South Georgia Museum

The South Georgia Museum is situated in Grytviken, near the administrative centre of the UK overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Polar explorers Ernest Shackleton and Frank Wild are buried in Grytviken's graveyard. The museum was established in 1991 by Nigel Bonner.[1]

South Georgia Museum, Grytviken

History

The museum is housed in "the Villa". It was built in 1916, as a residence for the manager of the Grytviken whaling station and his family, and was occupied until the station closed in 1964.

The abandoned building suffered from the effects of severe weather, as well as the destructive actions of vandals. Decades later, W. Nigel Bonner, a noted antarctic and marine mammal specialist, joined forces with a small team of workers. With funding support from the South Georgia Government, they worked to remove environmental hazards at the abandoned whaling station, and renovate and restore the Villa, for use as a museum.[2]

Museum

Once the renovations were completed, the South Georgia Museum was established in 1991 as a specialised whaling museum, subsequently expanding its expositions to include all aspects of the discovery of the island, sealing industry, whaling, maritime and natural history, as well as the 1982 Falklands war.

Bonner wrote : “If [the museum] causes [visitors] to think a little more deeply about the whaling industry, the management of natural resources, and the society of whalers, I think we shall have achieved our objective”.[2]

The museum has become a popular tourist venue, visited by cruise ship or yacht tourists. For several years Tim and Pauline Carr served as museum curators, living on board their yacht Curlew moored in the Grytviken port. The museum is now managed by the South Georgia Heritage Trust and is manned by three members of staff who are the only non-permanent residents who live in Grytviken.

The museum displays include a bronze bust of Duncan Carse by British sculptor Jon Edgar. Carse was influential in the mapping of South Georgia and the island's Mount Carse is named after him. The Bonner Room is named in recognition of Nigel Bonner's work in creating the museum.

Bronze portrait bust of Sir Ernest Shackleton by Anthony Smith on display at the South Georgia Museum.

An occasional artist-in-residence position is supported by the museum. Previous artists to have been resident at the museum include the British sculptor Anthony Smith, who in November 2017 delivered a life-sized bronze portrait bust of Sir Ernest Shackleton to the Museum, which is now on permanent display.[3][4]

The collection of the museum can be viewed online.

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See also

References
  1. "South Georgia Museum - South Georgia Museum". sgmuseum.gs.
  2. "BONNER, (WILLIAM) NIGEL 1928 - 1994". www.falklandsbiographies.org. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  3. "South Georgia Newsletter, September 2013". Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  4. "South Georgia Newsletter, November 2017". Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  • Tim and Pauline Carr. Antarctic Oasis: Under the Spell of South Georgia. New York & London: W.W. Norton & Co., 1998.


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