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From South Georgia Museum
I have just arrived back in Edinburgh following a very short but busy season in South Georgia. I arrived in SG on the 6th October along with Steve Massam, our taxidermist. We were put straight to work as the first cruise ship of the season, Ushuaia, followed us into King Edward Cove. It was great to welcome Tim and Pauline Carr back to the Museum as members of the expedition team.
During my stay I undertook a lot of work on updating the existing displays and re-displaying a range of items in storage. Thanks must go to Brian Summers who helped to display a variety of items in the Museum. Brian comes to South Georgia annually to deal with bio-security issues and in particular the bitter cress problem. Unfortunately it just wouldn’t stop snowing so it was a long time before he could access the plants!
I also spent a lot of time processing artefacts from Shackleton House. Shackleton House had been used to house the military personnel at King Edward Point and when it was demolished in 2001 all the items on display inside were moved to the Museum for safekeeping. This material provides a really interesting time capsule of life in Shackleton House and it was fascinating to go through it all. I was aided by Government Officer Pat Lurcock who could recognise the significance of many of the artefacts. Some of the items will be included in an exhibition on Shackleton House in the Jarvis room in future.
Steve got straight to work on a new scale model of Grytviken which will be displayed in the Bonner Room. This is a long term project and it will hopefully increase the visitors understanding of the whaling station and the various processes involved as the majority of the buildings were removed during the massive clean-up for the station from 2003-2005. Steve also completed an adult pintail specimen with duckling during his stay. This will go on display in the Prince Room once it has had a chance to dry. The pintail is a familiar sight around Grytviken and it will be good for the visitors to see the specimen up close.
My time on the island went by so quickly this year and it was very hard to leave when the FPV Pharos came to pick us up in November. Back in Scotland I will be working on interesting projects for the South Georgia Heritage Trust, including an oral history project on the Salvesen ex-whalers.
More news from Ainslie soon.....
Elsa (Curator)