Guyana National Museum

Last updated
Guyana National Museum
Guyana National Museum
Established13 February 1868 (1868-02-13)
Location Georgetown, Guyana
Coordinates 6°48′49″N58°09′57″W / 6.81361°N 58.1657°W / 6.81361; -58.1657
The Vice President of India, Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, visits Guyana National museum at Georgetown, Guyana on November 07, 2006. The Vice President, Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, visits Guyana National museum at Georgetown, Guyana on November 07, 2006.jpg
The Vice President of India, Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, visits Guyana National museum at Georgetown, Guyana on November 07, 2006.

Guyana National Museum is a museum in Georgetown, Demerara-Mahaica, Guyana. It was established on 13 February 1868. [1] The idea of starting a museum was conceived by members of the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society (RACS) of British Guiana. When RACS was established in 1844, [2] one of its aims was to construct a Museum to house local minerals, soils, timbers, fruits, seeds, gums, resins, dyes and drugs, as well as the flora and fauna of the country. British explorer Robert Schomburgk, [3] the German botanist Carl Ferdinand Appun, Mr Bratt, and W.H. Campbell presented gifts (including 55 indigenous woods, minerals from England, and specimens of botany and geology) to the RACS in order to start a Museum Collection. A fire in 1864 destroyed the donated collections.

A British Guiana Museum Company was established in 1867 for the construction of a building "which should be the permanent home of science, art, and industry." This project received great financial support from the public and the new museum on Company Path was opened on 13 February 1868. The Colonist newspaper of that date described it as a "magnificent structure."

The museum's first curator was Dr. H Witlock, the Medical Officer of Health. He was succeeded by Mr. Fresson. Everard im Thurn was later appointed by the government in 1877. He was a qualified curator who traveled to the interior in search of specimens of ethnology and other exhibits for the Museum. When the RACS launched the Timehri Journal, Mr im Thurn served as its editor. Other curators who made noteworthy contributions were John Joseph Quelch, James Rodway and Dr Walter Roth.

In 1934, the Georgetown Public Free Library received a second story, made possible through grants from the Carnegie Corporation, which was used to house the Museum collections.

The government assumed responsibility for the RACS Museum in 1936, renaming it the British Guiana Museum. It was administered by the Georgetown Public Free Library Committee. [4] Mr P Storer Peberdy became the new curator in that year. During his administration, the Economic, Anthropological and Historical Section was opened in the upper flat of the Public Free Library on 19 February 1937. The Director of Education and the Curator arranged for public lectures to be given in the Museum. Mr. Peberdy traveled into the interior and obtained material which was added to the British Guiana Museum collection. He was succeeded by Vincent Roth in 1943.

On 23 February 1945, a fire that started at the Bookers Drug Store, opposite the British Guiana Museum, spread to the Natural History Section of the Museum and the RACS Reading Rooms and Library. The Public Free Library was not affected by the fire, sparing the ethnological collection. After the fire, Lot 53 Main Street was used as a taxidermy laboratory for the reconstruction of natural history exhibits.

Then governor, Sir Gordon Lethem, met with government officials on 16 March 1945 to propose the construction of a cultural centre on the site of the destroyed British Guiana Museum. The building would house the RACS Reading Rooms, the British Guiana Museum and an auditorium for dramatic presentations. It was recommended that a request be made for funding from the Colonial Development and Welfare Commission. Subsequently, the RACS began construction of the new Library and Reading Rooms.

The colonial government voted sums of money for the education of Ram Singh, the museum's taxidermist. In 1946, Mr Singh travelled to the United States to study taxidermy, botany, anthropology and zoology. He returned to British Guiana in 1947. Before his departure, the taxidermy laboratory was removed from Main Street to the former Cummingsburg market (1946). During the following years a temporary National History Museum was established and opened in 1949.

