Museum at Work!

My pile of papers keeps getting bigger. This is distressing since time is growing shorter.

The list goes something like this:

• Write final report for After School Program
• Finalize archives survey and write report
• Develop temporary installation highlighting all the cool stuff we've accessioned this year.
• Send report of why the Stubbs family papers fit into our collection to the National Library of Jamaica.
• Write article on this summer's Children Club events
• Write next Article for Astrolab
• Organize and catalog artifacts in fire proof cabinet
• Clean library after tarp, employed for protection after a air conditioner leak in the roof dripped into the office, left bits of blue plastic every where
• Write preliminary notes on pros and cons of applying for a UNESCO Heritage Site designation for Salt cay
• other _____________________________ (TBD, but certainly forth coming)
  

New projects pop up at every turn. Sometimes because I'm working for an E (entrepreneur = idea person) and sometimes because projects just pop up. A couple weeks ago a member came to inquire about the maps he'd loaned a number of years ago.

Did we know where they were? Yes, we did, but they were in the flat file under that last pile in the office I hadn't gotten to yet. So then all plans changed to sort through that last pile. Which put the archives survey on hold, which led to my pile of papers not decreasing. We did, by organizing the flat files, show the member how his maps fit into our collections. One of his maps is the oldest in the collection: 1690. Without a word of encouragement, he gift them to the Museum right there.



I really enjoyed this project because those 1700 maps were truly works of art. Look at this one of the "Isles Turques" (Turkish Islands). Can you see the bright turquoise around the islands? On a clear day, with visibility to 100 feet, our islands really do look that brilliant. Turquoise Islands indeed.



What else are we working on? See here: A Day at the National Museum

Rights to map images held by the Turks and Caicos National Museum.