Latest News
From South Georgia Museum
[edit] August 2010
As the team prepare to return to the island for the 2010/11 season, find out more about the new team and the curatorial plans for the season.
[edit] April 2010
We have recently received an excellent painting of factory ship Southern Venturer. Read all about it!
It's the end of the season! Read what General Manager Ainslie Wilson has been up to in the last few weeks.
[edit] March 2010
The history of Grytviken came alive recently when Bridget Steed projected a range of historic images around the station.
SGHT's new PR & Marketing Manager, Ruth Fraser, gives us an update on current fundraising initiatives.
Museum Assistant and resident artist, Bridget Steed, recently organised an art exhibition in Grytviken whaling station. You can find out more about the exhibition and her time on the island in her recent blog.
[edit] February 2010
February News
[edit] January 2010
A new exhibition at the Museum on the photography of Theodor Andersson was recently officially opened by the Commissioner of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Alan Huckle.
This month we welcome a new member to the Museum team!
Happy New Year from all at the South Georgia Museum.
You can now read about Christmas in South Georgia.
[edit] December 2009
Read Ruth's blog
View the latest BLOG from SG Museum
[edit] November 2009
Please click to HERE to find out more about some amazing items we are auctioning to raise money for SGHT
[edit] September 2009
The 2009/10 season at South Georgia Museum started last week with the arrival of Ainslie Wilson (General Manager) and Bridget Steed (Museum Assistant).
Read Ainslie's blog
Read Bridget's blog
[edit] June 2009
We now have images from the Carr Maritime Gallery on our website. You can find more information [HERE]
[edit] June 2009
We are happy to announce the launch of the new South Georgia Museum online database. The new system is called eHive and it was specially designed for small collections. We continually strive to make our collection more accessible and eHive allows people to search, view and comment on our collection. As well as having a public profile the system also allows the curator to record related information such as acquisition details, condition reports and display history. We are also able to connect our Museum to other relvant collections, such as the Falkland Islands Museum which also plans to use eHive. We have started to upload our artefacts and will continue to do so over the summer.
You can view our collection [HERE] please search for the South Georgia Museum once you have accessed the eHive site.
[edit] January 2009
Time for another update from South Georgia Museum. As general manager of the museum I am responsible for the day to day running of the museum and shop. This includes organising cleaning and maintenance, manning of the shop, stock ordering and management for the shop, finances, general correspondence and being a point of contact for the government officer. This is my third season on the island, having spent 2 seasons running the post office at KEP, before heading to the far side of the cove and joining the team at the museum.
The season has reached it’s mid point rather quickly. 3 months ago I was whisked direct from the Lan Chile flight landing at MPA in the Falklands, to the Fisheries Patrol vessel waiting in Stanley, with no time to even stop in at the famous West Store to do last minute shopping. I was accompanied on the voyage down by the lads from Morrison Construction who were coming down to complete the Hydro Electric scheme. The whaling station at Grytviken had hydro electric power when it was in use earlier this century. Now a completely new system has been installed using the Gull Lake water to turn the turbine and the dam to control the level of the lake. The original Dam is still in place but underwent some major strengthening work to bring it up to specification. With the price of fuel, and the maintenance costs of running generators and oil fired boilers, the hydro scheme will be of great benefit to the Island — not only with the annual running costs, but it will be environmentally beneficial too.
With no ships in over New Year, Elsa Darren and myself, accompanied by George, Robbo and Richie from BAS, escaped for a holiday to St Andrews, the largest King Penguin Colony on South Georgia, a 7 hour hike over the Barff Peninsula. In order to reach the further peninsulas, cut off from KEP by glaciers and high ridges, we go by boat and are dropped off at a suitable spot, hiking the rest of the way. This can be a worry, waiting for the wind to die down enough to take the boats out, hoping it’s not going to rain the whole time you’re camping, and wondering if the weather will allow you to be picked up again! But with fantastic weather, great company and a good supply of liquid new year cheer dropped off by yacht earlier, we had a most incredible experience; the scenery, the wildlife, and the knowledge that we were having a unique experience.
There is work going on here too believe it or not! Elsa and Darren are currently putting the finishing touches to the new Carr Maritime Gallery. The maritime gallery display will also include the ship’s bell and a model of the Dias, formally Viola, which is one of the catchers outside the museum and the remaining pieces of the ‘Alert’ which was the original inshore vessel used in the Discovery scientific investigations. Chris Moore, has joined the team recently and the conservation and display of this artefact is his main project. We are also working on the outside maintenance of the artefacts, Hope Point crosses and cemetery fence. These all require a combination of ship-free time and good weather – not always do they come together!
