National Treasure – Daguerreotype of Boat Quay and Singapore River from Government Hill (1844)

In 1844, Singapore was a growing British trading post, notable for the establishment of a girls’ school (Singapore Institution Free School), the foundation stone laid for Tan Tock Seng Hospital, maps by John Turnbull Thomson detailing its expansion and the oldest surviving photo – a daguerreotype of Boat Quay by Jules Itier.

National Treasure¹

Daguerreotype of Boat Quay and Singapore River from Government Hill

Alphonse-Eugène-Jutes Itier, 1844 | Silver on copper plate | National Museum of Singapore collection

This daguerreotype is one of the earliest surviving photographs of Singapore showing a view of the commercial centre of Boat Quay from Government Hill (now Fort Canning Hill). Singapore thrived as a transshipment hub where goods were imported and repackaged to be shipped elsewhere for sale – this connectedness with the world also meant that new technologies often arrived at its shores not long after gaining popularity in their places of origin.

The daguerreotype was taken just five years after the daguerreotype process was invented. Daguerreotypes result in one-off positive images that are flipped from left to right. The photograph above is a corrected view of the original image, representing the orientation of Boat Quay as seen in real life.

Itier travelled through this part of the world en route to China as part of a French trade mission led by French ambassador Théodose de Lagrené.² The delegation arrived in Singapore on 3 July 1844, staying here for two weeks before departing on 16 July. The sights and sounds of the bustling port left a deep impression on Itier, who took pictures to show the remarkable development of the port settlement within a mere two decades of its founding in 1819.

The Earliest Photos

The daguerreotype, the earliest practical method of making permanent images with a camera, was introduced in 1839.³ Named after its French inventor Louis Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, the daguerreotype spread across the world, and soon found its way to Singapore.

Abdullah’s memoir, The Hikayat Abdullah, or the Stories of Abdullah, gives a detailed description of the daguerreotype equipment, its workings and the outcome of the photographs. It mentions that at least two photographs were taken by Dr Stronach, a ship’s doctor on board an American warship that had called at Singapore in the 1840s. Although the actual photographs are no longer extant, the memoirs of Munshi Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir first published in 1849, keeps a permanent textual record of it.⁴

Another source traces the earliest photograph to Dr Wright, a junior doctor on board the American ship U.S.S. Constellation, which had docked in Singapore from 4 November 1841 to 5 February 1842. A private letter from Maria Balestier (wife of Joseph Balestier, the first American consul in Singapore, and the donor of the Revere bell) to her sister mentioned that Dr Wright had produced a “daguerreotype drawing” of the Balestiers’ home in the Rochore area. According to the letter, Dr Wright had also made several images for Governor Bonham.⁵

Since the fate of the images mentioned in the Hikayat Abdullah remains unknown, the daguerreotypes produced in 1844 by Alphonse-Eugène-Jules Itier, a French customs inspector, are considered the oldest surviving photographic views of Singapore.

For a brief time, Singapore was also home to John Thomson, who later gained recognition for his extensive photographic documentation of China in the 1870s, and is feted as one of the most accomplished travel photographers of the 19th century. A Scotsman, Thomson came to Singapore in June 1862 to join his older brother, William, who had arrived about two years prior and ran a ship chandlery business on Battery Road.

Held in the National Library of Singapore is an album by Sachtler & Co. titled Views and Types of Singapore, 1863, containing 40 albumen prints that make
up the oldest photographic material in the library’s collection. As the title indi-
cates, the album features picturesque scenes (“views”) of the settlement and
portraits of its diverse inhabitants (ethnographic “types”).

The closure of Sachtler & Co. left a gap that another photographic studio, G.R. Lambert & Co., rose to fill and in fact surpass. G.R. Lambert & Co. was established at 1 High Street by Gustave Richard Lambert from Dresden, Germany, on 10 April 1867.

History of Singapore

Singapore’s history is a journey from ancient settlement to modern metropolis. Initially known as Temasek, it was a 14th-century trading post, later falling under the influence of various empires. Sir Stamford Raffles established a British trading post in 1819, transforming the island into a thriving port. Post-World War II, Singapore gained self-governance and eventually independence, first as part of Malaysia and then as a sovereign nation in 1965. 

