International Museum Day which was held under the theme ‘Museums in a Changing World’ was observed on Friday and a media tour was organized by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport to some of Guyana’s museums.
Jennifer Wishart, Administrative Manager of the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology said that international Museum Day was aimed at letting people know about museums.
The first tour was around the Walter Roth, which preserves Amerindian artifacts and records the way of life of Guyana’s first peoples.
The museum boasts touch screen equipment that provides stories and information to visitors. It also has an outreach programme, Junior Archaeology, which allows children from all over Guyana to participate in hands-on archaeological training in a number of Guyana’s regions.
The tour then proceeded to the Cheddi Jagan Research Centre. The first floor houses a Conference Centre to host lectures and discussions at the grassroots level with a view to formulating projects which seek to implement Dr Jagan’s vision of a New Global Human Order.
The second floor houses Dr Jagan’s archives, which preserve various documents, including the personal papers of the late leader, such as his marriage certificate to the late Janet Jagan, and his birth certificate.
The third floor accommodates a museum which is home to memorabilia of the late president, photographs, gifts and other objects. A centrepiece is a recreation of Dr Jagan’s office, with the original office furniture and articles including his slippers and two jars of nuts and channa.
Next on the tour was the Guyana National Museum, with its stuffed 22-ft giant sloth which stands in a special room against a painted forest background. Among many other exhibits, there is also a map room, with a variety of Guyana maps on display.
The tour then visited the Museum of African Heritage which is located in a house initially owned by Dr H Nicholson who collected many artifacts in the course of his travels. However, he eventually decided to migrate to England and sold his house with its contents to the Government of Guyana in 1985.
Since most of the items were of African origin, then Director of Art Dr Denis Williams decided to establish a Museum of African Heritage. The museum boasts a number of traditional brass weights which come from the Gold Coast of Ghana and were used to weigh gold.
The penultimate stop was at the Guyana Heritage Museum, which is located in Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara where there are Guyanese books and exhibits ranging from an old hot water mug to old coins.
The Guyana Heritage Museum which was opened in 1999, is privately owned and controlled by Gary Serrao, but he likes to say that it belongs to Guyana. Serrao said that the museum is a Guyanese way of saying thank you to the past, and he has collected items which represent different parts of the Guyanese heritage.
Then finally it was off to the Demerara Distillers Rum Heritage Centre where the company has preserved much of the unique heritage of Demerara rums. The exhibition features photographic memorabilia on the walls and a display of machinery and parts from their former distilleries, among other historical pieces.
