8 new objects to see at the National Museum’s revamped Singapore History Gallery

SINGAPORE – With around 2,000 artefacts from across 700 years of Singapore history, the revamped Singapore History Gallery at the National Museum of Singapore (NMS) tells a sprawling saga of the Republic’s journey to the present day that warrants repeat visits.

The Straits Times picks eight objects – newly commissioned, freshly acquired or displayed for the first time – to look out for on your first visit to the permanent gallery, which opens to the public on Oct 10.

1. Jongkong model by Nasrun Syawal

Although massive container ships and oil tankers are a common sight in South-east Asian waters today, smaller boats like the jongkong were what dotted the horizon in the region’s pre-colonial past. The jongkong, a small canoe designed to seat one person and commonly used in the Riau-Lingga region, was mentioned in the early 17th-century text Sulalat al-Salatin, or the Malay Annals.

The NMS has commissioned craftsman Nasrun Syawal – who was born on Senayang Island in Indonesia and learnt boat-building from his parents as a child – to make this model with pulai (milkwood). The meticulous craft that has gone into the model is a testament to how maritime knowledge has survived to this day.

2. Multilingual census form from 1881

On display for the first time, this unassuming scroll of paper reflects the island’s nascent multilingualism, as well as the colonial administration’s penchant for classification after Singapore became a crown colony in 1867. Written in English, Jawi, Tamil and Mandarin, the document is addressed to the head of the household and carries a hefty $100 penalty for giving false information.

Curiously, the back of the paper classifies the Chinese by their various birthplaces. The Singapore Census of 1881 was the first to count Straits-born Chinese as a distinct community, recording over 9,500 people and constituting the fourth-largest Chinese community after the Hokkiens, Teochews and Cantonese.

3. Tan Chong Tee’s ink painting The Marco Polo Bridge Incident

Fervently anti-Japanese in his youth, Singapore-born Tan Chong Tee subsequently became a key member of Force 136, an underground resistance movement during the Japanese Occupation of Malaya. Tan, who studied fine arts at the University of Hunan, used his skills to paint the Malayan jungle as guides for the British to train guerilla fighters.

After the war, Tan returned to painting to commemorate the events that had fired his youthful passion. Major events in the Sino-Japanese War are collaged in this large work. Visitors can play with the interactive installation and learn more about how art, war and memory mingle on Tan’s canvas, on show for the first time.

4. Lim Yew Kuan’s woodcut print After Fire

Although artist Lim Yew Kuan’s tragic scene of a fire-ravaged Bukit Ho Swee has been shown before at the National Gallery Singapore, the 1966 woodcut print is being displayed for the first time at the NMS. It takes pride of place amid a crop of evocative woodblock prints that tell of how artists used social realism to advocate for the working class and against colonial rule.

Lim was a founding member of the politically conscious Equator Art Society and his work is displayed beside those of his contemporaries, like Koeh Sia Yong. A nifty display nearby breaks down the workings of the medium for curious, craftier visitors.

5. 1970s Housing Board lift from Ang Mo Kio

The history of modern Singapore can well be told in passenger lifts, from the first electric one installed in Winchester House at Collyer Quay in 1906 to the lifts of contemporary high-rise living.

It is fitting, then, that an entire 1970s lift extracted from Block 712 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 has found a new home in the Singapore History Gallery.

The museum received a tip-off from lift enthusiasts in 2024 and assessed that it was the oldest and last functioning HDB lift of its kind. Step into the lift with its mosaic exterior and it almost feels like stepping through time, when a lift ride was more miraculous than mundane.

6. Nanyang coffee roasting machine from the 1940s

While a cup of aromatic Nanyang coffee can be enjoyed at leisure by customers in a kopitiam, it once took three people to roast the robusta beans with an industrial machine at Ho Tit Coffee Powder Factory. Ho Tit, from the early generation of coffee roasters, stopped using the machine in 2009, but the metallic beast is such an imposing presence that you can almost imagine the smells wafting out of it.

7. Septagon chair from Phuture at Zouk club

Partygoers at Zouk’s original Jiak Kim Street home will recognise this bold seven-seater statement piece that was as experimental as the club’s music. This green splat of a chair still looks as avant-garde today as it was when designer Phillips Connor unveiled it in 1996 for Phuture, an experimental club within the former Zouk.

8. Time-lapse of Singapore’s skyline in The Lion City 2012-2026

In less than 160 seconds, Singapore-based Australian artist Keith Loutit captures the ambitious scale of demolition and construction that has transformed the Republic’s skyline from 2012 to the present day. The condensation of years into seconds puts into perspective how much of the present has already transformed into the past without much notice.

Book It/Singapore History Gallery

Where: National Museum of Singapore, 93 Stamford Road
When: Opens Oct 10, 10am to 7pm daily
Admission: Free for Singapore citizens and permanent residents; $18 and $13 (concession) for tourists and foreign residents
Info: str.sg/D6wD

Correction note: The National Museum has clarified that there are about 2,000 artefacts in the gallery.