"To My friends

The Readers and other supporters of this Handbook

Believing that it is what we put into a community, and not what we take out of it, that counts in life … knowing and appreciating Bermuda myself, being of Bermudian ancestry, it is my desire that this 22nd edition of my Handbook shall not be merely of passing interest to you, but serve to reveal Bermuda as it really is so that you may know and appreciate its history, its interests, its charms of scenery and climate, and its far-reaching importance as an ancient self-governing unit of the British Empire, where citizens of the new and the old world meet and, parting, understand and esteem each other better that before-an understanding promoted by the unfailing courtesy and friendly spirit of Bermudians."

– John J. Bushell, "Palm Vale", South Shore Road, Devonshire, 1st January, 1931

The old adage of "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" dictates, among other meanings, that it is better to rely on what you possess, rather than what you might like to have. In these days, when air-flying tourists are in shorter supply that we would hope, we might say that "a bird on de plane is worth two dozen in the New England bush", our traditional hunting ground. While we grouse about the decline of visitors of the more replete kind, we should remember that to get a bird in hand or a tourist into Bermuda requires skills that need to be taught to each new generation. In the case of tourism, those are the "people skills" that are not much taught to budding lawyers, accountants, underwriters and the like of the non-tourism sectors of the Bermuda economy. We used to be taught that the visitor was the king bird, to be welcomed and made to feel at home in the nest at every count, even while we plucked some "dollary" feathers to pay Belco, put food on the table and perhaps send the brats to college.

A little over a century old, there are many who would write off our tourist trade, failing to appreciate that the demise of that industry would forever put Bermuda into the red on the annual financial balance sheet. We are fortunate to have something of a copper mine in the so-called "international businesses", but the island's only gold mine and renewable mineral resource that has stood the test of time is tourism. Tourism, of course, for those into nomenclature is the world's largest "international business", indicating perhaps that the world of homo sapiens is about people first and things later.

Tourism did not always exist at Bermuda, but had to be invented. Once in place, it has to be reinvented, reinvested in, and taught to each coming generation, just like any other trade. A continued reliance on Madison Avenue, for example, to spread the word about "The Land that is different" (to use J.J. Bushell's later slogan) would seem a form of dementia to some in the globally-wired Internet world, where guide books should be iPad or Kindle based.

Print media was the king and having a guidebook in hand, such as Bushell's Picturesque Bermuda was worth everything to the discerning visitor of the pre-Internet century. Those guidebooks served to put plenty of birds into our domestic pots, but are possibly gliding to extinction in the iPod/iPad era, like the flightless Dodo-type birds that apparently once here existed.

For those who appreciate that we have to know from whence we departed in order to understand where we may be headed, the intellectual guidebook on the subject is undoubtedly Professor Duncan McDowall's "Another World: Bermuda and the Rise of Modern Tourism", published Macmillan Caribbean in 1999. That book should be compulsory reading in every upper school in Bermuda and, if one were dictator, in every local home, like the Bible, Koran or sayings of Abraham Lincoln (and the column "Heritage Matters").

"Another World" is the result of the tourism trade, for Professors Duncan and Sandy McDowall have visited Bermuda on many occasions and it is their love of the island and its people which have resulted in their many articles on both and the production of his seminal work on the development of what was once the world leader on island tourism, somewhat submerged of late under a tsunami of worldwide competition, local indifference and now unfortunately the worst recession in our best hunting ground in several generations.

As Dr. McDowall points out, by the 1890s Bermuda had a tourist trade, but "attracting them was one thing, amusing them was quite another challenge". Thus "attractions" such as Devil's Hole, Gibbs and St. David's Lighthouses and other venues were brought into a tourism itinerary. To lead the troops about the island, guidebooks were introduced, one of which was Bushell's Handbook.

Born to a Bermudian, Maria Susan Hayward, and an English father, John James Bushell, published his first guide to his "beloved Bermuda" at the age of 23 in 1895, the same year he married Rosalie Popham and moved to "Palm Vale", one of her family's properties. The majestic palms there, which front the South Shore Road, yet flourish and became a signature photograph on the cover of the 22nd edition of the Handbook, as well as being produced within the guide on a number of occasions. In the 44 years to the last in 1939, Bushell produced 30 editions of "The Standard Year-book of the Bermudas alias Somers Islands", to note one of its several cover titles.

The Handbook covered many subjects related to Bermuda, with particular emphasis on aspects of its history and throughout reflected Bushell's love of his homeland. He is credited with establishing the first tourist bureau in Bermuda in 1906 and was honorary president of the Bermuda High School for Girls until his death in 1953 at the age of 81.

In the last editions, Bushell evokes a more historical image, with a headshot of Sir George Somers appearing on the cover. Weaving himself also into such a mode, becoming perhaps a legend while yet alive, he was "Ye Author of this Handbook", so signed under his portrait. The last edition appeared as war gathered strength in Europe in 1939, while a cerebral haemorrhage at his desk at The Mid-Ocean News in 1941 probably signalled the true end of a remarkable tourism publication, perhaps the longest ever brought to publication by a single author.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Executive Director of the National Museum of Bermuda, incorporating the Bermuda Maritime Museum. Comments may be made to director@bmm.bm or 704-5480.