A new name has been selected for the Mary March Provincial Museum in Grand Falls-Windsor.

The facility, which was established as a community museum in the 1970s by a group of area residents with an interest in preserving local heritage, will be known as the Demasduit Regional Museum.

Demasduit is perhaps one of the best known of the Beothuk. She was given the name Mary March by the Reverend John Leigh of Twillingate with whom she lived after she was kidnapped from Beothuk Lake in 1819. Her husband Nonosabasut was killed in the confrontation and her newborn baby died a short time later.

Her now-famous portrait was painted by Lady Hamilton while spending the spring of 1819 in St. John’s.

She died of tuberculosis in January of 1820 onboard The Grasshopper while en route to Notre Dame Bay to be reunited with her family and people, by then reduced to just 31 individuals. Her niece, Shawnawdithit was the last known Beothuk.