Carnival, cricket and culture: museum life in Antigua and Barbuda

Abstract

With a total population of some 65,000, the diminutive Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda can boast of surprisingly dynamic and forward looking museum activity. In addition to two rural heritage centres – the Dow's Hill Historical Centre and Betty’s Hope, a full‐scale seventeenth‐century sugar mill in working order – it counts a national museum in the capital city, St John’s, and a site‐cum‐museum – Nelson’s Dockyard – at English Harbour, once a repair base for British fleets and now thronged with yachts of many nationalities. Arthur Gillette is former editor‐in‐chief of Museum International and, since retirement in 1998, a freelance writer on cultural heritage issues and guide to strolls through the history of Paris. A veteran yachtsman, he sailed into English Harbour on his Amity and shares his ‘discovery’ with us.