In two paragraphs in Part 1 of this article last week some words were omitted, creating a contextual change. We publish the correct version below with omissions bolded:
Recently, during telephone conversations with officials of the Bureau of Engraving & Printing of the United States Treasury Department I learned that Hamilton’s image was first inscribed on the 1863 Redseal US$2.00 note In 1933-34 his image was inscribed on the $10.00 Silver Certificate which later evolved into the current $10.00 note. Who is this man whose pictorial image is touched my millions of hands all over the world today? He is Alexander Hamilton, Nevisian.
In 1812 a pre-existing educational institution in New York was renamed for him. In recent years, Hamilton College has awarded undergraduate scholarships to Nevisians such as Keithly Woolward who is now a professor of French at New York University, and Carlton Dascent who is now a lawyer in the state of Massachusetts. Who is that man whose family name facilitates the academic pursuits of students in the land of his birth? He is Alexander Hamilton, Nevisian.
The Alexander Hamilton International Airport would immediately “brand” Nevis in a way that the advertising expenditure of the Nevis Tourism Authority could never achieve. It would be an easily recognizable magnet that would attract increasing numbers of tourists to the island—especially from the United States – which would also increase revenue to Nevis Island Administration. The birthplaces of eminent Americans who founded and natured their country’s spiralling aspirations are national historic landmarks that large numbers of people visit every year to pay homage to them. Alexander Hamilton is the only Founding Father not born in the continental United States. Authentic homage can only be paid to him in the land of his birth, Nevis.
A distinctive “brand” name cannot, and should not be static and isolated. It has to be skilfully marketed so that the brand is linked and identified with other entities that bear the same name, thus increasing their respective revenues. Nevis is supremely poised to benefit financially from such linkages.
The Nevis Historical & Conservation Society’s Museum of Nevis History occupies the ground floor of a building on the Hamilton family compound at Low Street in Charlestown. The top floor of the building is the home of the Nevis Island Assembly. The structure was reconstructed and renovated in 1982- 1983 partly through a substantial grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which recognized the historical importance of the Hamilton name and connection to Nevis.
The Museum of Nevis History currently devotes some exhibition space to Hamilton. The tide of history now laps at the door of the museum that may enable it to embrace the Hamilton brand to the museum’s financial benefit. In 2004- 2005 the New York Historical Society presented a monumental exhibition “Alexander Hamilton The Man Who Made Modern America”. The planned closing date of the exhibition had to be extended since it attracted tens of thousands of visitors honouring the man who still has an impact on contemporary life.
Partly because of the widespread interest in the exhibition and the inability of the larger population to attend it in person, the Historical Society decided to replicate components of it in a ‘travelling exhibition’ format. Several of these portable units are now being exhibited in public facilities throughout The United States, and one of them will be installed in the Museum of Nevis History in early 2008.
On September, 2007 when Mary Ourisman, the Ambassador to the Eastern Caribbean States visited Nevis she officially informed Premier Joseph Parry that the U.S Department of State was making a US$ 40,000 grant to the Nevis Historical & Conservation Society (NHCS) to assist it in procuring one of the travelling exhibition units. Premier Parry, in acknowledging the gift said, among other things, I am also very appreciative of the contribution that she will make to the Alexander Hamilton Museum. Indeed it is the right to give recognition to this great American statesman and son of Nevis. I do hope that in honouring him that the people of America would understand that ties between St. Kitts and Nevis and the United States of America”.
This travelling exhibition could provide the nucleus for an enlarged Hamilton presence at the Museum of Nevis History. Indeed, to effectively maximize the Hamilton name, the Board of Directors of the museum should consider “branding” it by renaming it “The Alexander Hamilton Museum”. Should that occur, Nevisian artists and craft persons could be invited and /or commissioned to create original, distinctive Hamiltonian items for sale in the museum’s gift shop and also for export, thus empowering the artisans financially?
