Astrolabe
- A Salty Mystery October 2, 2020 Why would anyone copy this old picture postcard? By Jeffrey Dodge ~ Images Courtesy Jeffrey Dodge Why, in the early 1920s, would someone on Grand Turk island want to copy a specific 1906 picture postcard that was out of print and no longer obtainable? Was the picture on this 1906 postcard of special interest to someone? Most ... Read more about this post
- Lucayan Legacies October 2, 2020 Images of the past. By Joanna Ostapkowicz ~ Images By Merald Clark (copyright) In 2017 during a visit to the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, I came across a temporary exhibit filled with children’s paintings focusing on island history, both past and present. At the very start of the exhibition were several paintings showing Columbus laying ... Read more about this post
- TCI in World War II June 25, 2020 The Fauna, Part I, 1942 By Captain Eric Wiberg, Boston, MA What is remarkable about the sinking and the loss of the Fauna off the Turks & Caicos Islands is that her destination was the TCI, and her survivors spent nearly three weeks essentially circumnavigating the Islands in a lifeboat and a local sailboat over the course ... Read more about this post
- Foodways, Life and Archaeology June 25, 2020 How ancient people cooked on Providenciales. Story & Photos By Dr. Andy J. Ciofalo Food is a social lubricant, which means it brings us together, gets people talking and is a central point of gatherings, holidays and life. Do you remember cooking your last meal? The way you sliced, pounded, boiled or roasted the vegetables damaged small ... Read more about this post
- The Layers of History March 24, 2020 East Caicos is a treasure trove of relics. Story & Photos By John Galleymore When I was very young, I was shown at school a very basic picture depicting “How History Works.” It showed layers of the Earth with the oldest relics the deepest and those more recent near the surface. I soon came to discover this ... Read more about this post
- Cave Art March 24, 2020 The Lucayan petroglyphs of East Caicos. By Dr. Michael P. Pateman Archaeological studies of the Lucayan Islands (which includes The Bahamas and Turks & Caicos Islands) have mainly focused on settlement surveys and large scale village excavations. However, early archaeologists (late 19th and early 20th century) focused most of their efforts on the cave systems of these ... Read more about this post
- TCI in WWII December 4, 2019 Survivors of U-Boats: Vineland in 1942, Part II By Captain Eric Wiberg In the Fall 2019 issue of Astrolabe, the author detailed the sinking of the Canadian dry-bulk ship Vineland, on April 20, 1942 by the German submarine U-154 while it was roughly 90 miles north of North Caicos. The survivors voyaged in three lifeboats until they ... Read more about this post
- Going Under December 4, 2019 Searching lost wrecks on Salt Cay. Story & Photos By Dr. Joost Morsink and Dr. Ruud Stelten South of Grand Turk, a small and sleepy island rests in the Atlantic Ocean: Salt Cay. With approximately 90 inhabitants on 2.6 square miles, this is the least populated of the main inhabited islands in the Turks & Caicos Islands. ... Read more about this post
- TCI in WWI and WWII September 13, 2019 Survivors of U-Boat strikes on Stifinder (1918) and Vineland (1942). By Capt. Eric Wiberg ~ Images Courtesy Eric Wiberg Recently, the topic of German and Italian submarine depredations in the Turks & Caicos Islands, Bahamas, Caribbean and US has risen to the surface more often. This includes knowledge of the discovery of the arrival of German naval ... Read more about this post
- To the Rescue July 11, 2019 Community teamwork investigates early island culture. By Dr. Shaun D. Sullivan and Dr. Michael P. Pateman ~ Photos Courtesy Turks & Caicos National Museum In the fall of 2018, local volunteers and students came together in a community effort to record a key part of the culture of early Turks & Caicos Islanders. They came from nearby ... Read more about this post
- Bold & Unapologetic July 11, 2019 People of the Islands in front of the lens. By Michael P. Pateman and Vanessa A. Pateman “People of the Islands” is the National Museum’s new oral history/ethnography program. This project seeks to tell the story of “Islanders” of the Bahama Archipelago through their own voice, with a first person narrative. Oral histories are stories that living ... Read more about this post
- Sense of Place March 13, 2019 Visits to the National Museum trigger common memories. By Candianne Williams As a museum professional, I get to experience many cultural exchanges between our visitors which makes my own experience very enriching. The TCI National Museum exhibits give them a “sense of place” which Fritz (1981) defines as the specific experience of a person as a result ... Read more about this post
- A Country’s Treasure Trove March 12, 2019 Why national museums and archives are so important. By Vanessa Forbes-Pateman Traditionally, a museum’s role is the housing and protection of cultural and heritage material; preservation and conservation of artifacts of historical or religious value and sentiment; the research and scholarly work associated with those artifacts and public education on and enjoyment of them. While the Turks & ... Read more about this post
- A Glimpse of the Past December 28, 2018 Early photographers on Grand Turk. By Jeffrey Dodge Edmund Neale Coverley, one of the most active early photographers on Grand Turk at the beginning of the 20th century, has been the subject of several past articles in the Astrolabe. He is well known because many of his photographs were used to produce early picture postcards. The earliest postcards ... Read more about this post
- Morning in the Garden of Good and Evil December 28, 2018 Investigating Grand Turk’s Over Island Graveyard. Story & Photos By Matthew A. Williamson, Ph.D. My apologies to the author John Berendt, who penned the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, for only slightly changing his title for this article. I think it’s appropriate though, given the work that I do and where I live. ... Read more about this post
What's Inside The Latest Edition?
On the Cover
Gary James at Provo Picture (www.provopictures.com) made several visits to the award-winning Provo Golf course to shoot this intriguing overhead cover shot.
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