On 18 June 2024, Barbadians awoke to news of a devastating fire at the Barbados Department of Archives (BDA) at the historic Lazaretto site in Black Rock. The blaze, reportedly triggered by lightning during an intense overnight storm, destroyed most of Block D, which contained vital records of the vestry, city council, and hospitals. The BDA holds the oldest intact records of local administration under the parochial system, essential for understanding early English colonization and settlement in the Americas. While global scholars offered support and resources for salvage, no official public report has yet detailed what was lost or recovered, marking a tragic cultural loss for Barbados and beyond.Footnote 1
Barbados, the easternmost Caribbean island, was first settled by Indigenous peoples over three thousand years ago, but by 1627, the English who colonized the island claimed it had been “abandoned” by the Indigenous population.Footnote 2 By the 1640s, sugar production dominated, transforming the island into a model for colonial exploitation based on indentured European and enslaved African labor. This system relied on complex governance structures shared among the Anglican Church, the Local Assembly, and the Colonial Office. Surviving records document transactions transferring human property and real estate, laws, and policies, offering insight into the role of elite enslavers in shaping one of Britain’s most influential colonies.
The BDA has occupied the Lazaretto site since 1965. Originally built as a leprosarium in the mid-nineteenth century and expanded in 1909, the site comprises coral-stone buildings in what the Agricultural Reporter described as an “Elizabethan” style, while also referencing earlier examples of Jacobean architecture in the island.Footnote 3 The BDA occupies most of the buildings of the former Lazaretto site within a high coral stone-walled complex about 40 meters above sea level and about 200 meters from the coast. The complex is situated on the second terrace of a sea cliff above Batts Rock beach. Located near The University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, the complex has long been valued for its accessibility and proximity to researchers. It includes a search room, digitization center, small conservation lab, and storage facilities. However, like many repurposed colonial structures hosting archival collections, it does not meet ISO11799:2024 standards for archival storage and has suffered from age and neglect, despite some retrofitting over the past few decades.Footnote 4
The surrounding areas have evolved significantly, with UWI expansions such as the Usain Bolt Sports Complex and the School for Graduate Studies and Research (SGSR). Former Lazaretto buildings have served various roles, including housing for HIV/AIDS patients and offices for government agencies. In 2014, the original Lazaretto chapel was demolished for a planned ecumenical center that was never built.Footnote 5
The Origins of the Barbados Department of Archives
The BDA was established following a 1961 survey by English archivist Michael Chandler who was invited by the University College of the West Indies (UCWI, now UWI) and the Rockefeller Foundation. Chandler’s work, published as A Guide to Records in Barbados (1965), remains the authoritative survey and forms the basis of the Archives’s finding aids.Footnote 6 The legal framework for the BDA was set by an Order-in-Council in 1963, and the Department opened in 1964, becoming a public reference service in 1965. The BDA has historically been situated within a Ministry or Division of Culture and is governed under Cap.19B Archives (Amendment) Act, 2010–13. The chief archivist is the senior technical officer responsible for archives management in Barbados and has significant authority in the execution of his or her mandate. A statutory Archives Committee advises the minister.
The BDA holds government, church, business, and private records. While most seventeenth- to early twentieth-century records are at Black Rock, many government records remain in ministries, and some churches still hold records. Barbados’s documentary heritage is dispersed globally, with significant collections still in the United Kingdom.Footnote 7 More needs to be understood about how Barbados’s records may have been affected by “Operation Legacy” carried out by British operatives to dispose of, destroy, or migrate records associated with British colonial rule.Footnote 8 Time, neglect, climatic conditions, fires, and hurricanes have also caused losses in the archives from even before they were assembled under the authority of the BDA. Since the 1960s, microform reproductions of newspapers and manuscripts have supplemented holdings, but the BDA and institutions like the Barbados Museum and Historical Society (BMHS), National Library Service (NLS), and UWI Libraries preserve rare primary sources for Barbadian history.
The UWI has played a pivotal role in regional archival development since Professor Elsa Goveia convened the first Caribbean Archives Conference in 1965. The University advocates for the repatriation of overseas materials and promotes accessibility for Caribbean people. The Department of History’s Documentation Project at Cave Hill champions these efforts. UWI staff also serve on cultural heritage bodies and lead globally in organizations such as the International Council on Archives (ICA), the Caribbean Regional Branch of ICA (CARBICA), the Caribbean Heritage Emergency Network (CHEN), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), ensuring professional standards, capacity building, and public engagement within the national and regional archives community.
