Times of the Islands Summer 2017

astrolabe newsletter of the Turks & Caicos National Museum
Chairman’s address
I was first introduced to the Turks & Caicos Islands
National Museum (TCNM) on only my second day in
the TCI. The memory of historic “Guinep House,” set
in an incredible oceanfront location overlooking the
Columbus Landfall National Park with its impossible
turquoise waters and powder-white sands, is indelibly
etched into my mind. Can there be another museum
in such a majestic setting anywhere? At that time I
knew nothing of the important work undertaken in the
Donald H. Keith Science Building situated immediately
behind Guinep House—restoring and stabilizing a myriad
artifacts and storing and preserving the extensive
museum archive in carefully climate controlled conditions,
with “wet and dry” laboratories, workshops and
offices.
Once inside Guinep House I was immediately
impressed at the quality of the exhibits and the sheer
volume and diversity of history spanning over 1,000
years that is literally packed into such a seemingly
small space. It covers everything from the pre-Columbian
Indians, marine archeology and the salt and sisal
eras all the way to the Space Age and everything in
between. And of course, the 200 year-old building is a
working exhibit in its own right. It is therefore no wonder
that the TCNM is so often described as a “national
treasure” and a “little gem.”
Over time, the TCNM has developed into a repository
of critical, national historic importance, eloquently
noted and described by HE Governor Dr. John Freeman
after a recent visit. Conversely, it is also a fact recently
brought into sharp relief at the sad demise of the
Victoria Public Library, an event that left the entire TCI
in a state of shock. It was not just the loss of a familiar
place where many friends met and studied after school,
but the incalculable loss of historic documents that are
now forever gone.
Accordingly, it has never been more important
to secure and preserve the history of these amazing
Islands and their people, and to ensure there is never
a repeat of such a tragedy. The TCNM already plays a
national leading role in this regard.
In recent years, as I became a little more involved
in the Museum and helped out with odd jobs and at
occasional fund-raising events, I truly recognized the
importance of the work undertaken and felt that I would
like to have a greater level of involvement. I then had the
honour of being elected to the Board of Directors and
now have the pleasure of working alongside an esteemed,
dynamic and experienced Board, some of which have
served since the Museum’s inception—for instance, Hon.
Derek Taylor, Tom Saunders, the Seim family and Dr.
Donald Keith. I felt particularly humbled to be nominated
and subsequently elected to Chairman of the Board by the
current Director and Museum stalwart Patricia Saxton.
It is a distinct honor, a privilege and a serious obligation
to officially become part of such a special and
unique institution, especially one that has succeeded in
its mission statement of being a not-for-profit organization
aimed at “recording, interpreting, preserving and
celebrating the history of the Turks & Caicos Islands and
its people.”
From the relatively humble beginnings of a partially
dilapidated Guinep House, the Museum has added the
science building, many new and exhibiting exhibits, a
gift shop, children’s club, cruise ship tours, a botanical
and cultural garden, and more recently, an outpost
in Providenciales in the form of the Caicos Heritage
House. All of this takes hard work and dedication and
the Museum has been blessed with an amazingly strong
and knowledgeable current operations team of mainly
Belongers and committed volunteers, who, over the
years, have hailed from every corner of the globe.
The Turks & Caicos National Museum was founded
due to the incredible foresight and seemingly endless
generosity of the late Mrs. Grethe Seim. However, with
an eroding endowment and multiple other challenges,
the Museum finds itself in a relatively precarious position
and the strategy, direction and focus for the future has
become ever-more important.
While Grand Turk will remain the primary focus and
headquarters for the TCNM, there is considerable merit in
expanding even further on Providenciales and developing
a significant museum facility there. After all, we are a
“national” museum by definition, and many of the artifacts
currently on display in Grand Turk and held in the
archive are more relevant to the Caicos Islands. We also
have enough artifacts to fill both properties, with many
60 www.timespub.tc