With weddings in the church ( 2 this season), hosting cocktail parties for cruise ships and ‘get to know your museum’ nights for the locals, and a record number of ship and yacht visits, life at the South Georgia Museum is hectic fun and very rewarding. Roll on next season.
Ainslie Wilson
General Manager
[edit] November 2008
The James Caird arrives at South Georgia Museum
Last Thursday saw the arrival of the James Caird replica which will now become one of the star attractions in the new Carr Maritime Gallery. The gallery, which is situated in a former workshop adjacent to the Museum, will also display information on the vessels around South Georgia and a fabulous new Wandering Albatross specimen created by Steve Massam.
The replica was accompanied by Bob Wallace who built it to take part in the filming of the Shackleton IMAX film in 2000. The boat was purchased by SGHT thanks to a huge level of support from U.S donors and Quark Expeditions.
It was a glorious day with brilliant sunshine as the cruise ship Shokalskiy brought the ship in atop two zodiacs. Ainslie, the General Manager, and myself went out on a zodiac to meet Bob Wallace and the James Caird where we got some fantastic photos and film footage. Once on land the boat was picked up by Morrison Construction who guided it carefully to the Maritime Gallery. The James Caird was then part rigged by Bob and there was an opportunity for all the cruise ship passengers to take part in a team photograph. Morrison Construction and the Museum team then moved the boat into the gallery the following day where it will go on show shortly.
A great big thank you to everyone involved in helpng us here at the Museum on what was a very exciting day for the whole team!
[edit] August 2008
During August I spent four days in Sandefjord, Norway, visiting the whaling museum and finding out more about the whaling industry and its importance in the region.
I spent a day at the whaling museum, looking at the collection and archives. It was really good to see how the South Georgia collection compares and we looked at many ways of bringing the collections together and possible partnership projects for the future including exhibitions and online work. The following day I gave a presentation to a group of museum professionals, historians, private collectors and other interested groups. It was a terrific opportunity to meet many people with connections to South Georgia. Visit the Whaling Museum website [HERE]
The whaling industry is an incredibly important part of the history of Sandefjord and you can see it all around the town. While there I had the pleasure of visiting the Whalers' Chapel which was built in memory of the Norwegian men who worked and died in South Georgia. It is believed to be one of the only floating chapels in Europe and is a very calm and peaceful place to visit. Here I met Fridtjof Jacobsen whose grandfather was the Manager at Grytviken when Shackleton and his men visited with the Endurance on their way south in 1914.
During my visit I stayed at the Hotel Atlantic which is packed from floor to ceiling with whaling artefacts. As a curator it was an incredibly interesting place to stay and I also spent some time with the owner, Henrik Kulms, a keen collector of whaling artefacts and also a member of the team who restored the Husvik managers villa. I also became aware of the website [LARDEX] which he was involved in setting up. The site displays a large number of photographs and has a great deal of information on some of the vessels which visited SG.
Elsa
[edit] August 2008
Read a new article written by Tim and Pauline Carr about their time at South Georgia Museum [HERE]
[edit] April 2008
Curator's Blog - 23/4/2008
During our last few weeks Steve completed his Wandering Albatross specimen which really looks remarkable. Space permitting the new piece will take up residence in the Maritime Gallery next season. He also completed a snow petrel before leaving and seeing them both in his workshop was great as you could really appreciate the difference in size.
Since my arrival in Scotland things have been non stop, catching up with SGHT, visiting friends and family and conditioning myself to work successfully from home. I believe motivation is the key! Museum work continues with a huge amount of artefact information to be processed in order to create a database suitable for online use. This project will take a while but is incredibly worthwhile and will make the collection much more accessible. I will also be visiting a range of people who have artefacts related to South Georgia as well as doing a talk for the Salvesens ex whalers club in Edinburgh.
I brought a number of items back from South Georgia which will become part of an exhibition on Letters Patent at the Scott Polar Research Institute from 16 July. I believe the exhibition will then be touring to Discovery, Dundee and Hull. If you would like any further information check out: here
During the final visit of the cruise ship Hanseatic for the season they raised 1300 Euros for South Georgia Heritage Trust through the auction of a sea chart which was great news. A beautiful Albatross sculpture made by Steve Massam was also sold to a visitor from Corinthian II in the Museum for $10,000! This was a wonderful way to end the season, a big thank you to these very generous people.
