Dat Jumbi Woman Poem
Activity Type: Written Document
The poem “Dat Jumbi Woman” is from Jose Patrick Gimenez’s book “Virgin Islands Folklore and Other Poems” published in 1933. José Patrick Gimenez (1893-1953) was born in St. Thomas on March 17, 1893. He was a poet and composer. He wrote in English, Spanish and West Indian dialect. He…
Young Masqueraders, Christiansted, St. Croix
Activity Type: Photograph
An African tradition, street masquerading on holidays has been a popular cultural tradition in St. Thomas and St. Croix since the eighteenth century. Initially confined to adults, children have been practitioners since the early twentieth century as demonstrated by this photograph. The early holiday masquerades influenced what would later…
Analyzing Church Records, Female Baptisms, Friedensthal Moravian Church, St. Croix 1764
Activity Type: Written Document
Records of baptisms, marriages and deaths of free and enslaved congregational members have been compiled since the Eighteenth Century by the officially sanctioned churches in the Danish West Indies, specifically the Lutheran Church, the Moravian Church, the Anglican Church, the Dutch Reform Church, and the Roman Catholic Church. The…
Debating Monuments and Memorials in the USVI
Activity Type: Artwork
Memorials and monuments are part of every culture. In the territory they can be found within parks, at important sites, and within the townscape. They are erected to honor important figures, events, concepts, and other subjects. They are a form of public memory. They reflect the particularities of the…
Analyzing a Harbor Master’s Map of Charlotte Amalie St. Thomas from 1822
Activity Type: Map
This map was drawn by Levin Jørgen Rohde. He was born in 1786 and died in 1857. He was a commodore in the Royal Danish Navy, and harbor master of the port of St. Thomas, West Indies from 1819 to 1854. The map is called “Kort over havnen i…
Census Record 1850, Charlotte Amalia, Crown Prince Quarter 10B General Gade belonging to Valentina Ricardo
Activity Type: Written Document
Official population censuses are the primary sources of information about the composition and distribution of a specific set of people over time. The Virgin Islands is fortunate in having available for research a total of fifteen, near-complete censuses for the period 1835 to 1940. They document in a variety…
Analyzing the judgment of Williams, Vessup and Stevens in their application against the electoral boards of St. Thomas
Activity Type: Written Document
In December 1935 Edith Williams, Anna Vessup, and Eulalie Stevens filed an application against the Town and Country Electoral Boards of St. Thomas, and their members. They filed their application in the St. Thomas District Court. They wanted to be recognized as qualified voters. Qualifications for voting at the…
Campaign Poster for Lorraine Berry
Activity Type: Poster
Lorraine Berry (1949-2010) was born on the island of St. Thomas. She is best known as a 12-term senator and 2-term Senate President of the Legislature of the US Virgin Islands. She was an active member of the local French community on St. Thomas. She was awarded the Ordre…
Treaty of Acquisition between the United States of American and Denmark, 1917
Activity Type: Written Document
In 1917 Denmark sold its West Indian colonies with their inhabitants to the United States of America for twenty-five million dollars in gold in accordance with the terms of this Treaty signed by both parties. By that transaction, the United States enhanced its military and economic hegemony within the…
Analyze Petroglyphs and an Amerindian Swallow Stick
Activity Type: Artifact
The various groups of people who first inhabited the Virgin Islands had no written system of communication. However, we can learn directly about their lifeways and beliefs through the surviving elements of their material culture, which include settlement sites, pottery, stoneware, food remains and various kinds of carvings, all…
Running Against the Odds, Sarah of St. Croix
Activity Type: Artwork, Map, Written Document
During the time of slavery in the Danish West Indies enslaved Africans regularly attempted to escape. At times, they succeeded. Danish West Indian authorities issued laws, such as the slave code of 1733, to sanction and punish such behavior. Slave owners used island newspapers to notify the community that…
Analyze the Handle found at an Amerindian Site in Salt River, St. Croix
Activity Type: Artifact
Artifacts, in general terms, are items made by humans. Items made by humans in the past are often uncovered by accident when later people are digging in the ground to farm or to build things. They are also found when archeologists conduct studies of areas identified as possible historic…
