Where did the steel pan, also called steel drum, originate?

Steel pans (also known as steel drums or pans, and sometimes, collectively with other musicians, as a steel band or orchestra) is a musical instrument originating from Trinidad and Tobago. Steel pan musicians are called pannists. The modern pan is a chromatically pitched percussion instrument made from 55 gallon industrial drums that formerly contained chemicals.

In Trinidad in the late 1700s, Slaves brought with them a carnival tradition. The slaves had been stripped of their cultural identity, their names, their music, so they created new music using things they found lying around. This is how the first steel pans came into existence.