(4) Maps and Cards

Sometimes, historians rely on visual sources to understand the events of history. In those days before the existence of photography, video-cameras, the internet and social media, information was often recorded on maps, sketches and postcards.

The growth of Singapore has been captured in a wide range of sources. Here is a small sample of those sources, but they tell a vivid story of the development of a settlement to a modern bustling trading colony of Britain - from the earliest days in 1819 right up to the pre-war 1930s.

Source A - Sketch map of the Singapore River on 6 February 1819.

Examine the sketch map carefully. Which were the items that had only just appeared after Raffles' first landing on 28 January?

What was the significance of the following items:

i) The flag

ii) The two tents

iii) The canons

iv) The boats

It remains unclear who the artist of this map was, and when exactly it was sketched. Notice that within a mere six days after Raffles first stepped ashore on 29 January, the following had appeared – the flag and flagstaff, the canons, the red carpet, and the banqueting tent.

Source B - The Jackson Plan, 1822, showing the urban build-up of the new colony of Singapore around the River mouth area.

Which were the key features of the town of Singapore just three years after is founding?

Why did the British have separate housing areas for different ethnic groups?

Explain why there was a "Botanical Garden" and an "open square."

The Jackson Plan was also known as the "Plan of the Town of Singapore." It was a plan for Singapore, drawn up to maintain some order in the urban development of the fledgling but thriving colony founded just three years earlier. It was named after Lieutenant Philip Jackson, the colony's engineer and land surveyor tasked to oversee its physical development.

Source C - Postcard of South Bridge Road, in 1907.

Examine the postcard and read the description below. What do the mosque and temple tell us about Singpore in the 1820s?

Why do you think these buildings remained standing even in 1907?

The building on the right with two towers is the Jamae Mosque, built in 1826; on the same row in the background is the Sri Mariamman Temple, Singapore’s oldest Hindu temple, built in 1827. Remarkably, the street today still looks very similar.

Source D - Photograph of the Singapore River, taken in 1930, some 120 years after the founding of Singapore.

Describe the scene in the photograph.

Explain why the River was so crowded.

Whose face is on the "chop" at the bottom left hand corner? What is the significance of this?

The Singapore River has long been the nerve-centre of the island. Raffles’ arrival there and the construction of the settlement at the River mouth was really only a continuation of function from the past. This 1930 scene of the River remained much the same all the way up till the 1980s, when the government removed the “bumboats” and focussed all port activities at the modern facilities all along the south-west coast. Beneath the order depicted in the postcard, the River by the 1970s was actually very filthy, with pollution caused by the disposal of rubbish, sewage and other by-products of industries located along the river banks, pig wastes from pig and duck farms, unsewered premises, street hawkers and vegetable wholesalers. With the massive clean-up, the role of the River has transformed from sustaining trade to encouraging tourism. It remains today, an exceptionally popular area for visitors and citizens alike.