Kirjahaku

Singapore's collection of Southeast Asian animals–one of the world's largest–dates back to the old Raffles Museum, officially established in 1878.With the opening of the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in 2015, the original Raffles Museum has ""reincarnated"" and the loop on its remarkable 127-year history has closed. Beneath the sleek exterior of today's modern museum building lies a saga of titanic struggles and changes. That the collections survived at all–through the multiple challenges of the nineteenth century, the disruption of World War Two, and its potential disintegration in the face of Singapore's modernization–is nothing short of miraculous. This book is not only an institutional history of the museum but also tells the story of frustrations, commitment and courage of the numerous individuals who battled officialdom, innovated endlessly and overcame the odds to protect Singapore's natural history heritage. The book features 108 historical photographs and natural history illustrations printed in full colour throughout.

Everything you might want to know about Kent Ridge in one book. Kent Ridge, a corner of Singapore island, has been home to the National University of Singapore (NUS) since the 1980s, but the area entered the historical record centuries earlier. From the white sands of its shoreline marked on navigators’ maps, to the Alexandra Barracks of the Singapore Mutiny, from tiger traps and plantations to kampong and rich men’s seaside bungalows, the rocky ridge running parallel to Singapore’s western seashore has formed one of the most memorable of the island city-state’s landscapes.Extending from Clementi Road in the west to Alexandra Road in the east, and divided by the “ninety-nine curves” of South Buona Vista Road, Kent Ridge extends its imaginative pull on many Singaporeans and visitors, but especially those who have graduated—or are studying—at the NUS.This book helps you look beneath the shiny exteriors of today’s institutions, to the area’s geological past, and the wealth of flora and fauna that still can be found here: from indigenous plants such as the tembusu, tiup tiup, and sendudok, to monitor lizards, flying dragons and oriental green snakes. The book guides you through the changing human geography of the region, and tells the inside stories behind the original campus master plan drawn up in the 1970s.Richly illustrated with photos, historical maps and images, each chapter of this book is written by NUS faculty and staff who are passionate about the Ridge.