Introduction to the map exhibition.
No. 1. 1819 Survey Plan of Singapore Harbour. Title: 'Plan of Singapore Harbour by Capt. D. Ross'. Published 1st Jan 1820 by James Horsburgh.
No. 2. 1828 Jackson Town Plan. Title: 'Plan of the Town of Singapore by Lieut Jackson'. Copy of map MA0018 from the National Museum of Singapore's map collection.
No. 3. 1836 Coleman Town Map. Title: 'Map of the Town and Environs of Singapore, Drawn by J.B. Tassin, from an Actual Survey by G.D. Coleman'. By J.B. Tassin's Lith Press, Calcutta 1836.
No. 4. 1846 Thomson Survey Plan & Map. Title: 'Plan of Singapore Town and Adjoining Districts from actual Survey by John Turnbull Thomson, Govt. Surveyor Singapore'. Published by J.M. Richardson, 1846, London.
No. 5. 1846 Thomson Survey Plan & Map. Title: 'This survey of the Straits of Singapore is respectfully inscribed to the Honble Colonel Butterworth'. Published by Richardson Brothers Aug 17th 1846. Additions to 1855. Price Twelve shillings. Published by S. Congalton & J.T. Thomson.
No. 6. 1840-1843 & 1886 Surveys of New Harbour. Prepared at the request of W.H. Read Esq. C.M.G. Office of the Surveyor General, Singapore, 23rd July 1886.
No. 7. 1884 Plan of Harbour & Roadstead. Title: 'SINGAPORE - Plan of Harbour and Roadstead - Compiled from Surveys made on the spot, by Capt. Jekyll, R.E., and from Local Plans. 1884.
No. 7. 1884 Plan of Harbour & Roadstead. Close-up of title block. Note the surveyor's name is not R.E. Jekyll as written on the board but Herbert Jekyll. If you find this surname familiar, it is not a coincidence. Herbert's brother Walter was a friend of the author Robert Louis Stevenson. 'R.E.' stands for Royal Engineers.
No. 8. 1898 Map of the Island of Singapore and Its Dependencies. Scale of one inch to one mile (1:63,360). The green areas are the Forest Reserves (F.R.).
No. 8. 1898 Map of the Island of Singapore and Its Dependencies. Note the misnaming of the Colonial Engineer and Surveyor General as 'C.E. Mice'.
No. 8. 1898 Map of the Island of Singapore and Its Dependencies. The correct name of the Colonial Engineer & Surveyor General of the Straits Settlements: A[lexander] Murray. Mr Murray held the rank of Colonel as Commandant of the Singapore Volunteers. He was a Civil Engineer (C.E.) and a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (M.I.C.E.). Note that this map was 'Lithographed at the Colonial Engineer's Office in Singapore'. Many official maps before this were printed in England.
No. 8. 1898 Map of the Island of Singapore and its Dependencies. Blurry close-up of the 'Note' block of the map. This 1898 map is in fact the first whole-island map to be published after the first successful island-wide trigonometrical survey which was conducted from 1890-1893. It was during this trigonometrical survey that the Origin of Co-ordinates was chosen to be the Flagstaff on the Government Offices (now Empress Place Building which houses the Asian Civilisations Museum). You can see 'Government Offices. Initial Station Trigonometrical Survey' with the Latitude and Longitude listed.
No. 9. 1926 Map of Singapore (Changi & Tampines). This is Sheet No. 8 (out of 16) from the 4 inch to 1 mile (1:15,840) topographic map series of Singapore. This was the first properly surveyed topo map series of Singapore. The series was first published in 1924 and was just in time for the 1924 British Empire Exhibition which was held at Wembley Stadium in London. A few 'technical' changes were made in the 1926 update. These included the rewording of the scale from '20 chains to 1 inch' to '4 inches to 1 mile' and using lat/long values around the margin of the map instead of coordinates in 'chains'.
No. 9. 1926 Map of Singapore (Changi & Tampines). Area around the Changi coast where the POW camp was located during WWII. The few red houses below the words 'Kg. Ayer Gemuruh' were occupied by the senior Japanese officers of the Changi Prison Camp during WWII. Note the first appearance of 'Mukim' and associated numbers on Singapore maps in this series. Mukim is the equivalent of 'Parish' for land administration purposes in British Malaya.
No. 9. 1926 Map of Singapore (Changi & Tampines). Close-up of the longitude value of 104 deg (east of Greenwich). The job code for this map is 'F.M.S. Surveys No. 196-1926'. The original 1924 series was 'F.M.S. Surveys No. 7-1924'. Not every sheet in this series was updated in 1926. A third update took place in 1928 after the boundary between Johore and Singapore was finalised. Again, only those mapsheets covering the Johore Straits were updated.
