VINP Archaeologist Ken Wild, left, takes a break near Rustenberg with University of Copenhagen students Josefine Nielsen, center, and Lise Nielsen, right.
For seven years, students from Denmark have traveled to St. John to help put together the puzzle of 18th century life on the island.
The seventh set of students from the University of Copenhagen, Josefine Nielsen and Lise Nielsen (no relation), are on island now doing their part to piece together the island’s history.
Both Nielsens are working on studying the historic area of Rustenberg. Other areas of St. John studied by Danish interns in the past have included the East End, Brown Bay, Lameshur, Mary’s Point, and even Hassel Island.
The Danish intern program, funded in part by the Friends of the V.I. National Park, begins for each set of students well in advance of their trip to St. John.
“We start working in the archives in Copenhagen,” said Lise Nielsen. “We look at tax records, deeds, wills, probate records, whatever we can find. The records are in Gothic Danish, so the letters are different, and they’re all handwritten, so they can be difficult to decipher.”
“It’s like a puzzle trying to dig out the names of plantation owners,” added Josefine Nielsen.
Once the students have spent approximately two months investigating the archives in Copenhagen, they come to St. John for a month-long stint, where they get up close and personal with the plantation they had only read about.
After a month on island, the Danish students return to Denmark to finish the necessary research on their projects.
“When we get back, we look up things we haven’t had time for yet,” said Lise Nielsen.
“We compare the artifacts we find here with information from the archives,” added Josefine Nielsen. “Hopefully all the pieces will match.”
The time the University of Copenhagen students spend studying 18th century life on St. John counts as academic credit toward their educational courses of study. Josefine is studying ethnology, while Lise is studying history.
The combination of studying Danish archives and working on the ground on St. John allows the students to discover interesting tidbits about 18th century life on the island, like the fact that Lucas van Beverhoudt, who owned the Rustenberg plantation in 1780, was personal friends with George and Martha Washington. Van Beverhoudt owned a plantation in the states as well.
Rustenberg has proven to be an interesting case study, explained Lise Nielsen.
“The site looks good,” she said. “We’ve found a lot of historic ceramics to help date the sites. We’re matching archives to archaeology.”
Each set of Danish students works under V.I. National Park Archaeologist Ken Wild, who expressed his gratitude for the Friends-funded internship program.
“It helps put the puzzle together for visitors, and it helps us find sites we didn’t know we had,” said Wild. “We can’t protect these historic sites if we don’t know we have them. I couldn’t do the work because I couldn’t read Gothic Danish.”
“The work these students do is a huge donation to the park,” Wild added.
In addition to helping the park interpret important historic sites, Wild hopes the internship program will strengthen the bond between Denmark and its former colony.
“The goal is to get more Danish people involved with their West Indian heritage,” he said.
Additionally, when funds are available, the park is able to call on past interns to help research various sites throughout the park, as Wild did when the VINP was working on shoring up the Trunk Bay store house.
“It gives us a pool of students to help us out,” he said.
Although the Danish students spend much of their time on island in the bush studying ruins and artifacts, the beauty of St. John has not escaped them.
“It’s a very pretty island you have here,” said Lise Nielsen. “We left Denmark in a snowstorm.”
Lise Nielsen and Josefine Nielsen will present a talk on their findings on Thursday, April 18, at 7 p.m. at the Maho Bay Camps restaurant. All are welcome to attend.
