Old Maps of Singapore

Pre-cancelled First Day Cover affixed with stamps

Mint Se-tenant block of 4 stamps (15¢)

Mint 50¢ and $1 stamp

The island of Singapore was featured in early South-East Asia maps even before its founding as a modern commercial entreport port in the 19th Century. Sketches by Chinese and Portuguese traders from the 16th Century showed the island located strategically at the tip of Malay archipelago, and fronting the stretch of sheltered waterways known today as the Keppel Harbour.

With the establishment of Singapore as East India Company's trading port in 1819 by Stamford Raffles, maps began to be made of the island in greater detail. In the first few years, marine charts were produced for navigation purposes. Subsequent maps of the 1820s were topographical surveys made for revenue purposes. Of greater significance in the course of the next few decades were the extensive surveys on the interiors of the island as well as the sectional maps of the town area, incorporating proposed plan for administrative projects, building of roads and allocation of land for ethnic groupings.

Maps and charts with initially done on a part-time basis by military engineers as part of their surveys of the island and its surrounding waters. In 1827, G D Coleman was employed as the first official Revenue Surveyor, with duties to prepare land titles for the Singapore Town. Other prominent government surveyors in the 19th Century included Lt Jackson, Thomson, J B Tasin, J C Woods, C E McCallum and D Quinton.

The first maps of the Singapore island were hand drawn pieces, and many original manuscripts were mounted on canvas to preserve their usage. Subsequent prints made from these manuscripts survive the century. A range of the early maps of Singapore is preserved today mainly in the collections of the National Museum, and in the reference section of the National Library and Archives.

Featured on the 15¢ se-tenant block of four stamps is a pre-war Map of Singapore showing the Principal Residences and Places of Interests in the 1920s. By this period, the town had been laid out in its various principal uses, and there was a basic road infrastructure along which the modern business area of Singapore grew.

Depicted on the 50¢ stamp is a Map of the Island of Singapore and its Dependencies produced in the 1860s.

Featured on the $1 stamp is a very early Map of the British Settlement of Singapore in the 1820s, by Captain J Franklin and Lieutenant Jackson. It is one of the earliest maps to be produced on the outline of Singapore island.

Date of issue: 26 July 1989
Denominations: 15¢ (Se-tenant block of 4 designs), 50¢ and $1
Stamp Size: 15¢ (38.00mm x 33.34mm), 50¢ and $1 (38.10mm x 36.85mm)
Perforation: 14¼
Paper: Unwatermarked
Printing Process: Lithography
Printer: Harrison & Sons Ltd
Sheet Content: 15¢ (40 Stamps per sheet), 50¢ and $1 (50 Stamps per sheet)
Designer: Leo Teck Chong
Produced by Telecommunication Authority of Singapore