Our Collections

The ‘Remember When Institute’ houses a collection of musical instruments that are distinct to the culture of Trinidad and Tobago.

The Institute holds an extensive collection of Best Village recordings stemming as far back as 1963. Some of these are rare interviews with community performers speaking about their particular craft. We also have thousands of other audio visual items, manuscripts and photographs which can be found nowhere else in the world. All of them speak in some way to or about our nation, our backgrounds, and essentially who we are as a people.

Among them are the beautiful sitar, tabla, harmonica and most importantly our national instrument the Steelpan.

The unique sound of these instruments are often heard during our major celebrations for instance our annual carnival celebrations in the months of February and March.