The Guyana Heritage Museum: Worth its weight in gold
By Linda Rutherford
WHAT makes a museum a museum? For Gary Serrao, anything that has anything to do with Guyana. An assortment of old Dutch bottles, some the shape of a flat-bottomed retort.... An old-fashioned tailor's iron, the type that uses coal to generate heat..... The eternal drinking goblet of yester-year that was never out of a water frog or two, which, as legend would have it, is what was largely responsible for keeping the water so cool and sweet. Then there is the ol'-time sewing machine; `Necchi' they called them. They functioned by vigorously turning the handle. It was said you could tell the seamstresses of yore by the ample arms they sported. And when it came to business, circa 1832, the only acceptable currency in `Demarary' and `Essequebo' was the `Joe', one large piece of paper that looks more like a birth certificate, equivalent to 22 guilders. Remember `Puma', the sickly sweet concoction brewed by D'Aguiar's that was all the rage in the 70s? Serrao found a few bottles around to add to his collection and titillate old memories. Serrao, a metallurgical engineer who left for England sometime in the 70s, came home in 1993 after working for 16 years with British Gas, reputedly the largest such entity in the world. His obsession with Guyanese artifacts, he said, began innocently enough many years ago in Britain with a frantic search for any information he could lay his hand on about coconut trees. "Basically, I collected everything about Guyana; stamps, records, books, maps, anything that had something to do with Guyana," Serrao said. The crux of the matter, he said, was that he was just "a guy who had left his heart back in Guyana" in his quest for greener pastures further afield. One of the main reasons for his establishing the museum, he said, is to give the younger generation an opportunity to understand who Guyanese are as a people. "I always say if you know about cook-up rice, dholl puri, black pudding and pone, then you're Guyanese. I am third generation Guyanese and proud of that fact," Serrao said. According to historian Mr Tota Mangar who spoke at its opening two Fridays ago, a museum such as Serrao's `Guyanese Heritage Museum' is worth its weight in gold to any aspiring student of history or visiting scholar, to whom source is all-important. And that's what Serrao has aplenty. "What Mr Serrao has is a wide variety of sources," Mangar said, adding that such an impressive collection was certain to complement not only the work of the other museums but also that of the National Archives and National Library. Mangar said it's amazing the amount of information contained in a common postage stamp. They tell a lot about the fauna and flora of a country, for instance, and about the person in rule at a particular period. They also tell about a country's imports and exports among other valuable information. As to coins and banknotes, Mangar declared: "Now that's in the field of numismatics," which is the study of coins and medals. All these, he said, are not only auxiliary sciences, but invaluable tools to the historian. Administrator of the Guyana National Museum, Ms Richlin Softleigh, however, had one question for Serrao. She was curious as to how he planned addressing the issue of accessibility for the purpose of research while still keeping the collection intact. Books, in her opinion, are the most vulnerable of the lot. But there's also another side to the `Guyana Heritage Museum' - and that is that it is a budding little tourist resort in the making. Besides enjoying a moment of tranquility and a spectacular view of the Atlantic from a cosy little alcove above the museum proper, one can also laze in the swimming pool, which is just about five feet deep. Serrao also has a day-tour arrangement whereby one can spend the day touring the museum, having a swim and meal all for G$1,500. There is also accommodation available, some self-contained with canopy beds, for those wanting to stay on for longer periods. Prices range from G$2,500 - $3,000. There is also a fee attached to touring the museum - G$100 for adults and half-price for children. The `Guyana Heritage Museum' can be found at 17, Kastev, Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara. Inquiries can be entertained on telephone number 068-2408.
Guyana's museums DID you know that there were five museums in Guyana? No need to be embarrassed, as neither did we until two Fridays ago when historian, Dr James Rose drew that fact to our attention at a function which heralded the birth of a sixth, `The Guyanese Heritage Museum', tucked away at Meten-Meer-Zorg, on the West Coast Demerara. As Dr Rose observed, everyone knows the National Museum, located in the heart of the city, so to speak, at Company Path. Most distinguished of them all, in his opinion, however, is the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology, housed in an unobtrusive little building on Main Street, also in the heart of the city. Others are the John Campbell Museum, better known as the `Police Museum', The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Museum and the Museum of African Artifacts, located on Barima Avenue in Bel Air Park. Then, there are the still-borns. Take the building which houses the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) National Commission for example - the Patrick Dargan House, at the corner of Robb and Oronoque Streets, Queenstown. Dargan was a parliamentarian of note, who was particularly known for his eloquence. When that building was acquired some years ago by the National Trust of Guyana, Dr Rose said, it was intended that it should become a Social History Museum. Also on the cards was a National Science Research Museum which should have been established at Chateau Margot Park, on the East Coast Demerara. Then, sometime in the 70s, Cabinet approved a document which provided the money for the acquisition of two buildings. One was the old railway headquarters out on Lamaha Street. That building was earmarked to house a Museum of Technology. The other was the old Carmichael Street Post Office, directly opposite. That was earmarked to be a Science Museum. Again, in the 70s, Kyk-Over-Al, one of the old Dutch forts on the Essequibo River, was identified to be the location of the Dutch Colonial Heritage Museum. In that same era, too, the Bourda Cemetery was identified to be a museum of some sort. Whew! That's a whopping 11 museums in all, if only plans had come to fruition. (Linda Rutherford)
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