Turks and Caicos National Museum

The Turks and Caicos National Museum was officially opened on November 23rd, 1991. However, the first thoughts of a museum had been voiced during the excavations of the Molasses Reef Shipwreck between 1982 and 1986. It was the discovery and eventual scientific recovery of the finds from this wreck that instigated the development of the Museum. Up until this date archaeological finds both on land and at sea had been taken back to the United States for conservation, eventually to be added to American museum collections or returned to the Islands where they were either stored in unsuitable conditions or lost.

This was not a state of affairs that the Molasses Reef Shipwreck excavation team found acceptable and wanted to return the items to where they belonged; The Turks and Caicos Islands. Finally, after several meetings with local residents the Interested citizens incorporate the Turks and Caicos National Museum as a nonprofit organization in 1990. They donated the Guinep House, one of the oldest buildings in the islands, to the Nation. Renovations transformed the building into a museum facility and funds were found to establish a museum that would provide environmentally stable display spaces for objects and would tell the story of the Islands.