Eric Williams Memorial Collection celebrates 100th anniversary of birth of T&T's first PM

The Eric Williams Memorial Collection (EWMC) is celebrating the centenary of the birth of Trinidad and Tobago's first Prime Minister with a series of activities.

The collection is at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine. The Panday UNC government established it in 1998 and invited former U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, to launch it in honour Dr Eric Williams who died in office on March 29, 1981.

The EWMC, which consists of the a research library, archives and museum, is the English-speaking Caribbean’s first effort at establishing an entity akin to a U.S. Presidential Library. 

In 1999, it was named to UNESCO’s prestigious Memory of the World Register. At the time, the documentary heritage of only 47 other countries had been so designated. 

To date, four biographies of Williams either have been published or are in progress – one dedicated to the EWMC. 

In addition to the physical repository at UWI the EWMC, promotes, facilitates and organizes international conferences and conference panels; Encyclopedia entries; symposia; lectureships; book publications and launches; and a regional Essay Competition in 17 Caribbean countries involving 178 schools.

The EWMC has also introduced an Oral History Project, comprising hundreds of interviews and calypsoes about Williams. 

It has also collaborated with the Mayor of London and continues to do so annually with the University of Sheffield in the U.K. Its community-based initiatives include two school pilot projects – 'The Baby Think it Over' anti-teen pregnancy programme, and 'The Killing Fields: Man’s Inhumanity to Man' – a Genocide/Holocaust programme.

In the future, the EWMC will team up with Williams’ alma mater at Oxford University to establish a scholarship in his name in perpetuity.

The celebratory activities in honour of Williams include: 

• A conference co-sponsored by Oxford and Harvard Universities
• A Symposium at the University of London
• A conference at the University of Havana, Cuba
• Publication of two of Dr Williams' book in Spanish, including details of his many contacts with Cuban scholars
• Two competitions for Trinidad and Tobago Schools for a stamp design and in the performing arts, co-sponsored by the T&T postal services and UNESCO
• The Launch of Eric Williams Centenary Stamps, with proceeds donated to the hearing impaired of Trinidad and Tobago
• The publication of Williams’ dissertation, which provided the material for his 'Capitalism and Slavery'
• The re-issue of 'Capitalism and Slavery' in Brazil and Spain
• The production of a 16-month historical calendar
• The online publication of Williams’ bibliography, consisting of over 1000 titles