Fact: There is almost no way into this story that does not start with a joke. But which ones? The subject matter has been fodder for comedy forever (let’s get near to literal about “forever”):
Universities are what’s left of the Paleozoic era.
Museums are the places where possibly interesting things go to die.
Have you ever met a tenured professor or a curator whose closest relatives didn’t all die in the last ice age?
Good. That’s taken care of. Aren’t you happy? How many jokes about fossils are there, really? You can thank me later.
 Dr Allison Ramsay from the History Department and Mike Rutherford from Life Sciences agree to stuff me into the latter’s perilously cluttered office. Rutherford is UWI’s Zoology curator and deputy chair of the Campus Museum Project.
Yes, exactly as you read it. There will be a great curating of objects, artefacts and…stuff that speak to the past of the St. Augustine Campus. As far back as when we started as the University College of the West Indies. And when we transitioned to the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (ICTA). And everything thereafter.
Dr Ramsay describes the University as a “lived experience” which is a really nifty phrase because it counters all my barbs about campuses and museums as old and musty and moth-eaten. The University is not simply a place generously donated by the State as a space to house its collection of tertiary level students and all the books they need. People – students in particular – live here. And living means something: means accommodation and food, schedules, social and cultural experiences. The reality of parking spaces (the likelihood of no parking spaces). You find mentors, friends and romance. You loathe your department head, make new friends and swear off romance. You live.
The Campus Cases project is an attempt to show how life at UWI, St. Augustine has evolved. Rutherford describes it as: “Taking the Museum to the people…Educating people without them knowing it.”
These display cases (Yes, Virginia, they really are cases) will be found loitering in offices and in well-trafficked corridors. They will display anything from recipes from the cafeterias of yore, to the bell that was rung to signal the end of library hours. This bell was featured last year in Emerita Professor Bridget Brereton’s excellent curtain-raiser for the proposed University Museum. I can’t get an example from anyone of what will be enshrined without a mention of this bell. Either this bell was the most abhorred or beloved thing in our history or it’s just one of those inexplicable incidents of celebrity like Kanye.
What can these cases be thinking, inserting themselves randomly into spaces frequented by decent, entirely uninterested students and staff? As with humans who behave in a similar way, there are several reasons.
Reason 1: assertion and visibility. They will not be ignored. They have stories to tell. You, casual drifter, will listen. If you see a glass box in an unlikely place with a small collection of historic items, can you not stop to look? If you can, you really need to rethink how you’re using the curiosity element of your brain.
Reason 2: education. Think of them as harmless sidewalk evangelists. Not the kinds who stalk you and menace you with umbrellas. These cases just want you to know about your legacy, want you to think about what UWI’s history means.
Reason 3: vagrancy. Except, rather than desperate, these cases are very creative solutions to their housing crisis. The UWI Museum is homeless. As in, nowhere has been designated for the housing of this collection. In spite of Professor Brereton’s article. In spite of plans during UWI’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations in 2010. Indeed, against ancient evidence cited by Brereton that the floor plans for ICTA’s admin building was preparing such a place.
The Campus Museum Committee is chaired by Dr Glenroy Taitt, head of West Indiana and the Special Collections at the Alma Jordan Library. With his team, Dr. Taitt has achieved with West Indiana the most inconceivable of things: he made it accessible. You can, like, use it. It does not bode well if he can’t force the museum into residence. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the cases do end up at the library.
UWI St Augustine has other museums. The Anatomy Museum and the Pathology Museum are not open to the public. Considering these disciplines and who’s likely to be attracted to them (medics and serial killers), I say, fair enough. The Zoology Museum, under the stewardship of Mr. Rutherford, is open to visitors. Can’t vouch for how much you’ll see in there since so much of it seems to be lying about on his office shelves daring you to knock them over. The National Herbarium of Trinidad and Tobago has an inviting website but I’m still not clear if I’m invited to the physical premises. Museums! Pull yourselves together!
How could I have thought this was a joking matter? Our museums need us and we need them. Sure, it’s possible to go through life without them and sort of manage. It’s also possible to be just fine after a nephrectomy. Museums, especially ones that hold the promise of great range and variety, make us alive to our own possibilities. Maybe all you do is stop and read one of the signs in a Campus Case. And maybe it’s a sixty-year-old publication from, say, the biological society. And say, you’re currently thinking about the history and development of the sciences in the West Indies, maybe you’d be interested enough to find out if there are more papers like it. Better, suppose it’s something like a collection of old pens. Which makes you think of calligraphy. Which makes you think of Medieval bibles. Which makes you realize that is what you forgot to consider for a linguistics paper. For the love of all the gods of learning, at least be not dull and boring.
Or, have a kidney removed and offer it up for adoption — it won’t make you more interesting, but at least it will do some good to someone else. |
