The National Library of Jamaica, 12 East Street, Kingston will host the Social History Project’s exhibition, “A History of Cricket in Jamaica, 1870 to the Present”. The Exhibition will be launched on October 8, 2006 at the National Library of Jamaica by Mr. James Carnegie, well known Sports Historian and Project Development Officer with the National Independence Park Limited and will be open to the public between October 9 and December 20, 2006.

This exhibition is the second one produced by the Department of History & Archaeology, UWI, Mona’s Social History Project (SHP), and was researched by Dr. Julian Cresser. Cresser’s research reveals how the sport in Jamaica moved from being an exclusive social activity of the predominantly white elite into a competitive sport enjoying popular support and participation. It traces the development of the game from the earliest elite clubs of the middle of the nineteenth century through the growth of black and coloured middle-class and working-class teams, to the more democratic modern era of the sport in which women’s cricket and gender-integrated blind cricket occupy a place on the national – and regional – agenda. The research shows how the cricket sphere in Jamaica functioned as a mirror reflecting the issues being played out in the wider society.

The SHP has been engaged in the promotion of the study of Jamaica’s social history in the period after 1838 and is committed to the dissemination of this history to the public through exhibitions. The exhibition will travel to a number of parishes throughout Jamaica in 2007 as the region hosts World Cup Cricket.