After going to the Empire of Nature exhibition (showcasing the entire William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings for the first time), I came out a raving fan of Farquhar.
Did you know that Raffles wasn’t actually very nice to Farquhar? Farquhar was the one governing Singapore during the crucial 1st four years, after which he got kicked out from office by Raffles when he returned.

I further found out during the exhibition that when it came to claiming credit for natural history ‘discoveries’, Raffles was very nasty indeed. Though Farquhar had documented certain specimens of plants and animals earlier, Raffles took the credit for it in his own publication, and even tried to get Farquhar’s publication withdrawn.
With such people around, Farquhar never really got the recognition he deserved, being less well connected, and having his publications delayed. So, corporate backstabbing in Singapore started 188 years ago!

On another note, I think the whole idea of Englishmen “discovering” local species is quite dumb. In the first place, it was the locals who found the specimens for them. So obviously, the locals would have known the plants/animals very well indeed, and have had their own names for them already. So if the whole species naming thing were really fair, the original names given to them by the locals should be used/the plants and animals should be named after people in the indigenous community.

Back to the exhibition- it was pretty brilliant actually! Lighting was used very effectively, and so were the sound effects/music, which varied according to the setting of the exhibits (eg mystical forest-y sounds at the part with plant drawings; equally mystical sea-ish sounds at the part featuring sea creatures and fish).

They also had this cool art installation cum activity zone for kids, where you could make your own cage and hang it up.

Very interesting historical information was woven in skillfully with the background context of the drawings. Though most people have probably learnt about the time when Singapore was founded in school, I’m sure most people will come out from this exhibition having learnt something new, or at least being encouraged to think about it again.

Tags: Empire of Nature, William Farquhar Collection of Natural History Drawings, National Museum of Singapore

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