capital, Grand Turk. The six schools that participated all performed very well. It was evident that they prepared well. Congratulations to the students, teachers and parents and thank you for nurturing the interest in the history and culture of these islands.

HJ Robinson High School team with Director of Education Edgar Howell

Both the preliminary round and the finals were held on the same day, March 7^th at Brayton Hall. Hon. Josephine Connolly Minister of Education, Youth and Sports brought remarks and made trophy presentations. Director of Education Mr. Edgar Howell and Director of Culture Ms. Ludwina Fulford along with the museum’s Director Mrs. Patricia Saxton’s brought remarks and also presented certificates, trophies and gifts to the participants.

The wining team and their coach, Ms. Stacie Ann Green Taylor will also receive a prize trip and tour of historic Cap Haitien. The second place winners will receive a prize trip and historic tour of one of the Turks and Caicos Islands. All participants received certificates of participation and backpacks, the first and second place winners received trophies. Raymond Gardiner High School will keep the challenge trophy for the year. Needless to say they were all happy winners.

British Collegiate Team.

Special thanks our Sponsors, Fortis TCI, TC Reef Fund, Caicu Naniki , Marco Travel and the Department of Education; our distinguished judges led by Mr. Don Stark, Moderator Ms. Rachel Taylor, Mr. Bradford Handfield for technical support and our wonderful facilitators and support teams for the Department of Education and Turks and Caicos National Museum.

Catherine and Molly Weis, daughters of Dr. Tom and ‘Mudder’ Weis, dropped by to visit the Caicos Heritage Exhibit on February 28 2017. As they reminisced about their days on North Caicos, Catherine shared some of her fond memories. She paused at the field basket to go back to the times she accompanied Bertha Belle to sow seeds in the garden.

They are very passionate about preserving the rich heritage of the Turks and Caicos Islands. After hearing so much about the Weis family, I was delighted to meet them. We at the museum are very grateful to the Weis family for the major role that they played in the establishment of the Caicos Heritage Exhibit. We look forward to welcoming you again.

On February 8, 2017 Chairman of the Turks and Caicos National Museum, Dr. Donald Keith shared his knowledge and experience with high school students. Dr. Keith directed the excavation, analysis, and conservation of the Molasses Reef Wreck, the oldest shipwreck found in the Americas.

He also shared his experiences of leading a research team to find and identify the slave ship Trouvadore off East Caicos as well as shipwreck investigations in other countries. He answered many questions and explained the link between the several subjects they now study and marine archaeology. There were students from Maranatha Academy, British Collegiate, Precious Treasures, Champions for Christ International School of Excellence, and Clement Howell High School.

The signs for the Turks and Caicos National Museum Development Office in the Village at Grace Bay are up! Thank you to Mr. Bradley Coalbrooke for the design and all of the other steps including the applications for the necessary permissions.

Special thanks to Mr. Kirkley Williams of AND Construction for facilitating the erecting of the signs. To Luckner and the rest of the AND team thank you!  We really appreciate your support, could not have done it without you!

Road sign will now help visitors find us!

By Donald H Keith, Chairman
Board of Directors

The first time I met Sherlin it was in the Museum’s Science Building’s workshop.  He was just putting the finishing touches on the 150 year-old clockwork mechanism that made the light turn. I was amazed because it was an intricate piece of equipment for which no plans or instructions were available. He had been working on it for months and through observation and persistence alone, figured it out by himself. It made more sense later when I learned that in a previous life he had a business in the Bahamas repairing high-end cameras! And he didn’t just repair them, he was a pretty good photographer too! In 2010 he showed me computer-manipulated artwork he was producing called “photocraphs”, each composed of scores or even hundreds of different images combined to tell a story.

Each time I made a visit to the Museum on Grand Turk Sherlin was there, always ready to explore newly discovered archaeological sites, conduct research in the Museum’s library, investigate a mystery, or get his hands dirty cleaning and conserving artifacts.

Over the years he authored several articles for the Astrolabe including, “Grand Turk’s Postcard Man,” and “The Time-Travelling Beach Comber”. Mr. Sherlin McDonald Williams died on January 2, 2017. He was an avid supporter of the Museum, a good friend, a native son of the TCI and one of its most ardent and active local historians—but he is not lost to us. He is still here in the Museum. You can hear him in the words he wrote, see photos of him working to preserve other people’s history, and admire the art he created, all preserved in perpetuity here in the Museum. You can read more about Sherlin Williams and his many contributions in the Spring 2017 issue of the Times of the Islands magazine.

The Museum is again proud to host Dr. Kelley Scudder-Temple, Mike Temple and Alex Temple working to finish digitizing 19th century church records from the Anglican and the Methodist Churches. Both churches will receive copies of these records on a USB memory stick so that they are viewable using a laptop. This will help to preserve the original records by having the information easily accessible. The records will also be available on the British Library web site in about one year.

The Museum is working with the Salem Baptist Church to do a sampling of their records to show just how important it is to have the records available without touching the originals. The team will be here through mid-February. We hope we can continue this important work by seeking donations and future grants. There is much more work to be done!

The TCNM has been busy with school visits already this year.

On Grand Turk we hosted students from the Faith Preparatory School on Grand Turk, and on February 1 we had 38 students from the Eliza Simons Primary School tour the Museum.

Students from Eliza Simons Primary School learn about Jeremiah Murphy

The students enjoyed a Private tour on both floors of the Turks and Caicos National Museum and had lots of questions for our tour guides. At the end of the visit, the children visited the gift shop and each student was given a pencil from the Museum.

On January 26 the Grade 7 class of Precious Treasures International School visited the museum’s development office. A historic visit since that is the school’s first Grade 7 class. Previously the school went up to Grade 6.

The four students were accompanied by history teacher Ms. Camille Wellington and a parent. They were very well prepared, asked lots of very interesting questions and took many notes on their IPads for their project on. All the best Grade 7.

We were pleased to welcome two groups of twenty-five each Grade 6 students from Osetta Jolly School on January 19.The groups were accompanied by Ms. Ms. Andrea Swaby and Ms. Ann Marie Williams respectively. They are preparing for the GSAT examinations this coming May. Success in the GSATs means they will be starting Secondary School or Grade 7 this coming September. I know that they are excited about that. Good luck to you class of Grade 6.