This exhibition, mounted at Fort San Andres in Port of Spain, is dedicated to the memory of John Newel Lewis, architect and artist who devoted himself to the recording and illustrating of the 19th century buildings of the city.
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| The Spanish Fort San Andres in Port of Spain was once part of the
defence of the town. The cannons pointing at the sea bear silent witness
to those exciting years. |
During these times of the Coronavirus pandemic, when schools in Trinidad and Tobago and all over the world are closed, we would like to take teachers and students on a virtual tour of the Museum of the City of Port of Spain, which was located at Fort San Andres and is currently (as has been for a while) closed to the public.
You can double-click on the images and enlarge them, and download them for the information contained in them. We hope that you will take the virtual tour and get a lot of information about our capital, our home city, the city of our ancestors! The text that accompanies the visuals on this blog post will act as your "virtual tour guide".
The Museum was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2003, and opened by then Minister of Culture the Honourable Pennelope Beckles and Mayor of Port of Spain, His Worship Murchison Brown. It is dedicated to the memory of architect John Newel Lewis HBM, who made himself deserved by his involvement in the carnival arts and the documentation of the architectural influences of Port of Spain. The National Museum led by then curator Vel Lewis oversaw the project. The content and design was conceptualised by Gérard A. Besson HBM, D.Litt (h.c.), using images from the Paria Publishing Archives. The three-dimensional objects in the display cases were drawn from the collection of the National Museum. Some were sourced with the kind assistance of Ross Bynoe of Yesteryear Antiques. We also received spontaneous donations from a wide cross section of people for the exhibits. The building of the exhibits was done by Peter Sorzano of Signs & Designs Ltd. and his team, with contributions from Peter Tardieu.
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| The exterior of Fort San Andres with cannons and City Gate in the background. |
So let's take the tour of the Museum of the City of Port of Spain!
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| The entrance area of the Museum. |
We first show you the entrance of the Museum, a long corridor with a
window in it that allows you to get a first glance into the exhibition
itself. "History is a window! A window into our past that offers a view
of the future."
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| The "Negro Figuranti" that accompany the visitor into the exhibit are
coloured drawings by Richard Bridgens, done in the 1830s in Trinidad of
Trinidadians. |
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| The composite Map/Timeline in the entrance area of the museum is based
on illustrations by John Newel Lewis. It shows the migration of peoples
to Port of Spain and their built heritage over the last 500 years. |
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| An interior of the Museum |
Turning the corner, you are finding yourself in a pleasant atmosphere.
The high ceilings and tall windows of the Museum let in light and air,
and the hardwood floor gleams with shafts of light. The large, colourful
panels hang suspended from the ceiling on invisible wires, and allow
you to walk around them and discover what's on the obverse and reverse
of them. Many exhibition boxes of three-dimensional, historical objects
and curiosities add to an overall atmosphere of being in a place where
history was made.
Part 1: Pre-Columbian & Spanish Trinidad
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| The first panel talks about a time before the Spanish presence in the
Caribbean. The area where Port of Spain now stands was known as
"Conquerabia" or "Place of the Silk Cotton Trees". It was inhabited by
the First People who came and went between the South American mainland
and the island chain. This panel gives some impressions of how they
lived. |
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| Cultural artefacts of the First People |
The display box of cultural artefacts of the First People shows
pre-Columbian pottery shards, a stone tool, and a woven basket. Did you
know that the First People had developed a weaving technique that
allowed them to even carry water in a basket?
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| From 1498 to 1797, Trinidad was a Spanish colony. The panel "The
Conquistadors" gives a timeline of the earliest Spanish Governors,
Renaissance men who saw themselves as discoverers, adventurers,
privateers and navigators, in short, as "Conquistadors" in search of "El
Dorado". And while gold was never found in Trinidad, pearls were,
which, together with the capture and sale of tribal people by the
Spanish as slaves, formed the first economy of Trinidad. |
If you want to read the text on the panels, double-click on the image!
