Sable Island Institute and Herb Barry’s museum

In 1951 Elizabeth Bishop visited Sable Island, the place where her great-grandfather had been shipwrecked in the 1860s. She spent a couple of days there. In 2008, I had the great privilege of visiting Sable Island myself, thanks to Zoe Lucas. I travelled out there on a beautiful May day with Zoe and writer Janet Barkhouse. Zoe, a long-time resident of the island, and I connected because of Bishop’s long ago visit. Bishop had intended to write an article for The New Yorker about Sable Island, but it never happened. Brazil intervened.

Recently, Lucas and a group of passionate supporters and protectors of Sable Island established the Sable Island Institute. Even more recently, a wonderful new website for thisgroup went live.

(Part of Herb's museum. Photo by Brenda Barry.)

Between 2008 and today, Zoe shared some of Sable Island artefacts from her own collection with my elderly father, who has had a long-standing interest in the island and its famed horses. He created a nice display of this material and has been sharing it with visitors for some time. Last year, Janet Barkhouse visited my father’s little Sable Island museum and she wrote a delightful article which now appears on the institute’swebsite.

 (Zoe Lucas and Herb Barry, 2016. Photo by Brenda Barry.)

 

(The guest book. Photo by Brenda Barry.)