Students, history lovers and Guyanese on the whole will now be able to experience fragments of the Columbus era, as well as gain some insightful knowledge on Guyana’s heritage at the Map Room situated at the Guyana National Museum.
The new addition to the Museum is the brainchild of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and was launched yesterday in observance of International Museum Day.
Speaking at the launch were Elford Liverpool, Administrator of the National Museum; Damian Fernandes of the Environmental Protection Agency; Ben ter Welle, President of the Guyana Heritage Society; a representative of the University of Guyana Library; and Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Dr Frank Anthony.
Fernandes in congratulating the coordinators/organisers of the Map Room/Cartographic Museum remarked, “we have taken a very significant step to ensure that our heritage is preserved”.
“A country that has no heritage has no future,” the heritage society president remarked.
Sindrene Harris, who represented the University of Guyana Library, revealed that the majority of the maps now on display in the Museum were gathered from the library itself. She explained that when they dug into the archives they found information on “not only where we came from but also changes in the landscape” as the years went by. Harris, noting that “children must know their heritage, where they came from”, said this was a great opportunity for them to do so.
Anthony for his part assured the gathering that “we will ensure that this is a very vibrant place of learning”.
According to Liverpool the project began almost a year and a half ago and was completed on Tuesday. He added that it was not always very easy; “it was very challenging at times and took a lot of researching before we could have actually begun”.
Other contributors to the initiative were the Guyana Lands & Survey Commission, the National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), the Guyana Heritage Society, among others.
Mural designer George Simon of the University of Guyana also contributed in designing the interior walls of the Map Room.
The new Map Room not only features maps, but also tools used to design them, as well as some used in the historical era. In addition to these are information on the Schomburgk brothers and Walter Ralegh’s “Road to Eldorado” and the map to go with it.