Knowing how fast my time in South Georgia went I’m sure October will come round pretty quickly and I’ll be off South again!
Elsa
[edit] February 2008
Curator’s Blog - 15/2/2008
Here we are, only 5 weeks left in South Georgia, the time is flying. Most of our time over the last few weeks has been taken up by visiting cruise ships. We had a fabulous afternoon with the Hanseatic who held a small private function in the Museum after the visitors had returned to the ship. I gave a short presentation on the history of the Museum and then we had a group photo outside in the forecourt. A great time was had by all, as well as a few glasses of champagne!
Last week saw the arrival of Prinsendam, the largest cruise ship to visit South Georgia with over 700 people. Miriam and John had a very successful day when they took a range of gifts from the Museum shop to sell on the ship while Sarah, Steve and myself held the fort in the Museum.
The contractors have recently finished the Maritime Gallery so I will be arranging to install a large part of the display in the next few weeks. The James Caird III is on its way to South Georgia and will be stopping off in Stanley where it will become part of an exhibition on Shackleton before arriving here early in October. This is incredibly exciting and I’m very pleased that I will see its arrival next season.
The new Dias display has found a temporary home in the Bonner room while work was finalised in the Carr Maritime Gallery. Just before the model of the Viola (now Dias) went on display we had a visit from a couple from Hull who were very interested in the artefacts so I took them behind the scenes to see the model for themselves.
I had my second article published in the local paper back home in Orkney and have had many related enquiries. I will also be doing an interview for BBC radio Orkney next week to talk about South Georgia Heritage Trust and life on a remote island. The Museum also featured in the Shetland Times in an article about the Viola (now Dias), which is moored at Grytviken.
The number of people on base almost halved on Wednesday with the departure of the James Clark Ross, it will be ferrying home the Chief Boatman who has been here for 2 and a half years and also two field teams who have been here for the summer. A group of three Norwegian geologists who have been working here for a month also headed home. The Scandinavians treated us to a traditional Norwegian night a few weeks back where we dried cod and fiske boller (fish balls). We were then treated to a Norwegian film which was made in the 1930s.
It is a beautiful day here in Grytviken and I believe there is a call for volunteers to work on the cemetery fence, I better get my overalls on!
Elsa Davidson
[edit] January 2008
Shop Manager's Blog - 16/01/08 It’s another busy month at the museum, and Christmas has come and gone. The week before Christmas our local builders from Morrisons did a great job of repannelling the Bonner room, so Elsa had her work cut out first clearing the room, then replacing the artefacts once it was finished.
Christmas week was a very busy one for the museum with two ships on Christmas Eve and two on Christmas Day, but we still managed to squeeze a couple of courses of dinner in between the ships, thanks to the Morrisons chef, Andy Peterson. Boxing Day should have also brought a ship but there were extremely high winds so the Bremen stayed out in bay, giving us a well-earned break. I decided it was a good idea to join some of the BAS folks for a Boxing Day swim in the sea, followed by a sauna. It was surprisingly fun but I won’t be jumping back in the freezing waters in a hurry!
The busy week of Christmas was closely followed by a very quiet New Year’s week. The fisheries patrol vessel, Pharos, was along side the jetty at King Edward Point so there was a party in the boatshed for New Year with museum, BAS, Morrisons and Pharos people all attending. The dancing took a while to get established but once it did it carried on to the early hours.
Both Sarah and I took advantage of the time without ship and went on camping trips. Sarah went to Harpon, a two hour walk to the other side of the Thatcher Peninsula. There is a small hut there right next to the Lyell Glacier, a fantastic spot. I went over to Sorling to meet the geological field party (again!) then helped them move their camp to Corral, about a fifteen minute boat ride away. On our free day we went for a walk over to the macaroni penguin colony at Rookery Bay, a gorgeous place but the weather wasn’t on our side and we walked back to the campsite in the snow.
This week has been one of the busiest weeks of the whole season, with six cruise ships, two research vessels and a Royal Navy ship all visiting the museum. While it was exhausting it was also great fun meeting a variety of people, and trying to guess who came off which ship.
One of the research ships, the GO Sars, brought in three Norwegian geologists who will be staying on the base for a month. This means that Elsa and I are now sharing a room, so far it’s happy families but she might get fed up with climbing onto the top bunk every night!
