The autobiography of a National Museum.

By Donald H. Keith ~ Images Courtesy Turks & Caicos National Museum

Hi! I’m the Turks & Caicos National Museum, and I have a story to tell. Actually, a lot of stories, but this time I just want to tell you my own story, because it’s important right now and I’ve never told it before.

Guinep House on Grand Turk has been the Museum’s base for 35 years.

I was born in the Guinep House, an old stone residence on the west coast of Grand Turk less than 100 feet from the North Atlantic Ocean. Although I am only 35 years old physically, I feel like I have been here forever. Being a museum, I have a great memory encompassing time from millions of years ago to every new today.

But the first thing I remember is waking up in kind of a daze, looking out at a crowd of seated people, all dressed up nicely and staring at me, curiously. There was a podium where people were giving speeches about how important I was going to be. Then a little girl stepped up to my front door where a tall lady in a blue dress gave her a pair of scissors to cut a red ribbon stretched across it to the enthusiastic applause of the audience who started pouring in. 

They came to see all the amazing things I had to show and all the stories I had to tell. There was something for everyone, including artifacts from an old ship that wrecked on Molasses Reef in the Caicos Islands 500 years ago. It was excavated by a team of American archaeologists who spent 10 years working on it and were very relieved to have a place to exhibit all those old things and reveal the stories they told.

In time, I learned that Grethe Seim was the lady in the blue dress, that she was essentially my mother, and I am the embodiment of her dream. She was not a native of the Islands but considered Grand Turk her home for more than 50 years. She was a veteran of some of the earliest research projects studying Lucayans, the first Native American people to inhabit the Caicos Islands, led by archaeologists Dr. Shaun Sullivan and Dr. Glen Freimuth.

The National Museum was officially opened on November 23, 1991 to great fanfare. It was the embodiment of a dream by Grethe Seim (in blue dress.)

I also learned that I was not just a museum, but a NATIONAL museum, responsible for the collection and preservation of the history and culture of all the Turks & Caicos Islands. Almost immediately misconceptions developed about me, starting with being referred to as the “Grand Turk Museum!” Yes, “National” is in my name, but I am not a part of the TCI Government, or the National Trust, which was created later. While the TCI Government does provide some support for me on Grand Turk, I am a separate non-profit publicly-funded research and educational institution devoted to the “increase and diffusion of knowledge.”

As the years passed, people kept bringing me all kinds of new things to take care of so I had to adapt, learn new skills, and expand. The discovery of a wooden paddle, almost 1,000 years old, led to the realization that a National Museum isn’t just about exhibits. It’s not that simple. The archaeologists said I needed to go out and make discoveries, then bring them back for study and safe-keeping. I had to have a place where new finds could be properly taken care of by people who knew how to do that. I needed laboratory space, climate-controlled secure storage for my collections, and a workshop for building new exhibits.

Once again, Grethe stepped in to enhance and improve my capabilities and created the Science Building adjacent to the Guinep House. Now with office space, a meeting room, a conservation laboratory, and workshop I could do so much more. I could conserve large artifacts, host meetings and lectures, study and safely store prepared objects and old documents. 

The damage I sustained during the back-to-back Hurricanes Irma and Maria exposed my vulnerability to natural disasters due to my proximity to the North Atlantic Ocean! They made me realize that all my eggs are in one basket. Would my collections and I be safer somewhere else? But where? Then people started talking about diversifying and extending my reach to another island. I thought the Guinep House on Grand Turk was my only home, the only place I could ever be. But then I realized that I’m not just a building or even two buildings, I’m a product of that National Museum vision that came together in Grethe’s mind almost 40 years ago. 

The Caicos Heritage House is a reproduction of a typical homestead of the last century.

I’ve learned a lot in the 35 years I’ve been a reality.Growing up in fits and starts hasn’t been easy. I‘ve had my ups and downs—close calls with hurricanes, fires, and even vandalism. When I was younger people thought I was so little and cute that they didn’t want me to grow up. They thought I could just stay the same, never changing. But everybody grows up eventually. Other people saw I was maturing, adapting to the changing world, and helped me establish a modest presence away from Grand Turk in the Village at Grace Bay on Providenciales. There, with a small exhibit building and the Caicos Heritage House, a faithful reproduction of a typical homestead of the last century complete with garden, I delved into the history and culture of the Caicos Islands, which is much different from the Turks Islands. 

Now I am being encouraged to take a giant leap forward into adulthood by expanding my physical presence in the Village to include not just exhibit space, but also all the functions of a proper National Museum. I have settled on a design for the building and intend to reveal it to the public in the near future.

I know this is ambitious and it’s going to take time and money, but when I look at how quickly everything is changing now and how much evidence of our collective past is being lost every day, I realize how critical it is to convince a lot of total strangers that I am mature enough to know what I am doing and, with their help, can be a major asset to the entire country. 

When I look back at all the people from all walks of life, like Grethe, who helped me get this far, I am confident that there are more like them in the Islands and elsewhere who believe in me and my mission and will help me to “Live long and prosper.” People may come and go, but National Museums live forever—and preserve the memory of those who are gone. 

If you, dear reader, would like to learn more about me, or even help support me and follow my aspirations, go to www.tcmuseum.org/capital-campaign or email me at in**@******um.org.