Archives, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), and Climate Change
As a small coral island of 166 square miles located within a larger seismically active region with nearby volcanic islands, Barbados periodically experiences earthquakes with tsunami risk. In 2020, the island endured weeks of ashfall following La Soufrière’s eruption in St. Vincent. Dense volcanic ash compromised air quality and required an island-wide clean up. Cultural collections in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) required protection from fine dust, with some items requiring specialized treatment in the months after the ashfall.
Although Barbados is not as prone to storm systems and hurricanes as other Eastern Caribbean islands, climate change has intensified storm systems, increasing risks of lightning strikes, storm surge, flooding, and wind damage.Footnote 9 Within a week of the Archives fire, salvage efforts were hampered by Hurricane Beryl, which brought heavy rain and surge. The storm intensified to a Category 4 hurricane just after passing Barbados. It was the earliest Category 4 hurricane forming in June on record. Heritage first responders acted swiftly to prevent further damage and water intrusion.
The island’s archives share vulnerabilities common across the region. The tropical climate fosters humidity and pests, while aging infrastructure and chronic underfunding leave records exposed to risk.Footnote 10 Many archives lack conservation facilities, trained personnel, and resources for preservation. Weak legislation and poor policy implementation compound these risks.Footnote 11 Mold infestation has forced closures of major repositories, including Jamaica’s Archives and Records Department. Post-pandemic, the UWI Cave Hill Campus’s West Indian Collection (WIC) and the BMHS’s Shilstone Library faced prolonged closures due to mold, limiting research access. Climate-driven fluctuations in temperature and moisture, combined with dwindling resources, are major contributors to mold outbreaks in tropical libraries and archives.Footnote 12
To protect fragile documentary heritage, regional GLAM need greater investment and integration into national DRR strategies. Cultural heritage must be prioritized in planning.Footnote 13 Notably, the BDA benefited from fire simulation training months before the June 2024 blaze. Lessons learned from the simulation enabled staff, UWI personnel, and BMHS practitioners to work effectively with the fire service, salvaging significant material despite challenging conditions.Footnote 14
Digitization Projects
Digitization may seem like a solution for the Caribbean’s vulnerable documentary heritage, but digital files cannot replace original records. Digital records are also vulnerable to deterioration and technological obsolescence.Footnote 15 While digitization improves access and can identify records needing conservation, projects are costly and often rely on revenue from licensing or subscriptions, which can conflict with mandates to provide open and accessible public archives.Footnote 16 A balance is needed between accessibility and revenue generation, especially for descendants of colonized peoples seeking access to their history.Footnote 17 Additionally, grant programs like the British Library’s Endangered Archives Programme (EAP) fund digitization but not typically conservation. Conservation must remain central to digitization strategies.Footnote 18 Barbados has faced decades of underinvestment in archives, with cultural institutions and conservation consistently underfunded in government budgets. Redirecting funds to technology projects now does not resolve past neglect, especially in emergency and DRR planning.
In 2021, shortly after Barbados became a republic, the prime minister announced the Reclaiming Our Atlantic Destiny (ROAD) Project (now Programme), focused on digitizing what was reputed to be the world’s second-largest repository of transatlantic slave records.Footnote 19 Since then, significant resources have supported local training in object handling, conservation, and digitization in the Programme, which is largely supported through the Barbados Tourism Investment (BTI) Inc. Prior to the announcement, the BDA had its own digitization projects and has collaborated with ROAD since the Archives fire, but details on the integration of the BDA records and timelines are not publicly available.Footnote 20 Interestingly, in the 14 March 2023 Budgetary Proposals and Financial Statement 2023, “fire or floods” were mentioned as major risks to records, but it is not clear what resources were directly deployed from the budget to the BDA to reduce those risks.Footnote 21
The ROAD Programme proposes a new future archives and genealogical center within a “heritage district” at Newton, Christ Church, a former plantation site. Until recently, public details were limited to press releases and a few presentations, though a project website now exists.Footnote 22 However, Barbadians still lack clarity on how records will be transferred, conserved, and digitized. More concerning is the absence of information on possible revenue streams that will support this work. Transparency is essential for trust in maintaining a public archive that is accessible and verifiable.