The marketing of the Hamilton brand could also be extended to the cruise ships, which are increasing their Caribbean itineraries. Passengers on those ships are able to arrange advance reservations for organized tours to specific places in countries where the ship docks. Such tour groups may visit the Harrison Caves in Barbados, the Gros Pitons in St. Lucia, or Brimstone Hill in ST. Kitts. Large numbers of tourists land in St. Kitts every year and their ships usually main in the port for one entire day. Nevisian entrepreneurs with planning and implementation expertise could tap into that tourist traffic by organizing for example, Hamilton Homage Tours, thus empowering the entrepreneurs financially. Taxi operators from Nevis would meet designated passengers at Port Zante in St. Kitts, drive them over the Peninsular Road and onto the Sea Bridge and bring them to Nevis. They would visit the Alexander Hamilton International Airport, the Hamilton family compound and the adjacent Alexander Hamilton Museum, and to Hamilton estate, where the family lineage possible originated. The current Developers of the estate, Carino, plan to restore part of the historic sugar plantation installations. Nevisian taxi operators would also take the visitors too other places of interest in Nevis including restaurants and other food and beverage locations before returning them to their ship in St. Kitts via the Sea Bridge. Tour passengers who are afforded a brief, pleasurable Nevisian experience may be motivated to return to the island for a longer period, thus enhancing the Nevisian tourist product financially.
Similarly, Nevisian entrepreneurs could organize Hamilton Tours for visitors who stay in hotels in St. Kitts and Nevis. One-day air charter flights could also be arranged from the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico where countless numbers of Americans visit annually. The Hamilton name is most likely to be familiar to the majority of them because his name is irrevocably embedded in the history books of their educational institutions. How many of them are aware that a one-hour journey from the tourist base would enable them to visit the birthplace of one of their country’s pre-eminent founders?
South Africans and visitors to the country journey to Robben Island to visit the jail where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated for nearly three decades in the 20th century, to pay homage to him. New Yorkers and visitors to that city journey to Ellis Island in the New York harbour to pay homage to the millions of ancestors who first touched American soil at the immigration centre on that island from 1892 to 1954 when it was closed. Senegalese and visitors journey to Goree Island in the vicinity of Daker to pay homage to the millions of enslaved Africans ancestors who were brutally hauled through the “door of no return” by slave traders and herded onto putrid ships bound for the West Indies and the Americas from the 15th to the 19th centuries. The aura of authentic history is a magnet that draws individuals to places where they can walk on the same ground where their revered ones walked, and permits them to personally experience their physical and spiritual surroundings.
The Hamilton brand could also attract organizations in the United States that hold annual Hamilton conferences, seminars, etc. to convene in Nevis. One local for such programs could be the proposed performing arts and conference centre in Nevis funded by a large grant from the Government of Taiwan and obtained through the aegis of the former CCM administration. When that government-owned and revenue-producing facility is constructed and opened during this decade and hosts Hamilton-related and other programs Nevisian caterers would provide food and beverage and related services, thus empowering them financially.
Alexander Hamilton was the financial wizard who created The Bank of New York in 1784 in the Wall Street financial of that city. Each year Trinity Church/Wall Street observes the anniversary of his birth on January 11, 1755. Hamilton and his wife Elizabeth are buried in the adjacent churchyard cemetery so every year there is also a memorial service to commemorate his death on July 11, 1804. Ambassador Isben Williams, the St. Kitts-Nevis Ambassador to the United States attended one of those ceremonies an 2007. Since 2004, the Friends of Alexander Hamilton & Descendants Committee in Patterson as the first planned industrial city in the United States in 1791-1792. That Committee recently informed me via email that in 2006-2007 the Patterson Board of Education launched a program titled “Alexander Hamilton Scholars”. The role of these scholars (50) is to develop curriculum study materials with an emphasis on Hamilton’s impact on Patterson History and New Jersey history.
The history of Alexander Hamilton is also part of history of Nevis. There is now a Sea Bridge in Nevis. Is it not time to construct a bridge that spans the Hamilton legacy with the land of his birth, Nevis? Might that bridge be The Alexander Hamilton International Airport? Re-naming scenarios are catapulting out of my pulsating Nevisian calabash. One scenario is that sometime in the not-too-distant future that the government of St. Kitts-Nevis should invite the President of the United States to participate, not officiate, the renaming ceremony, which would be the unsurpassed “branding” of Nevis universally. A Nevisian calabash filled with juices of fruits and vegetables grown in Nevis would be collectively held by hands of former Premier Vance Amory, Dr. Simeon Daniel and Premier Joseph Parry. Their three pairs of hands would pour the juices on the ground symbolizing the cleansing and healing of the political wounds of Nevis, the re-naming of the airport, and as a libation to the memory of those enslaved Africans whose indomitably-spirited presence in Nevis contributed immeasurably to the life and character of Alexander Hamilton. Nevisian.
