‘The book recognises the birth of Caribbean museums from colonial-era institutions, which were faithful adjuncts to the status quo, to the present day institutions which in a dynamic way seek to protect, respect and promote cultural diversity as well as adequately portray national identities. — Sir Trevor Carmichael, QC

A few days ago, I attended a book launch at the Barbados Museum & Historical Society, an institution located in one of the fine old buildings built by the British military at St Ann’s Garrison, now a World Heritage Site in association with the historic capital at Bridgetown (so inscribed by UNESCO in 2011).

The Parade Ground of The Garrison now serves as a racecourse for horses and a general recreation area, while in front of the proud “Main Guard” building, with its clock tower, stands part of one of the finest historic artillery collections in the Americas, assembled by the late Major Michael Hartland.

The Museum itself, ‘heritage collections’ within a heritage district, is now over eighty years old, twice the age of the National Museum of Bermuda and considerably older than all other heritage entities in Bermuda.

In his launch address on the new publication, “Plantation to Nation”, which is about museums in part of the Caribbean, with Bermuda included from the Atlantic, the deputy director of the Barbados Museum, Kevin Farmer, reminded one that ‘museum’ derives from words that descend to us in English as ‘muse’, that is say, to think about something in an extended, thoughtful manner.

In mythology, the Muses were the nine daughters of the Greek god Zeus and his wife, Mnemosyne, and one, Clio, was the Muse that one could say is the patron goddess of museums, as she normally is aligned with the patronage of History.

Be that as it may, we live neither in ancient times nor on Mount Olympus, but we do muse at lot at museums and expect the visiting public to do the same, for that is partly why museum folk do what they do, namely preserve artefacts and other reflections of the past for the edification (musing) of the present.

The whys and wherefores, that is to write, the reasons for things and how they came into being, of some museums in the region is indicated in the subtitle of the new book, being: “Caribbean Museum and National Identity”.

The authors of its chapters thus muse over the origins, present state and roles of museums into the future, all in all most interesting discussions on the import of museums in Caribbean society.

Edited by Alissandra Cummins, Kevin Farmer and Dr Roslyn Russell, the book “addresses museums across the region and provides rich source material for a much-needed discourse on their evolution”.

“Based on new research within the last decade, the sixteen chapters in ‘Plantation to Nation’ explore the emergence of Caribbean museums from colonial-era institutions that supported imperialistic goals to today’s museums that aim to recover submerged or marginalised histories, assert national identities and celebrate cultural diversity.”

In a press release for the book, the editors noted that: “Museologists from across the region, and internationally, address the challenges faced by museums in the Caribbean, both historically and in the contemporary setting.

“Museum developments in 19 countries … are referred to in chapters by a diverse range of museologists from English, French, Dutch and Spanish-speaking backgrounds.”

A summary states that “the book’s opening chapters deal with the early history of Caribbean museums that were formed in the colonialist context, and consider how far they have travelled from the museological ideology that created them. The theme of submerged narratives and recovered memories of crucial formative experiences, such as slavery, resonates strongly in these writings”.

“Subsequent chapters deal with the evolution of museums and collections in specific contexts, including museums created in historic colonial-era buildings, such as forts and former plantations that, having become heritage sites … The final section of the book examines new directions that have informed museum developments in the Caribbean since independence from colonial rule, at a time when identity creation became the core mandate of cultural institutions such as museums and heritage sites.”

Sir Trevor Carmichael, QC, president of the Council of the Barbados Museum & Historical Society gave the opening address at the book launch, followed by remarks by the director of the Museum, Alissandra Cummins and deputy director, Kevin Farmer.

Representing the authors of the various chapters, Hilda Neus and this writer commented on the book and their respective institutions at the launch.

Also present was the developer, Dr Paul Altman, a Barbadian, who was instrumental in the establishment of Nidhe Israel Museum in Bridgetown, to speak of another facet of identity in Barbados and it is said that Jewish people introduced the production of sugar, via sugar cane, to the island.

Aside from current (national) identities, museum in effect deal with senses of being and place across the ages and multiple ethnic groupings.

Thus at Barbados and the other islands and countries of the Caribbean, museums deal with the original inhabitants of the area, such as Arawaks and Caribs, who made their way up the chain of islands known as the Greater and Lesser Antilles for many millennia before the fateful European discovery in 1492 of the ‘New World’ by the Old World explorer and would-be entrepreneur, Christopher Columbus.

Being too far offshore for prehistoric sailing technology, no Native Americans found or settled Bermuda, so by way of identity, one would have to say that the ‘indigenous’ people of the island were those who alighted in an apparent paradise from the ship Plough in the midsummer of 1612.

As yet, however, we have not found any artefacts that can be identified with that ethnic group in the first decade of settlement.

At the end of the day, or of “Plantation to Nation”, museum folk must suspend their musing, to concentrate on the fundamental task of preserving not only their collections, which can relate to all ‘identities’ of a land, but often the very buildings in which they are housed and displayed.

Museums must essentially be one thing to many, namely the place where objects related to peoples’ past and present identities are preserved, studied and made accessible to the public.

Ranged against such a role is the increasing disinterest and ‘defunding’ by many national governments and the potential tsunami of identity change and even dissolution, wrought by the Digital Age.

That may mean that one day our museums will be full of IBM PCs and iPhones of various lineages, in addition to objects that represent the identity of a people, or peoples, of a region before they (and we) were washed into a sea of sameness by the homogenising effects of the internet. Muse about that and wonder what state comes after ‘nation’.

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