Planning at the Newton site has not been without its challenges. Heritage practitioners and community activists have called for greater protections and care of existing heritage assets, namely the Enslaved Burial Ground at Newton. In late 2024, developers broke ground for the construction of a nearby memorial without carrying out a requested pre-construction archaeological assessment or informing the site’s owner, the BMHS. Alarmingly, the communities that utilize the site for ancestral veneration, such as some Spiritual Baptists and other religious groups, were not consulted either.Footnote 23 The developer did host some community meetings in the months after construction started and heeded the call for a “pause.” Some rescue and remedial archaeology was also conducted with local archaeologists and UWI archaeology students. The lack of initial and sustained community engagement in such critical areas of heritage management is a source of concern for those in the museum and archives sectors.Footnote 24
Some heritage practitioners have raised concerns, especially after Hurricane Beryl, about interim storage near the Harbour, where ROAD is located, as the site may face storm surge or tsunami risks.Footnote 25 While a modern archives and genealogy center are planned for a future phase at Newton, another temporary digitization facility has been identified at the nearby “Newton Life Sciences Park” or “Digital Innovation Hub.” Although touted as “hurricane resistant,” the proposed use of the tensile fabric structure could expose records to gaseous vapors from the adjacent highway and may not withstand increasingly severe hurricanes.Footnote 26 A permanent facility should comply with ISO11799:2024 standards for document storage in archives and libraries. Meanwhile, urgent upgrades and security measures are needed at all sites housing national records under the chief archivist’s authority to ensure their protection.
Globally, concerns have also arisen in mass digitization projects involving Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs), which often rely on datasets using pirated works.Footnote 27 Robust digitization policies are required locally to prioritize conservation, intellectual property protection, cybersecurity, transparency, and continued public access.Footnote 28 All initiatives under existing archives legislation must be comprehensive, integrated, and aligned with professional archival ethics. Most importantly, they should fully incorporate DRR strategies, planning, and funding to ensure long-term resilience and sustainability.
The Aftermath
The public awaits an official statement from government officials on the losses sustained during the fire. A public report should answer critical questions about its causes, consequences, and the extent of losses. Without transparency, neither the public nor private donors know what was damaged, recovered, or permanently lost. This can undermine trust and may highlight systemic weaknesses in archival governance in the island.
In the months following the fire it was necessary to close the BDA at the former Lazaretto site to the public so that recovery and remedial work could be done. These closures of major repositories due to mold infiltration and then the Archives fire prevented local and international researchers from conducting their research in Barbados. The BDA only reopened for public consultation in the summer of 2025. The disruption reminds us that access to archives is not a privilege, but a birthright for every Barbadian. These collections represent the nation’s collective memory. Their preservation and accessibility are key to our cultural identity, civic participation, and responsibility.
Future policy must be strategic and coordinated, especially in a Small Island Developing State (SIDS) like Barbados with limited resources. The forthcoming report should examine whether decades of underfunding, coupled with recent technology-driven initiatives, may have diverted resources that placed records at risk, especially in the absence of long-standing strategic policies and planning for archive development. Investment decisions must balance modernization with conservation and DRR from the beginning, while also redressing past neglect.
The current BDA site, although in need of upgrades to mitigate potential fire and other risks, is still considered a good location for public consultation and security of records due to its modular structure mitigating fire risk, as well as its distance from the coast and its elevation. Its location near the university, along with ample parking, also makes it desirable for students, researchers, and other users to consult records there until a purpose-built permanent structure can be constructed.
The BDA fire was a devastating reminder that archives are not passive repositories but active instruments of national memory and governance. Protecting them requires sustained funding, sound policies, and integrated DRR strategies under the continued supervision of archival professionals. Barbados must reaffirm its commitment to working with local GLAM professionals and communities to safeguard these irreplaceable resources for citizens today and those of future generations.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the Caribbean archivists and other heritage professionals who helped to place this article within a larger framework of responsible and ethical heritage management. Without their tireless work to protect our documentary heritage, as Caribbean historians we would have little to research in the region. I hope the article lends insight into their daily challenges in straddling shifting priorities and policies while also mediating the inherent silences in the records they protect.
Tara A. Inniss is a Lecturer in the Department of History, Philosophy and Psychology at The University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus. The areas of focus for her teaching and research include: history of medicine, history of social policy, heritage, reparatory justice, and social development. She holds a PhD in Caribbean History from The UWI and a Masters in International Social Development from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia. She is currently a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Archaeology and Jesus College, University of Cambridge. Please address any correspondence to tara.inniss@uwi.edu
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