THE Jamaica Under-21 netball team has donated an 18th century map of Jamaica to the National Library of Jamaica (NLJ).

President of Netball Jamaica, Marva Bernard, and members of the Junior Sunshine Girls will attend the official hadover of the historical map to be a part of our nation’s collected history and heritage.

“We are happy to donate this gift to the Jamaican people through the National Library,” Bernard said. “And we hope that Jamaicans can benefit from the map’s rich contribution to our history for centuries to come,” she continued.

A valuable addition to the NLJ’s map collection, the map was a gift given to the national team by Professor Emeritus Godfrey Palmer of Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland. Palmer, a proud Jamaican, was present at the third-place play-off match of the World Youth Netball Championship in Glasgow last month, where the junior Sunshine Girls defeated arch-rivals England 52-33 to capture the bronze medal.

“The presentation in Glasgow to Netball Jamaica of the 1729 map of Jamaica, was a small token of thanks to the management and team for the wonderful display of talent and excellence during the International Netball Competition in Glasgow in August 2013,” Palmer was quoted as saying.

The National Library of Jamaica is ecstatic to have another historical map of Jamaica to add to its already prestigious collection.

“We are just so pleased that Netball Jamaica thought of this institution as the best place to donate the gift,” noted Valerie Francis, the acquisitions librarian at the institution.