Guy Fawkes bonfires, Mr. Little with a wooden leg, a large echoing hall, salt-smelling wooden boats, tall grasses blowing in the breeze, and a rusty magnificent building on top of the hill are my earliest memories of the then Bermuda Maritime Museum. It would not be until almost two decades later that I would re-engage with the Museum for a friend’s wedding at the recently restored Commissioner’s House and soon after as an employee.
This picture is with my colleague Tremaine Stovell when I was acting curator in 2007(ish). Both of us were coaxed into the bucket of a large Island Construction crane by Dr Edward Harris, the executive director and world-renowned archaeologist. We were at the Casemates property reviewing the impressive pre-restoration work that had taken place thanks to volunteers and the efforts of the Museum. Fast forward almost another twenty years and the Museum is now the National Museum of Bermuda with Casemates under its care and major work has begun on saving the historic buildings with a vision to put Bermuda on the map as a centre for Atlantic World research. I look forward to seeing what progress takes place in the next two decades!