The front block of the museum building dates back to 1887. It features an elegant neo-Palladian design, a European style of architecture characterised by a highly symmetrical façade and the use of pediments above windows.
This gallery shines the spotlight on how the people of Singapore coped with daily life and responded with grit and tenacity to the Japanese Occupation. It celebrates their resilience, resourcefulness and self-reliance – values that still underpin the core of Singapore’s society today. Snapshots of these memories are presented in an immersive setting of crumbling walls, evocative of the uncertain and shattered world our war survivors endured.
Nevertheless, amid the desperation, hope remained. As you walk through the backroom of the gallery, you will find stories and artefacts that bear testament to courage, hope and love in a period marked by fear, hardship and oppression.
Visit our permanent galleries with your little ones and play spot-the-artefact! Our colourful Early Learning Resources introduce pre-schoolers to our artefacts according to the themes of Numbers, Colours, and ABCs. Available at $8 per set from the Museum Label shop. For more children's activity booklets, click here.
OFF / ON. Step into this immersive showcase and explore how everyday technological tools changed and shaped the lives of Singaporeans from the 1970s to 2000s.
Immerse yourself in three multimedia artworks created as an artistic response to climate change and sustainability, inspired by the museum's collection to create fresh connections between environmental issues that concern our present and allow us to imagine what our future might look like.
Dislocations: Memory and Meaning of the Fall of Singapore, 1942 is a commemorative exhibition to mark the 80th anniversary of the British Surrender to the Imperial Japanese Army in Singapore on 15 February 1942.
Discover some questions posed by children to their senior pen pals and find out what life was like for our seniors when they were young!
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