The Singapore Treasures series focuses on the artefacts, relics and key monuments and moments that shaped this young nation. It is divided into four main parts.

• Pre-colonial before 1819
• British Colonial Rule (1819-1942), Japanese Occupation (1942-1945) and Post-War (1945-1955)
• Self government (1955-1963) and merger with Malaysia (1963-1965)
• Independence since 1965

Treasures – Revere Bell (1843)

Treasures – Artefacts of Lee Kuan Yew (c. 1950s)

Singapore’s First Airport – Kallang Airport (1937-1955)

Lest We Forget – Sook Ching Massacre (18 Feb – 4 Mar 1942)

Lest We Forget – Fall of Singapore (15 Feb 1942)

Treasures – Presentation Cup to William Farquhar (1823)

Treasures – National Day Rally Rostrum from National Theatre (c. 1970s)

Chasing Dragons (c. 1900s)

Coolies that Moved the Nation (c. 1900s)

Treasures – Straits Chinese Panel Belt (c. mid 20th century)

National Treasure – Portrait of Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham (1904)

Treasures – Silver Epergne for William Farquhar (c. 1823)

Treasures – Portrait of Sir Stamford Raffles (1912)

National Treasure – Mace of the City of Singapore (1953)

Malaysia Day 1963

National Treasure – Majapahit Armlet and Earrings (c. 14th century)

National Treasure – Singapore Stone (c. 14th century)

Treasures – Javanese Gold Jewellery (c. 14th Century)

Declaration of Independence

Footnotes :

1. The full list of national treasures is as follows: (1) The Singapore Stone (2) a 1904 portrait of Sir Frank Athelstane Swettenham, the first Resident General of the Federated Malay States, by John Singer Sargent; (3) the last will and testament of Munshi Abdullah, the father of modern Malay literature; (4) the mace of the City of Singapore (1953) that was presented by Chinese philanthropist Loke Wan Tho in conjunction with King George VI granting Singapore a Royal Charter in 1951, raising its status to a city; (5) an 1844 daguerreotype of the view from Fort Canning Hill by French customs service officer Alphonse-Eugene Jules, one of the earliest photographic images of Singapore; (6) fourteenth-century gold armlets and rings in East Javanese style, found at Fort Canning Hill in 1928; (7) a 1939 portrait of Sir Shenton Thomas, the last Governor of the Straits Settlements, by painter Xu Beihong; (8) a collection of 477 natural history drawings of flora and fauna in Melaka commissioned by Resident of Singapore William Farquhar in the 19th century; (9) a wooden hearse used for the funeral of Chinese philanthropist Tan Jiak Kim in 1917; (10) an early twentieth-century embroidered Chinese coffin cover, one of the largest of its kind in existence in Singapore; and (11) a glove puppet stage belonging to the Fujian puppet troupe, Xin Sai Le, which came to Singapore in the 1930s. See: Wei Chean Lim, “Singapore’s Treasures” in The Straits Times (31 January 2006). ↩︎
2. The Lagrené mission, as it came to be known, resulted in the Treaty of Whampoa signed on 24 October 1844, which secured for France the same privileges extended to Britain. See Massot, G. (2015, November). Jules Itier and the Lagrené Mission. History of Photography, 39 (4), 319–347, p. 320. (Call no.: RCLOS 770.92 MAS) ↩︎
3. Janice Loo, Daguerreotypes to Dry plates: Photography in 19th-century Singapore, 30 Oct 2019, https://biblioasia.nlb.gov.sg/vol-15/issue-3/oct-dec-2019/photography-in-sg/ accessed 13 Dec 2025 ↩︎
4. Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir. (1955). The Hikayat Abdullah (A. H. Hill  Trans.) (p. 256–257). Singapore: Malaya Publishing House. Call no.: RCLOS 959.5 ABD-[RFL]. ↩︎
5. Earliest recorded photograph of Singapore. https://www.nlb.gov.sg/main/article-detail?cmsuuid=fae3780c-ecbc-415e-8282-be0dd8910d32 ↩︎