The new website design has been up and running for nearly a month now, but we are always adding content. This week I collected images of people engrossed in learning about TCI history. Most of the pictures I took were legit, but since someone asked directions to a snorkel place, I offered them a ride in exchange for some modeling. They were more than happy to help!

Here they are with the 1,000 year old Lucayan paddle – one of 2 in the world!

It’s a typical day here at the museum with an interesting twist.

We had 6 Historic Home Tours off the Carnival Destiny and Emerald Princess today. We had 4 students working with the After School laptops. The DECR is using the Science Building classroom and projector to host a training session. A typical day.

What’s NOT typical is walking out of the Science Building to find a huge Cat outside the Guinep House! The flag pole, bent during Hurricane Ike, was taken away a few weeks ago to be repaired. It came back today as straight as the day it was manufactured. Notice the man in the mask welding it back in place. No sign of Hurricane Ike here!

The last few weeks have been busy with visitors from all corners and with all sorts of expectations. This is a brief shout-out to our new friends:

The geo-cacher’s have seemed to multiply in the last few weeks. At least 6 new people signed the log book. This couple were determined and finally got their prize.

We enjoyed the company of an adventurous group of young women who sailed over from Sweden. See their blog here. (Pictures to follow) They were like celebrities on Grand Turk and we enjoyed their visit to the museum.

We also recently had a visit from a South Caicos elementary school. The children were especially interested in the limestone cave exhibit in the Lucayan room. They dared each other to enter the dimly lite area as we explained erosion and how the Lucayans lived. As you can see here, they enjoyed their visit and so did we!

Freddie visited the museum last week hoping for an in depth look at the work of the museum. Boy did we have just the thing for him!

Earlier today he stopped in with friend Bridgett to get our new VIP Behind the Scene’s tour. They were curious as to how the museum receives items. We walked them through the process (and some Turks and Caicos history) as we showed them items in the collections from the recent GT-4 and Fort St. George surveys, to the new spy glass donation.

They are pictured here with the 1888 hurricane relief report and a sword handle from Fort George.

Last Thursday, visiting archivist Jessica Brody showed off the Museum Archives collection at the final Spring 2 Collections Event. We talked briefly about how to keep archival materials safe and the progress of conservation and organization in the Museum’s archives, but mostly we explored the stories in the papers. We laughed at a get-out-of-work excuse note from 1872 written in flowery language and decided that the author took far to long to get to the point. And we looked up family names in the 1888 hurricane report. All in all it was an informative and delightful evening.

This event brings the Spring 2 Collections series to a close, which is a shame – it was as much fun for the museum staff as for the participants! Thanks to all the attendees, resident experts, and volunteers who helped us with our spring cleaning – or airing out, at least – of these little seen Museum Collections. We look forward to seeing you in the future as we continue to explore the Turks and Caicos’ past.

Thanks,

Museum Staff

My name is Kenlove Taus. Today is my birthday.

What a place to have a birthday. This morning I walked to the museum. I love the museum. The museum published my poems in a magazine. To my amazement, when I went to school or walk down the street people congratulated me on my poetry.

The museum helped me to develop my poetry and my writing skills. Today, when I told everyone it was my birthday they went to the bakery and bought breakfast rolls and everyone sat in the front of the museum. The staff wanted me to write a poem right then. I asked for paper, composed a few lines of verse, and read them to everyone.

Everyone clapped. I told the director that this was not a party.

But it is the only party I will get today.

We had very special guests at the museum today.

A family flew in from Pine Cay to see Grand Turk and the museum. We gave them a behind the scenes tour and suggested they go up to the Bohio for Lunch.

All this, after a quick renewal of their membership.

We enjoy having our friends stop by. Especially when it requires a trip on a private plane.

We hope they enjoyed the visit as much as we did.

Today we had a visit from Ray and Anita Spencer. They had been touring around off the Carnival Glory, visiting the northern tip of the island.

In 1961-62, Ray was stationed at the US Navy Base, so he went looking for familar landmarks. He found a few. The gatehouse and basketball court are right where he left them, and of course the Lighthouse.

Later in the day, Ray and Anita stopped by the museum to share memories “of a very special time” in Ray’s life. He showed off some pictures he carried in and told stories of getting his picture taken with John Glenn.

Yesterday, Mario and Angela came to the museum and were thrilled with the exhibits and the behind the scenes tour. They were off the Holland America Westerdam, but they enjoy “micro excursioning” where they plan their own activities and contact local companies before they cruise. Mario was scuba diving with Blue Water Diving in the afternoon, so they came early to the museum.

Growing up in the Canary Islands and now living on Vancouver Island, Mario understood many of the conditions of island life and we had a great conversation about the what Grand Turk is really like as a place to live.

During the behind the scenes tour, the couple was very interested in how our archives are conserved in such a humid environment. This is actually a great question and they looked at length at our climate controlled storage room and our current project of reorganizing our archival collections.