TWO of the 2015 Musgrave Medal awardees — who were unable to attend the October ceremony — were presented with their insignia in a small service at the Institute of Jamaica in downtown Kingston, Monday afternoon.

Musgrave Gold awardee Professor Orlando Patterson — who is being recognised for his work in literature —and jazz singer/academic Dr Myrna Hague-Bradshaw, who received the silver medal for her contribution to music, were elated by the award.

For Patterson, it is even more special coming from the Institute of Jamaica.

“When I was a young boy at Kingston College and got bored with the textbooks and wanted to learn more about my own history instead of Britain and its empire, I would come to the Institute and read. Not only that, the very first prize I ever received was given by the history teachers of Jamaica to the best essay on a historical subject and I came here and did research on the Morant Bay rebellion. When I was doing my research for my PhD in London, I came home one summer and, again, a good part of the research was done here. So this place has special meaning to me and so, for that reason, I am deeply honoured.”

Patterson, who is a professor of sociology at Harvard University, is best known in Jamaica for his 1964 work Children of Sisyphus. He is currently preparing to release another work entitled the Enigma of Jamaica, which is based on studies he has done in his homeland.

Hague-Bradshaw expressed joy at being recognised.

“It’s wonderful, very exciting, I feel very honoured…very privileged to be honoured in this way. It’s a special thing and I feel very blessed. We musicians and artistes tend to be left on the back-burner so for my life’s work to be honoured in this way is nothing short of exciting,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

Last year, Hague-Bradshaw received her doctorate from the University of the West Indies.

The Musgrave Award was established in 1889 as a memorial to Sir Anthony Musgrave, governor of Jamaica, who founded the Institute of Jamaica in 1879.

— Richard Johnson