With plans to house the Danish West Indies archives, the territory is poised to begin recovering much of its history. Records of the Danish colonial era as well as of U.S. sovereignty after the transfer are to be sent to the territory under an agreement between the Virgin Islands and Denmark.
But according to George Tyson of the St. Croix Landmarks Society, much work needs to be done before the records arrive: The V.I. government must not only determine where the archives will be housed; it also must have a plan in place for surveying and preserving the records. "The archives are in two locations," Tyson noted — in Copenhagen and at the U.S. National Archives in Maryland.
Local funding must be found to prepare for the establishment of the archives. Despite the financial straits of the government and the uncertainty of the economy, Tyson said, the territory must initiate the required fund raising if the opportunity to recover history is to be exploited.
No effort should be spared to make sure the Danish and U.S. archives relating to the territory end up in the Virgin Islands, to enlighten a population still in the dark about much of its history. Tyson believes the archives contain crucial evidence relating to how the local society evolved through slavery and colonialism, how its basic institutions were established and operated, and how families originated, among other things.
Representatives of the Danish government were in the territory over the weekend to take part in Transfer Day observances and to continue the preparations for the return of many volumes of material from the archives in Copenhagen.
