“The Rare Materials Collection: Selections from the National Library”

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

An interesting collection of stories about fifty items curated from the Singapore National Library’s Rare Materials Collection. The items are normally stored in special containers to preserve them and usually not put out for display for the public.

Ranging from maps, books, personal items, etc., they give a glimpse of what the South East Asian region around Singapore was like from a few centuries ago to the end of the Japanese Occupation during World War II and briefly onwards with items related to the early beginnings of Communist China.

Each item is briefly explained within a few pages, which gives the historical context around the item, a description of the item itself and what the item can tell us about how life was like at that time.

For those who are interested in nuggets of history about Singapore and its surrounding region, this book will give a glimpse of how life was like in those historical periods.

Book read from 2018/04/08 to 2018/04/14