By JADE RUSSELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

A NEW outdoor exhibition launched by the National Museum of The Bahamas is highlighting critical chapters of the nation’s political and social evolution, tracing the country’s road to independence through a series of historic flashpoints.

Set on the Great Lawn of Collins House, the exhibition features billboard panels chronicling key moments, including the women’s suffrage movement, the 1958 general strike, and the infamous mace-throwing incident in the House of Assembly. These events are presented not as isolated acts of defiance but as interconnected steps toward nationhood.

Among the milestones featured is the 1953 formation of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), the first organised political party in Bahamian history. Emerging in opposition to the United Bahamian Party (UBP), which dominated under British colonial rule, the PLP would become central to the push for majority rule and the country’s eventual independence two decades later.

The exhibition also references the 1960s visit of Dr Martin Luther King Jr to Bimini, a moment underscoring The Bahamas’ ties to the broader civil rights struggle. Managing Director of the Antiquities, Monuments and Museums Corporation, Don Cornish, noted the active role many Bahamians played in those global movements for equality.

Visitors will also encounter a timeline of constitutional developments, beginning with the 1647 Articles and Orders, The Bahamas’ earliest known framework for governance, and culminating in the modern Constitution of 1973.

“We also want to talk about the instruments that we now have — the first Constitution in 1647, which would have been the Articles and Orders, and then all the instruments in between that led eventually to the Constitution of 1973 that we presently enjoy,” Mr Cornish said. “So there’s a board that shows all the symbols, how they evolved, what they mean.”

The billboards were assembled using archival images and material from the national museum’s collection. Although the installation was initially intended to run for three weeks, museum officials are now considering an extension.

“We’re thinking seriously about letting them stay up so that more children and young people can see them and have a chance to come in and do a tour,” Mr Cornish said. “We’re hoping that summer camps and persons who engage with our young people will take the time to come.”

Entry to the exhibition is free.