Narrative reveals…
THE history of the National Museum is one of tragedy, loss and recovery, according to the historical background at the Museums Day Exhibition that is slated to end on Friday.

The narrative said, after establishment of the Royal Agriculture and Commercial Society (RA&CS) in 1844, one of its main projects was to establish a museum and model room to display Guyana’s National Heritage.

It said the first recorded gift to the project was a donation of 50 wood samples by Sir Robert Schomburgk and the collection gradually increased as more donations of botanicals, minerals and other geological specimens were received.

The compendium said, in 1853, the exhibits were housed in the laboratory of “the old hospital” and were significantly augmented by duplicates being prepared for the 1855 Paris exhibition.

The local museum held its first exhibition in 1855 and received a very favourable response from the public.

But fire destroyed that first collection in 1864 and, through the imitative of Mr. W.H. Campbell, it was replaced by a new one in 1868, when the museum was officially opened.

Through the Government’s input, the display was open to the public from 1870 for two days a week.

A second fire, in 1945, demolished the RA&CS building and, with it, the natural history section, again.

A replacement was put up in 1946 and permanently sited at the North Street location from July 1951.

The British Guiana Museum, as it was known up to then, changed its name to Guyana National Museum upon this country’s attainment of independence and is the oldest.

The current collection is divided into social and natural history sections with an exotic display of native birds, mammals, minerals and woods, the compilation states. (Michelle Gonsalves)