Singapore is one of the smallest Asian countries but it has seems to have the best developed infrastructure to conserve and appreciate its vintage imagery. This may be the function of a well-developed economy, the many publishers based in Singapore, and the high educational levels among a population that otherwise would fit into a few districts of an Asian mega-city like Shanghai, Mumbai or Karachi.
Then there is the fact that Singapore was a key transit destination for people moving between all parts of Asia. A British possession since 1819, it was home to numerous photographers, permanent and itinerant. It was the kind of place, after a long journey by sea from Suez or Hongkong, from where you would drop a card to let someone know that you had reached safely.
The sophisticated appreciation of vintage imagery is reflected in the National Library of Singapore's online database of actively collected old images of Singapore. An important private collector, Cheah Jin Seng, donated his large collection of vintage Singaporean postcards to the Singapore Philatelic Museum in 2007. This led to what may well have been the first major postcard exhibition in Asia. Professor Cheah Jin Seng is also author of the wonderful book Singapore 500 Early Postcards. One of the most interesting points in the book is the quote from another researcher, Chris Mortimer, who estimated that about half a million postcards were sent from the Straits Settlements during the first few years of the postcard boom around 1900. Professor Cheah further very roughly suggests that some 2,000 different postcards of Singapore were published between the late 1890s and early 1940s.
Other Singaporeans have put together online mash-ups of old postcards and maps of the city. The net result is that for connoisseurs of old Singapore there are more materials and resources available than for nearly any other Asian country.
