©1997 The Kendall Whaling Museum
KWM # S-1848

SAILOR’S VALENTINE
Barbadian sailors and fisherfolk ashore made these from found materials -- shells gathered on local beaches, occasionally combined with glass beads, stones, pebbles, and bits of wood -- and sold them as souvenirs to whalemen and other sailors who called in the Islands in the late 19th and early 20th century. They were popular as gifts for loved ones at home, and may later have been made by Barbadians and others at sea.