Barbados Museum

Barbados Museum Review

This intriguing museum, established in 1933 in the former British Military Prison (1815) in the historic St. Ann's Garrison area, has artifacts from Arawak days (around 400 BC) along with galleries that depict 19th-century military history and everyday social history. You can see cane-harvesting tools, wedding dresses, ancient (and frightening) dentistry instruments, and slave sale accounts kept in spidery copperplate handwriting. The museum's Harewood Gallery showcases the island's flora and fauna, its Cunard Gallery has a permanent collection of 20th-century Barbadian and Caribbean paintings and engravings, and its Connell Gallery features European decorative arts. Additional galleries include one with exhibits targeted to children. The Shilstone Memorial Library houses rare West Indian documentation—archival documents, genealogical records, photos, books, and maps—dating back to the 17th century. The museum also has a gift shop and a café.