Photo courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum, Green Turtle Cay
It’s Museum Monday! Today’s photo shows Captain Roland Roberts (left) and Harold Lowe with a large turtle. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, turtle fishing was a lucrative occupation. Whereas a full day’s work earned a Green Turtle Cay labourer less than two shillings, one hawksbill turtle shell could bring in £8-10.
Photo courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum, Green Turtle Cay
Today’s Museum Monday photo features Green Turtle Cay’s Verdell Cooper with a box of fresh-caught crabs.
Photo courtesy of the Island Roots Heritage Festival
It’s Museum Monday! Today’s photo is of the Gospel Chapel Sunday School, and was taken sometime during the 1950s. Recognize anyone?
Photo courtesy of the Island Roots Heritage Festival organizing committee
Today’s Museum Monday image is from the mid-1900s, and shows Mrs. Shirley Roberts in front of the Bahamas Airways office. Bahamas Airways operated a seaplane service between Nassau and Green Turtle Cay from the late 1940s to the late 1950s.
Making Rope – Photo courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum
Today’s Museum Monday photo is from the early to mid-1900s, and features local men making rope. Rope was commonly made from locally grown sisal. I don’t know who the people are in the image, but the photograph was taken on the road between Sundowners and the freight dock.
Image courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum
Today’s Museum Monday photo features The Little Maggie Bar, operated by proprietor, Absalom Bethel. Does anyone know where on Green Turtle Cay this was located, or the identities of the little girls?
Image courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum
Early in the 20th century, Green Turtle Cay residents grew sugar cane, from which they would extract cane juice, using a mill such as the one above. The cane juice would be boiled down to make syrup, which was used in place of more expensive, imported sugar. Though this photo shows men and boys turning the mill wheel, at other times, it was pulled by a horse.
Photo courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum
Today’s Museum Monday photograph was taken on May 2, 1938 at the Green Turtle Cay marriage of Clarence Pedican and Lillian Saunders. Sadly, Lillian would die in 1956 at just 36 years old. And though Clarence would remarry the following year, that marriage was short lived. In 1959, Clarence was lost at sea from a crawfish boat traveling to Florida.
Photo courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum
Today’s Museum Monday features (L-R) Joan Cash, Julie Key, Commissioner Colin Macdonald, Iris Lowe and Stella Curry. Does anyone know what the occasion was?
Photo: Albert Lowe Museum
Today’s Museum Monday photo shows Green Turtle Cay’s Girls’ Brigade (they were similar to Girl Scouts) saluting the Union Jack. My guess is that this photo was taken sometime during the 1940s or early 50s.
Photo courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum
It’s Museum Monday! On the left of the photo above is Elliot Sawyer. To the right is (current town council member) Greg Curry. Can anyone identify the boy in the middle?
Photo courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum
Today’s Museum Monday photo shows the settlement of New Plymouth, as well as Black Sound and, in the distance, Pelican and No Name Cays.
Note that at the time this photo was taken, the Gillam Bay point, as we know it, did not exist. Above and to the right of the point is a sandbar, to which my grandmother and other older Green Turtle residents recalled walking at low tide to gather shells. Over time, the land between the point and the bar filled in to create what is now the Gillam Bay point.
This photo is a great reminder of how the shores of the cay ebb and flow over time.
Photo courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum.
Today’s Museum Monday features a very talented group: (L-R) author and historian, Sandra Riley, artist, historian and Albert Lowe Museum founder, Alton Lowe, author and (retired) Director-General of Heritage, Gail Saunders and author and historian Steve Dodge.
Photo courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas.
Today’s Museum Monday photo was taken at the opening of the Albert Lowe Museum in November 1976.
From left to right are: Valerie Reckley, Iva Lowe Scholtka, Lady Symonette and Sir Roland Symonette, first Premier of the Bahamas.
Photo from the collection of Carolyn (Albury) Diedrick.
This Museum Monday photo is from my mom’s collection. It’s interesting for two reasons.
First, it shows where the road from town used to end — the concrete steps leading to the school would be to the right of this photo. On the far left is the property opposite the school on which the teacher’s residence was built and where the Green Turtle Cay Volunteer Fire Station stands today.
Second, it features a current resident of the cay, who I hope will forgive me for posting this. Can you guess who he is? And can anyone identify the young lady?
Photo courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas
Writer Sandra Riley presents her book, Homeward Bound, to Lady Marguerite Pindling, wife of then Prime Minister Lynden Pindling. Behind them hangs a portrait of shipbuilder Albert Lowe painted by Mr. Lowe’s son Alton, and featured on the cover of Homeward Bound.
In honour of the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Albert Lowe Museum, each Monday’s daily photo during 2016 will be a historic image from Green Turtle Cay or Abaco.
Aerial view of New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas.
During 2016, in honour of the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Albert Lowe Museum, each Monday’s daily photo will be a historic image from Green Turtle Cay or Abaco.
Photo courtesy of the Albert Lowe Museum, Green Turtle Cay, Bahamas
Bahamian artist and historian Alton Lowe and Michelle Roberts of Green Turtle Cay present the New Plymouth flag to Key West Mayor Charles McCoy during the first Island Roots Heritage Festival, held November 1977 in Key West.
During 2016, in honour of the 40th anniversary of the opening of the Albert Lowe Museum, each Monday’s daily photo will be a historic image from Green Turtle Cay or Abaco.
Built during the mid- to late-1800s on the property east of where the town administration buildings stand today, Green Turtle Cay’s Methodist Church could seat 1,200 people. The structure was one of many destroyed during the hurricane of 1932.
UPDATE: Thank you, eagle-eyed readers! Though it looks similar, I believe the building in this image is actually the New Plymouth Inn, post 1932 hurricane and prior to its conversion from private home to a hotel.