In between the ships, the outside work continues, with Sarah working on the artefacts on the forecourt, and John and I working on the cemetery. The dandelions were starting to take over so we decided to take action with a strimmer and a rake. Brian Summers, from the Falkland Islands, was around to tackle the bittercress problem at King Edward Point, and kindly donated his time and some weedkiller to tidy up the graves, so many thanks to him.
Miriam Iorwerth
[edit] December 2007
Curator's Blog - 13/12/07
Hello once again from South Georgia. It’s nearly Christmas and things are getting a little festive here at the Museum. On Sunday we plan to decorate the Church in Grytviken. The Church is a wooden construction, which was initially built in Norway before being dismantled and brought here to be re-erected in 1913. The decorating will be helped along by mulled wine and mince pies which are sure to get everyone in the festive spirit.
Over the past few weeks I have been focussing my efforts on the documentation of collections. I have managed to sort out the artefact storage room completing an inventory of all items and generally improving storage conditions. Artefacts have started arriving for the new Carr Maritime Gallery, which include a scale model of the Dias when it was previously known as Viola along with the ships bell. This has been very kindly loaned for the season and transport facilitated by University of Hull Maritime Historical Studies Centre, Specialist Marine Services Hull and Hull Maritime Museum. As soon as building work is completed in the new display area I will be getting the new exhibition ready. As well as the Dias bell and model it will also include a replica of the James Caird which will hopefully be travelling to South Georgia in February.
We are very grateful to the South Georgia Association who made a presentation of a painting to the Museum last week. Bob Headland very kindly took it down from the UK and presented it on behalf of SGA. The painting is of Grytviken Whaling Station as seen from King Edward Point and is believed to have been painted on the occasion of the winter visit of H.E. the Governor of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies, Sir Arnold Wienholt Hodson, August 1927. It is a great addition to the collection and I will be finding a suitable place to display it in the next week.
Last week we also had the pleasure of a visit from Howard Pearce, Chairman of SGHT. It was great to be able to show him the recent developments at the Museum including the new Maritime Gallery. He was travelling as a lecturer on board the Discovery which was our biggest cruise ship so far this season.
The weather has been remarkable over the last few weeks so John and Sarah have started work on the cemetery fence and the main steps into the Museum. This was all going very well until Sarah lost her glasses in an Elephant seal wallow and had to fish them out and then hose them down! John has completed his picnic table and seeing as the weather has been so nice we have dined outside nearly every day, it has also been greatly enjoyed by the cruise ship passengers and visiting yachts people.
On a personal note I managed to get out camping to the Barff Peninsula over the weekend which was very enjoyable. We had the chance to view three Sooty Albatrosses up close and get some beautiful photographs, which was a real treat. There are also reindeer on the Barff but unfortunately we did not encounter any on our trip. The number of fur seals is growing around base and there is now a large male just outside Larsen house, where we stay, who growls every time we walk passed. You would think he’d get bored eventually!
Merry Christmas from us all at South Georgia Museum
Elsa Davidson
[edit] November 2007
Shop Manager's Blog – 26/11/07
Well time is flying here on South Georgia! We’ve already been here for over a month and have had ten cruise ship visits and seven yachts pop in to say hello. Despite our best efforts, the cake and biscuit production lines aren’t quite up and running yet, maybe next month will be a good time to get the now legendary tea and cakes at the museum.
The biggest and saddest news from the last week has been the loss of Explorer, which sank close to the South Shetland Islands, in the Antarctic Ocean. We were all glued to the internet news sites and were very relieved when we heard that everyone managed to get off the ship unscathed. Just days before we had been eating a lovely dinner on Explorer with the passengers and arranging Christmas dinner for the museum staff, as the ship was due back in Grytviken on Christmas Day. On a more positive note, we were delighted to see a South Georgia bobble hat (bought in the museum shop) on the BBC news website, as well as some of the happy faces of the people we had met on the ship.
Back to the world of the museum, and things have been very busy. John has been beavering away in the workshop and reappearing with all sorts of magnificent items, including a picnic table that is waiting for its last coat of paint, before a grand unveiling. Sarah’s creative juices have been unleashed in the shop with a big reorganisation to help both customers and staff while the shop is busy with cruise ship passengers. John’s woodworking skills once again came into force with new shelving, and a fantastic new hanging clothes rail (made of various items found in cupboards), which is very ‘South Georgia’. Early indications are very positive, and the flow of people around the shop seems to have improved.