As use of the Public Free Library expanded, new space for the museum was considered. In July 1950, the RACS assumed control of the British Guiana Museum from the Public Free Library. The new museum building at North Road and Hincks Street was reopened on 28 July 1951 [5] by the Officer Administering the Government, John Gutch.

Artifacts

Many of the museum's artifacts have been there for more than fifty years, like the Pork-knocker, which has been on display for over sixty years. [6] There are also miniature versions of the Transport and Harbours Department Ferry boats. On display is also the "PR1" vehicle, used by the Prime Minister Dr. Ptolemy Reid, during his tenure in high political office. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgetown, Guyana</span> Capital of Guyana

Georgetown is the capital and largest city of Guyana. It is situated in Demerara-Mahaica, region 4, on the Atlantic Ocean coast, at the mouth of the Demerara River. It is nicknamed the "Garden City of the Caribbean." It is the retail, administrative, and financial services centre of the country, and the city accounts for a large portion of Guyana's GDP. The city recorded a population of 118,363 in the 2012 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Guiana</span> British colony from 1814 to 1966

British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Essequibo River</span> Major river in Guyana

The Essequibo River is the largest river in Guyana, and the largest river between the Orinoco and Amazon. Rising in the Acarai Mountains near the Brazil–Guyana border, the Essequibo flows to the north for 1,014 km (630 mi) through forest and savanna into the Atlantic Ocean. It has a total drainage basin of 156,828 km2 (60,552 sq mi) and an average discharge of 5,650 m3/s (200,000 cu ft/s).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Roraima</span> Mountain in Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela

Mount Roraima is the highest of the Pacaraima chain of tepuis or plateaux in South America. It is located at the junction of Brazil, Guyana and Venezuela. A characteristic large flat-topped mountain surrounded by cliffs 400–1,000 m (1,300–3,300 ft) high. The highest point of Mount Roraima is located on the southern edge of the cliff at an altitude of 2,810 m (9,220 ft) in Venezuela, and another protrusion at an altitude of 2,772 m (9,094 ft) at the junction of the three countries in the north of the plateau is the highest point in Guyana. The name Mount Roraima came from the native Pemon people. Roroi in the Pemon language means "blue-green", and ma means "great".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Demerara</span> 1745–1803 Dutch colony in South America

Demerara is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state from 1792 until 1815. It was merged with Essequibo in 1812 by the British who took control. It formally became a British colony in 1815 until Demerara-Essequibo was merged with Berbice to form the colony of British Guiana in 1831. In 1838, it became a county of British Guiana until 1958. In 1966, British Guiana gained independence as Guyana and in 1970 it became a republic as the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. It was located around the lower course of the Demerara River, and its main settlement was Georgetown.

Sir Everard Ferdinand im Thurn was an author, explorer, botanist, photographer and British colonial administrator. He was Governor of Fiji in the years 1904–1910.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Hermann Schomburgk</span> German-born explorer

Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk was a German-born explorer for Great Britain who carried out geographical, ethnological and botanical studies in South America and the West Indies, and also fulfilled diplomatic missions for the United Kingdom in the Dominican Republic and Thailand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology</span>

The Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology is a museum of anthropology in Georgetown, Guyana and claims to be the oldest such museum in the English-speaking Caribbean region. It was established in 1974, but not opened to the public until 1982. It is located at 61 Main Street, North Cummingsburg, Georgetown.

Arthur James Seymour, or A. J. Seymour, was a Guyanese poet, essayist, memoirist, and founding editor of the literary journal Kyk-Over-Al.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgetown City Hall</span> City Hall in Georgetown, Guyana

Georgetown City Hall is a nineteenth-century Gothic Revival building located on the corner of Regent Street and Avenue of the Republic in Georgetown, Guyana. The building was designed by architect Reverend Ignatius Scoles in 1887, and was completed in June 1889. The building houses the offices of the Mayor, the City Council, and the City Engineer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guyana–Venezuela territorial dispute</span> Territorial dispute between Guyana and Venezuela

