Saturday will be a red letter day at the Bermuda Maritime Museum, when two new additions to the Dockyard facility are unveiled.

One is an eclectic exhibition of rare books and manuscripts offering a fascinating window into the Island's history, and the other is the opening of a new library.

The exhibition, entitled `Bermuda Bound', features texts gifted to the Museum by Fay and Geoffrey Elliott, and includes first-hand accounts of Bermuda by visitors to the Island over 400 years. The texts are also valuable for the aesthetic beauty of their engraved illustrations, artwork and maps.

"Each one of these volumes opens up to provide a direct portal to a specific moment in Bermuda's past," Charlotte Andrews, Curator of the Maritime Museum and the `Bermuda Bound' exhibition, said.

"The show also illustrates the importance of these books as preserved artefacts - as original keys to our historical understanding of Bermuda and its place in the Atlantic world."

The new exhibition spans the 16th to 19th centuries and highlights Bermuda's notable role during eras of European exploration and colonial dominion of the New World.

A 1534 book by Peter Martyr contains one of the first accounts of Bermuda, and two volumes by Richard Norwood, who produced the first survey and map of Bermuda around 1622, can also be found.

Other works contain fascinating observations by a miscellany of travellers to Bermuda, including novelists, sailors, soldiers and missionaries.

Mr. and Mrs. Elliott generously donated their rare book and manuscript collection to the Bermuda Maritime Museum this year. It contains more than 50 unique and limited editions featuring Bermuda, and represents an important step in the development of the Museum's rare books holdings.

The opening of a new library featuring the Museum's rare Bermuda, maritime and military collections is spread over two rooms. "Together, the Robert and Dena Dodson Room and the Jack Arnell Library amalgamate the Museum's book and manuscript holdings into an elegant open-storage preservation facility," Miss Andrews said.

The curator also noted that the Museum is eager to continue developing its book and manuscript collections, and welcomes donations from the public, particularly any Bermuda-related titles.

For further information on the Bermuda Maritime Museum see the Bermuda Calendar, ( 234-1333 or e-mail marmuseibl.bm