The wildlife continues to amaze and amuse, and I’m particularly partial to the elephant seal weaners. I’m easily distracted on the walk to work by their cute squashed up faces; it’s amazing I make it in at all! The fur seal numbers are starting to increase with one pup being born near the graveyard. Elsa and I also saw two on a walk around Brown Mountain at the weekend, so soon the place will be teaming with them.
We’ve managed to get out and about between ships quite a bit. I went over to the Greene Peninsula for a couple of nights camping to see my partner who is working as part of a British Antarctic Survey field party. Sarah spent a night at Maiviken cave, a place that was used by the sealers as a safe haven, and even has a front door! We’ve also been getting out and about for day walks, including climbing up Brown Mountain, Orca Peak, skis to Maiviken and walks along the beach amongst the furries!
The building contractors, Morrisons, have arrived to work on the hydroelectric dam, so the population of the island has doubled in the last week. Their base is at Grytviken so this side of the cove is a lot busier now, and there is always someone around to have a laugh and a joke with. They have already started work on the new Carr Maritime Gallery, so soon Elsa will be able to start working on the exhibits.
That’s about it for this instalment, so the torch will be handed back to Elsa for next time.
Miriam Iorwerth
Curators Blog – 8/11/07
Three weeks into our 6 months stay and things are incredibly busy here at South Georgia Museum. Everyone is settling in well and the arrival of our first two cruise ships, the Nordnorge and Ushiaia, proved to be a great success. The arrival of the Ushuaia was particularly good as both Tim and Pauline Carr were onboard as expedition leaders. It was wonderful having the opportunity to meet them and discuss the Museum; it’s future and their experiences here. While the ships are in I spend all my time front of house chatting to visitors and answering questions. As well as making their experience more enjoyable it also helps as an evaluation tool to find out exactly what people like about the Museum and what brought them to South Georgia.
Looking out the window across Cumberland Bay I still can’t quite believe that I’m actually here in South Georgia. You can read all the books and see all the photographs beforehand but nothing quite prepares you for the overwhelming beauty of this Antarctic Isle. There are currently a group of King Penguins who have taken up residence just in front of the Museum and it’s a real joy to watch them going about their daily routine whilst having our lunch.
The Museum Assistants John and Sarah are doing a sterling job of getting the Museum ready for the busy summer ahead. Yesterday they started preparing the church porch for a fresh coat of paint as well as beginning a deep clean of the exhibition rooms and cleaning of artefacts. Along with Miriam, the Shop Manager, they have also been processing and re-displaying new stock for the shop. John has particularly good joinery skills which have already proved to be most useful and Sarah has a good eye for displays so her work in the shop will hopefully lead to increased sales.
I have been spending my time getting up to speed with the collections management system and looking at ways of taking this forward. As a lover of Maritime history this is a most enjoyable pursuit and is a great way to get to know the collection and the history of the Museum. I have found the collections to be of a very high quality and in particularly good condition considering the weather here. The environmental conditions within the Museum are surprisingly good; the temperature does not tend to fluctuate too much which is ideal for safe storage of a range of artefacts. We are very grateful to Pat Lurcock, who gave us a tour of the whaling station in our second week. This really helped to provide context to the artefacts and highlighted a little more about what it would really have been like to live and work on the island. There are a couple of new acquisitions which I will process in the coming week including a photo album recording the S.S. Norhval Whaling Expedition, 1946-47 which was kindly donated by Mrs Barbara Ross, Fife.
I am looking forward to getting stuck into the new Carr Maritime Gallery display which should begin in late November following some minor building work. Tim and Pauline Carr were very happy to hear that the gallery will be named after them and were keen to help in any way they can. Preparing for the new exhibition will include building a cradle for the bow of Alert a survey launch vessel used during the Discovery Investigations.
Living with the British Antarctic Survey team at their King Edward Point base is proving to be excellent. They are a really good bunch of people, the accommodation is great and the food is outstanding! There was a barbeque for the arrival of the James Clark Ross on my first cooking shift so I haven’t actually had to make anything yet. I better get my cookery books out as the standard is so high I will have to do a lot to impress. The place is pretty noisy at the moment as there is an Elephant seal breeding ground just outside the window. The fur seals are now also starting to arrive, they are very cute but also very snappy so you’ve got to watch out when passing the tussock.
And so ends my first Curator’s blog. Next week Shop Manager Miriam Iorwerth will be logging her thoughts here on the Latest News page.
Elsa Davidson
[edit] September 2007
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