His Excellency Hosts “Caribbean Through a Lens” at the High Commission
LONDON, 28th November 2012 – This evening His Excellency Garvin Nicholas hosted a very special Nationals’ Meeting at the High Commission in London in which the National Archives’ Outreach Team presented their vast collection of archive photographs of Trinidad and Tobago.
- • (From left to right) Sandra Shakespeare, Community Projects Officer; Jenni Orme, Records Specialist Diverse History; His Excellency Garvin Nicholas, High Commissioner for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago; Michael Mahoney, Education and Outreach Officer.
The National Archives is based in Kew, West London and it is the repository for the UK Government’s collection of documents, maps and photographs spanning over the last one thousand years. This includes records of the Caribbean.
The collection documents life in the colonies from the British perspective, largely up to the time of independence. It includes some of the earliest known photographic records of British Colonies.
His Excellency invited the National Archives’ Outreach Team to present their “Caribbean through a lens” workshop during the November National’s Meeting.
He explained, “we use these meetings to do more than just get together; we use them as an opportunity to provide some real information to Trinidad and Tobago citizens living in London. Today’s meeting is one in which we are engaging with them to find out about our history”
At the meeting the Outreach Team asked the Diaspora to help them add context to these images of Trinidad and Tobago, some as old as the 1860s. It is hoped that the nationals attending the meetings would recognise the place or even the people in the photographs and be able to share those details.
As expected some did. Some of the persons present were immediately able to correctly identify locations and landmarks shown. Within the workshop setting the National Archives team members recorded the information collected at the meeting. They will share that information with the public via their website: nationalarchives.gov.uk/Caribbean.
