Category: History
The “Floating White House” Bermuda Visit
A one-time presidential yacht once known as “the floating White House” which famously brought Harry S. Truman to Bermuda on an unscheduled holiday in 1946 is rusting away in an Italian shipyard and will likely be scrapped, the UK “Daily Mail” reports.. Built in 1930, the USS “Williamsburg” is currently moored at La... Read more of this article
New Courses On African History, Culture
The Ashay University history and cultural course “Before Enslavement” will commence in Bermuda in September, 2013. Facilitated by the “Guide to Self-Knowledge” workbook, the first course in the series begins at the beginning, focussing on African life before enslavement. Class topics include the African Foundation Timeline,... Read more of this article
Lyme Regis Dignitaries Visit St. George’s
The mayor of Lyme Regis — birthplace of Sir George Somers — led an eight-man delegation to Bermuda recently for the annual Peppercorn Ceremony held in St, George’s, the historic English coastal community’s twin town. Mayor Sally Holman and other Lyme Regis dignitaries spent a week on the island to mark the historical and cultural... Read more of this article
2013 African Diaspora Heritage Trail Conference
Minister of Community and Cultural Development Wayne Scott and the Minister of Tourism and Transport Shawn Crockwell held a joint press conference today [May 13] to make an announcement regarding the upcoming 2013 African Diaspora Heritage Trail [ADHT] Conference.Minister Scott said, “The ADHT conference has become far more than was originally... Read more of this article
“Mystery Airship” Which Panicked Bermuda
A quite literal unidentified flying object panicked Bermuda when it crossed over the island in 1885 in a mysterious episode which remains unexplained to this day. On August 27, 1885, at about 8:30 a. m., Mrs. Adelina D. Bassett observed “a strange object in the clouds, coming from the north.” A contemporary report reads: “She called... Read more of this article
Crime & Punishment In Early Bermuda
The stocks, pillory and ducking stool in King’s Square in St. George are baroque tourist attractions now but few people realise what a gamble it was to live in the days of the Puritan ascendency in Bermuda in the mid-17th century. As historian Elaine Forman Crane has said, if Bermuda was a “moderate Puritan colony in its youth, by the 1640s... Read more of this article
National Trust Talk On Bermuda Quarrying
A Bermuda historian once summed up the island’s quarrying tradition as well as anyone when he said “it is a great advantage when you can dig your house out of your own backyard.” And last Sunday [Apr. 27] the Bermuda National Trust hosted an open air “Trust Talk” at the new Vesey Nature Reserve in Southampton on the subject... Read more of this article
Press Marks Anniversary With Bermuda Book
In May 1964, the University of Virginia Press released its first original publication, “A Voyage to Virginia in 1609, Two Narratives” by William Strachey and Silvester Jourdain, twin accounts of the “Sea Venture” wreck in Bermuda edited by the late Louis B. Wright, who at the time was director of the Folger Shakespeare Library... Read more of this article
World War Two Vet Lamb: “A Bermudian Hero”
Philip Lamb — one of four black Bermudians to serve in the Royal Air Force in World War Two [1939-45] — died yesterday [May 2] at the age of 90. One of Bermuda’s oldest surviving war veterans, St. David’s resident Mr. Lamb [pictured] reached the rank of leading aircraftsman with the RAF and among other wartime exploits lived... Read more of this article
Archaeologists Confirm Jamestown Cannibalism
Archaeologists have confirmed Jamestown’s colonists resorted to cannibalism during the “starving time” winter of 1609-10 prior to the arrival of two provision-laden ships built in Bermuda by the “Sea Venture” castaways. In a presentation at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, archaeologist... Read more of this article
