Introduction to Singapore History

Organised by National Museum of Singapore
Every Saturday 5 April – 10 May
2.30pm – 4pm
Seminar Rooms 1 & 2, Level 2
Admission: $15 per person for individual session
$70 per person for all 6 sessions


360°, 14th century, 1819, 1888, 14 Feb, 090865, 150 000. Can Singapore's history be reduced to numbers in dusty history books? Numbers mean nothing without history. History without people lacks meaning. Historical facts and figures only become meaningful when seen through the eyes of individuals creating their history.

Come listen to the National Museum's history curators as they present their own personal perspective on the history of Singapore from 14th Century to the present. A quick, accessible, introduction to how Singapore came to be for all visitors.

Understanding Temasek – Myth and History of 14th Century Singapore
Presenter: Cheryl-Ann Low
Saturday 5 April
2.30pm – 4pm
Seminar Rooms 1 & 2
Admission: $15 per participant

The 14th century history of Singapore can be derived from various sources such as archaeological findings, accounts of people who witnessed Singapore centuries ago, records of neighbouring courts, and the Malay Annals (otherwise known as the Sejarah Melayu and Sulalat’ul Salatina).

Together, these sources present us with a multi-faceted view of early Singapore. The archaeological surveys present us with the locations and a glimpse into the material culture of the early settlements, the eye-witness accounts give us descriptions of the people and the life, while the legends and remembered histories give us insights about some of the beliefs held by the people of early Singapore. Using these sources, the lecture will seek to give the audience an understanding of the world of Temasek.

Presenter
Cheryl-Ann Low is Senior Curator at the National Museum of Singapore. She joined the museum in 1996 as Assistant Curator and has been involved in various exhibition projects such as Rumah Baba – Life in a Peranakan House, From Colony to Nation, Rivertales, and the current Singapore History Gallery. She also had the privilege to leverage with esteemed scholars in publications such as Rumah Baba-Life in a Peranakan House (1999), Chinese Triads: Perspectives on Histories, Identities and Spheres of Impact (2002), Early Singapore1300s- 1819 – Evidence in Maps, Text and Artefacts (2004).

It about routes, not roots; Singapore, 1820’s – 1860’s
Presenter: Iskander Mydin
Saturday 12 April
2.30pm – 4pm
Seminar Rooms 1 & 2
Admission: $15 per participant

The lecture will present a glimpse of this formative period of Singapore history when the social, economic and cultural landscape of the Singapore entrepot settlement was established. During this half-century, the entrepot saw momentous changes as it grew from a thin strip of settlement along the Singapore River into an imperial colony ruled from London. The boundary of the island was defined at the same time as it became linked to a wider regional world. Trade, migration, capital, communications shaped the island and its communities with consequences for the future.

Presenter
Iskander Mydin is currently Deputy Director (Curation and Collection) at the National Museum of Singapore. Prior to joining the National Museum as a curator in 1990, he worked in the Fort Siloso museum at Sentosa. He has curated several exhibitions on Singapore history, and his more recent works include the early colonial and World War Two periods in the National Museum’s Singapore History Gallery. His background is inter-disciplinary having studied modern Asian and European history, sociology, psychology, and visual anthropology. His research interests include the social history of the Malay community in Singapore, cultural history of Singapore, trauma and memory, colonial art history with reference to historical paintings of the colonial period in Singapore, and historical fragments like diaries, letters, and anecdotal history.

Lambert's Eye: Late 19th century Singapore through the lens of the colonial photographer
Presenter: Jason Toh
Saturday 19 April
2.30 pm – 4pm
Seminar Rooms l & 2
Admission: $15 per participant

As the 'eye of history', photography has played a major role in documenting and recording events, peoples and places. In colonial settler communities like Singapore, photography was first brought in by the european photographers who travelled to the East as early as the 1840s. G.R Lambert, a photographer from Dresden, was one of these commercial photographers whose work spans some half a century from the 1860s to 1910s and whose oeuvre of work is one of the most well-documented in the museum collection. This lecture examines a series of photographs from the collection in an attempt to reconstruct how late 19th century Singapore was like through the eyes of the colonial photographer.

Presenter
Jason Toh is a liberal arts graduate from Middlebury College in Vermont, USA. He has been a curator with the National Museum of Singapore since 2004 specialising in photography and colonial history of Singapore. His research interests focus on the history and social history of photography in Asia.

Emergent Voices: Women in 20th Century Colonial Singapore
Presenter: Wong Hong Suen
Saturday 26 April
2.30 pm – 4pm
Seminar Rooms l & 2
Admission: $15 per participant

The etches of contemporary Singapore society appeared in early 20th century Singapore. From being a predominantly male bachelor port city in the 19th century, the emergence of women in private and public space from the 1900s changed the face of Singapore society. While a significant number of women were still smuggled out of their homelands and driven to prostitution or slavery, a larger number found ready employment in urban services such as domestic servants and seamstresses. A small group was highly educated and held professional positions such as lawyers, doctors and principals. Their lives individual and collective both parallel and provide a counterpoint to Singapore society in the period 1900s-1940s, a society increasingly politicised and whose domiciled communities were becoming increasingly vocal.

Presenter
Wong Hong Suen is a curator at the National Museum of Singapore. She was part of the curatorial team that put up major exhibitions such as I do, I do: An Exhibition on Weddings in Singapore (2002), Designing with Nature: An Exhibition on Design in Basketry (2003) in collaboration with the National Library Board and Rivertales (2004), an interactive exhibition about the social history surrounding the Singapore River.

She is currently the curator of the National Museum’s Food Gallery about the history and sociology of food and eating in Singapore, and the “Modern Times (1900-1940s)” section in the Singapore History Gallery. Her research interests focus on Southeast Asian and Singapore’s cultural history and include the history of representations, art history and colonial photography. She specialised in Southeast Asian art history at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University College London.

Singapore : The War-time Years
Presenter: Iskander Mydin
Saturday 3 May
2.30 pm – 4pm
Seminar Rooms l & 2
Admission: $15 per participant

The lecture will present an aspect of Singapore history that was a turning point for the future. Using the approach which was developed in the war-time component of the History Gallery, the lecture will discuss personal experiences or personal histories during this traumatic period of invasion and occupation.

Presenter
Iskander Mydin is currently Deputy Director (Curation and Collection) at the National Museum of Singapore. Prior to joining the National Museum as a curator in 1990, he worked in the Fort Siloso museum at Sentosa. He has curated several exhibitions on Singapore history, and his more recent works include the early colonial and World War Two periods in the National Museum’s Singapore History Gallery. His background is inter-disciplinary having studied modern Asian and European history, sociology, psychology, and visual anthropology. His research interests include the social history of the Malay community in Singapore, cultural history of Singapore, trauma and memory, colonial art history with reference to historical paintings of the colonial period in Singapore, and historical fragments like diaries, letters, and anecdotal history.

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Anyone interested to go with me ? Gavin ? Gaston ?