Nassau, Bahamas - The Bahamas Historical Society presents a talk with Heather Hatch on the Harbour Island and Maritime Life in the 17-19th Century on September 29th, 2011. This will be the first talk of the new season and a topic pursued in her upcoming PhD thesis. The museum reopens that same day.

Heather Hatch is a PhD student in the Nautical Archaeology Program at Texas A&M University.  She acquired her BA in Anthropology at the University of New Brunswick in her hometown Fredericton, NB, Canada, and holds MAs in European Historical Archaeology from the University of Sheffield (Sheffield, UK), and Maritime History from the East Carolina University (Greenville, North Carolina, USA).  Her interests are focused on the maritime communities, and the relationship between culture, identity, and the environment.  Both of her MA degrees focused on researching 18^th century piracy, examining pirate flag symbolism as an expression of group identity, and searching for markers of pirate identity at previously excavated archaeological sites.  Her present research focuses on understanding the nature of maritime identity, or maritimity, and examining whether this can be seen in the archaeological record.

The Bahamas Historical Society (BHS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to stimulating interest in Bahamian History and to the collection and preservation of material relating thereto. Its Headquarters, the former IODE Hall, was a gift from the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (IODE). BHS is on Shirley Street and Elizabeth Avenue in Nassau. www.bahamashistoricalsociety. com