No. 9. 1926 Map of Singapore (Changi & Tampines). Blurry close-up of the publication info. The map was 'Published under the direction of the Surveyor General F.M.S. & S.S.' The Survey Departments of the Federated Malay States (F.M.S.) and the Straits Settlements (S.S.) amalgamated on 1st April 1920. The numeral '12' indicates that sheet no. 12 should be placed below sheet no. 8. Note the reworded Scale statement of '4 inches to a mile'.
No. 10 (left) & 11 (right). The first two of three Pocket Maps from the Singapore & Malayan Directory. Left map 1924; right map 1929. The 1924 map was 'Heliozincographed at the Central Survey Office, K.L., F.M.S.' The 1929 map carries a map scale statement of 2.66 Inches to 1 Mile (~1:23,820).
No. 12. The third of three pocket maps from the Singapore & Malayan Directory, entitled: SINGAPORE. 'From a map supplied by Singapore Improvement Trust.' Reproduced by PRINTERS LTD. The Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT) was formed in 1927. The survey section of the SIT was co-located with the Survey Department of Singapore on the fifth floor of the Fullerton Building at that time.
No. 13. 1938 Singapore Police Map. Scale 1.5 Inches to 1 Mile (1:42,240).
No. 14. 1938 Map of Singapore (Bukit Timah). This is part of the 1:6,336 large scale town map series of Singapore published in 1938. This map has coordinates in 'chains' at each corner. The first edition was published in 1932. After examining this map and pondering over the details, I think this could have been a war-time or immediate postwar b/w reprint to record certain updates made during the war occupation years.
No. 14a. This is a small Map of Malaya and is not part of the official map count (of 18) for the exhibition. It is located to the right of the 1938 map of Singapore (Bukit Timah). This map is labelled the '1936 Edition'. However, the information on the map should predate 1936 as 'The Dindings' is still marked as a separate entity on this map. The Dindings included Pulau Pankor off the coast of Perak state and was part of the Straits Settlements until 1935 when the area was returned to Perak state. For a few early years, the Dindings was administered from Singapore. After that, it was transferred to Penang until 1935.
No. 15 & 16. 1943 Map of Syonan-si (Sheets 149-150/169-170 & 191-192/211-212). These two maps were reprinted by the Japanese military in 1943 during their occupation of Singapore. Both maps are published at a scale of 10 inches to 1 mile or 8 chains to 1 inch (1:6,336). This first map (on the left) shows the MacRitchie Reservoir area.
No. 16. The second of the two Japanese reprinted maps of Singapore town area. This map shows the Tanjong Rhu/Kallang Airport area. Both maps (No. 15 & 16) were reprinted from the 1938 series with certain place names in Japanese.
No. 15 & 16. Close-up of the Japanese texts on the two maps. On the left is the compilation note for the maps--from the 1938 ~1:6,340 scale maps. On the right shows the publication date and unit responsible for the printing of the maps. The maps were printed in August of Showa 18 (1943). The production unit is usually translated as Oka Troop or Unit 1601 (or phonetically as Oka Dai 1601 Butai). 'Oka' was the unit codename for the Japanese Southern Area Army and later the 7th Area Army HQ in Singapore. In August 1943, the codename referred to the former HQ.
No. 17. 1951 Map of Singapore on Anti-Malaria Works. A map enlarged from the Annual Report of the Medical Department. Original map scale: 3 miles to an inch (1:190,080).
No. 18. Map of Singapore City 1954. The last and largest map in the exhibition. Also, the only post-WWII update of the 1932, 1938, 1943 series of town maps at the scale of 1:6,336 (expressed as 10 inches to a mile or 8 chains to an inch on this map). The job code for this map is Survey Department Federation of Malaya No. 16-1954. This map was produced by air survey methods using air photos with ground controls and checks. Note the coordinates printed around the map. They are based on the Malayan Rectified Skew Orthomorphic (RSO) Projection, developed specifically for Peninsular Malaya (including Singapore) in 1947 by the British Directorate of Colonial Surveys. The colour scheme and design used in this map is the 'house style' of the Pan-Malayan Survey Department for town plans/maps.
No. 18. Blurry close-up of the map title: Map of Singapore City.
No. 18. Close up of the area over MacRitchie Reservoir and the Royal Singapore Golf Course (now the Singapore Island Country Club). Compare it with the next photo showing the same area from the 1943 Japanese reprint of the 1938 edition.
No. 15. Close up of the MacRitchie Reservoir and the present Singapore Island Country Club area. Note the distances between each hole in the golf course and compare this level of detail with the previous map produced after WWII. The circle marker shows the location of the Japanese Shinto shrine (Syonan Jinja) built in the jungle off the MacRitchie Reservoir.