The Guyana–Venezuela territorial dispute is an ongoing territorial dispute between Guyana and Venezuela over the Essequibo region, also known as Esequibo or Guayana Esequiba in Spanish, a 159,500 km2 (61,600 sq mi) area west of the Essequibo River. The territory, excluding the Venezuelan-controlled Ankoko Island, is controlled by Guyana as part of six of its regions, based on the 1899 Paris Arbitral Award. It is also claimed by Venezuela as the Guayana Esequiba State. The boundary dispute was inherited from the colonial powers and has persisted following the independence of Venezuela and Guyana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter Roth</span> British colonial administrator, anthropologist and medical practitioner

Walter Edmund Roth was a British colonial administrator, anthropologist and medical practitioner, who worked in Queensland, Australia and British Guiana between 1898 and 1928.

The National Library of Guyana is the legal deposit and copyright library for Guyana. Unlike many national libraries, it is also a public lending library and the headquarters of Guyana's public library service, with branches extending throughout the country. Founded in 1909, the National Library of Guyana is situated on the corner of Church Street and Main Street in central Georgetown. In 2007, the library recorded a collection of 397,893 books and a total of 22,058 members. Its collection includes the papers of A. J. Seymour and Ian McDonald.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moritz Richard Schomburgk</span> German botanist and curator

Moritz Richard Schomburgk, generally known as Richard Schomburgk, was a German botanist and curator of the Adelaide Botanic Garden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Angelo Goodall</span> English painter

Edward Angelo Goodall was a British landscape and orientalist painter, a member of the Goodall family of artists.

Audrey Joan Butt Colson, is a social anthropologist with a particular interest in the Amerindian peoples of Guyana, Brazil and Venezuela. She was, together with Peter Rivière, one of the pioneers of Amazonian anthropology at the University of Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Rodway</span>

James Rodway was a British-born historian, botanist and novelist of British Guiana. Considered British Guiana's premier historian, Rodway helped to establish national institutions such as the Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana and the British Guiana Museum. A Fellow of the Linnean Society, in later years he served as Editor of the colony's literary and scientific journal, Timehri.

Lady Hannah Cassels im Thurn was a British botanical artist and ethnological sculptor best known for the collection of orchid illustrations attributed to her and held at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana</span>

The Royal Agricultural and Commercial Society of British Guiana was established in Georgetown, British Guiana, modern Guyana, on 18 March 1844. It acquired its "Royal" prefix in 1853 when Queen Victoria became its patron.

Cummingsburg, or historically Cumingsburg, is a ward in Georgetown, Guyana. It began as 500-acre plantation, La Bourgade about 1759. When Thomas Cumming, a Scotsman, bought the property, he developed a town plan with residential and commercial lots and streets. The town layout was modified after a fire that burnt much of the town in 1864. Today, it is the site of several museums, including a national and anthropological museum.

References

  1. ↑ Sirvaitis, Karen (2009). Guyana in Pictures . Twenty-First Century Books. p.  72. ISBN   978-1-57505-963-1. Guyana National Museum.
  2. ↑ Lloyd F. Kandasammy (2007-08-23). "A brief History of the National Museum of Guyana". Stabroek News. pp. 16 of 35. Retrieved 2016-07-23. The history of the museum dates back to 1844
  3. ↑ Aldershot, ed. (2006). The Guiana travels of Robert Schomburgk, 1835-1844 / edited by Peter Rivière . Burlington. ISBN   0904180867.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) LCCN 2005024025
  4. ↑ Kaieteurnews, ed. (2012-09-16). "The National Library – serving Guyana for 103 years" . Retrieved 2016-07-23.
  5. ↑ "Guyana National Museum". Archived from the original on 2016-12-23. Retrieved 2016-07-23.
  6. ↑ "A visit to the National Museum". Guyana Chronicle. 2016-06-15. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
  7. ↑ "Guyana National Museum- From the ashes upwards…". Things Guyana. 10 March 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-29.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.