Dear Editor,
It was with great sadness that I read the Stabroek News article captioned `Gov’t considering relocating Walter Roth museum – Harmon’ in yesterday’s edition concerning the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology. As one of its co-founders with the late Dr. Denis Williams I wish to humbly state my opinion regarding this proposal.
The collections stored and displayed in this building are not only very fragile but in 1980 when the anthropological collections from the National Museum were removed to the Walter Roth Museum there was considerable damage and loss of artifacts as a result. Even after the death of Denis Williams in 1998 when the collections in his home on which he was working were removed, there was damage and loss of a considerable amount of his archaeological collections. Some had to be dumped as a result of lack of identification and also mixture of collections, as the storage facilities there then, were inadequate. We do not as yet have the expertise required for the removal of such delicate and very ancient artifacts dating back to some 7,200 years ago.
I therefore appeal to the authorities concerned to please reconsider this move. I have learnt over the years that in order to change something we need to build something. Let us preserve what we have and built on it.
Yours faithfully,
Jennifer Wishart
