The University College of the West Indies

by Suzanne Francis-Brown, Curator
One major reason for going on the road was to do, close up, research on some UWI artifacts that we’ve been trying to do from a distance for some time.
Which artifacts? Well there’s the lost Charter, and the Coat of Arms, the university standard or flag, and more diaries than we knew existed. And that’s not quite all.

One December morning, a woman knocked on the door to the UWI Museum’s office and asked for the Curator. She said that a friend had told her to come. In one arm, clutched to her chest, was a ceramic platter, the back bearing the mark of Dunn Bennett & Co, Burslem, UK.  On placing it flat, it turned out to be a part of a set once used in the Mary Seacole Hall, one of the University of the West Indies (UWI)s early halls of residence built and opened during the 1950s. Three others of this vintage were Irvine, Taylor and Chancellor Halls.