Military museum, CDA exchange fire

The continuing contretemps between the Chaguaramas Military Museum and the state resurfaced again on Tuesday after the museum posted to its Facebook page its "rejection" of the eviction notice issued by the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) in October 2024.

That notice ended on Saturday. Kathy Edwards, the museum's PRO, noted that it was impossible for the museum to move artifacts weighing tonnes anywhere easily, and there is no destination for the museum’s collection.

It's an unfortunate replay of promises made by past administrations to projects created for the public good that are poorly documented and eventually contested.

While the state maintains the National Museum, now closed for repair, and other smaller installations in its library structures, the work of preserving documents, objects and other memorabilia from the country's past often falls to small organisations, special interests and individuals unwilling to allow our collective history to be swept away through carelessness or disinterest.

The Central Bank's Museum emphasises the history of money in this country and often ambitiously stretches that scope.

The Tobago Historical Museum at Fort King George is the official collection point for Amerindian artifacts and colonial era items, but is a small museum hosted by conservationist Roy Corbin, while the Louise Kimme Museum features works the late German artist created while living on the island.

The ASJA Association Archives and Museum in Charlieville preserves historical documents and artifacts related to the history and contribution of Islam and the Muslim faithful in TT.

Art teacher Clive Teemul oversees the tiny Cocoa Panyol Museum in Flanagin Town.

A museum for the steelband is planned for the new home of Pan Trinbago, but its executive will find that it's an entirely new job.

The Carnival Museum got the former Penny Bank building for its fledgling collection but is yet to establish itself as a compelling reflection of the decades of grandeur that is TT's Carnival.

The Petroleum History Museum and Park project began in 1999 at the Pointe-a-Pierre Railway Station on Petrotrin's grounds. Restoration of the master house and the station proceeded, artifacts were gathered, but with the changes in focus at Petrotrin, the project collapsed.

The military museum was the brainchild of the late Lt Cmdr Gaylord Kelshall in 1991, established as a living engagement with the wider society of its military history.

In 2025, it is a standing example of the stubborn insistence of individuals on preserving the country's history in the face of official indifference.

If the space, listed as a Heritage Property by the National Trust, looks like a junkyard to be disposed of to the CDA, it's because the country's leadership abandoned it.

Moving the installation to another location is an opportunity to finally do the right thing and honour this dream of preserving this aspect of regional history by making it a finished reality.