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| Don Antonio Sedeño was the first of the Spanish Governors of
Trinidad. On this panel, you can see a Dutch chart showing the islands
of Trinidad and of Tobago, a sketch done by John Newel Lewis of what Don
Antonio's fort may have looked like, and an engraving of pearl fishing
in the Gulf of Paria in the 16th century. |
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| Puerto de España in the late Spanish and early English period, the
1790s, was a hub for the burgeoning plantation economy of the island.
This panel shows a number of illustrations of life in Trinidad in the
early 1800s. The Spanish presence in Trinidad has continued to the
present. It is remembered in the name of our capital city & in San
Fernando, various places, towns and villages, food and festivals and
most importantly in the Spanish family names that have proudly survived
for more than six hundred years. |
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| The last Spanish governor of Trinidad, Don José María Chacón, is remembered by the national flower, the "Chaconia", and by Chacon Street in Port of Spain that still bears his name. He arrived in Trinidad on the 1st September, 1784, as the the 38th governor in a succession that covered a period of some 250 years of Spanish rule |
2: European planters, Free Blacks & People of Colour, the majority of whom were French speaking, start arriving in Spanish Trinidad from 1783.
Trinidad's population in 1783:
Whites 126
Free Coloureds 295
Slaves 310
Amerindians 2,032
2,763
(Source, L. M. Fraser, History of Trinidad, Book 1)
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| The French presence in a very sparsely populated Spanish Trinidad began in 1783 when on the behest of Grenada-born Philippe Roume de St. Laurent, the Spanish Government granted a "Cedula for Population". It invited Catholics from anywhere in the world to come to Trinidad and receive there land grants based on the quantity of enslaved people they brought into the island. This Cedula is, de facto, Trinidad's first constitution, as it sets out the legal and economic framework that determined how the colony would be governed. A unique document for its time, it guaranteed, under Spanish law, that Free Black people and free mixed race people, who also brought with them enslaved Africans, would have the same rights and privileges as the European settlers. Since in those years, many of the formerly French islands in the Caribbean had been ceded as prizes of war to the British the people of those islands, Grenada, Tobago, Dominica, St Vincent and later St Lucia, were mainly Catholic, French speaking-Antillean people, both white and free black and mixed race people, came and received lands in Trinidad, which was then still largely covered in virgin jungle. The influence of these French speaking people shaped and coloured the cultural and economic life of Trinidad & Tobago for well over 150 years. |
Port of Spain, or as it was then called "Puerto de España", was really just a small hamlet in the mangrove-rimmed mud flats at the river mouth of the Rio Santa Ana in those days. However, the influx of hundreds of people from the French Antilles, be they white, free black, or people of colour, who brought a large quantity of enslaved African people to clear the jungle and establish plantations, opened up the plantation economy in Trinidad and Port of Spain grew swiftly to become a busy port town.
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| The Cedula for Population of 1783 gave social and economic opportunities to
Free Blacks and People of Colour that other places did not. The majority
of them being Catholic & French acculturated settled in Port of
Spain, & in the Naparimas. They became the basis for the original
middle class of Trinidad. They gave to the island a distinct French
Antillean flavour & culture that was to last well into the 20th
century. In those early years newspapers were in French & English
and so too was trade as were Court room proceedings! |
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| With the French Revolution breaking out in 1789, and "Madame
Guillotine" also finding its way to the French Antilles, the influx of
French people into Trinidad increased. Port of Spain became quite a
volatile melting pot, comprising French aristocratic families who
escaped the Guillotine, black and white republican revolutionaries, some
from as far away as Haiti, runaway slaves, deserters of foreign wars,
and many other people as listed on this panel who had resisted slavery
& imperialism. The roots of a culture of resistance were laid in
those years. |
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| This exhibit shows a poster as was commonly used to advertise a slave
market. The drawings of people were done by Richard Bridgens in the
1820s, which means that they are the oldest depictions of Africans
living in Port of Spain. The panel also gives an extract of the will of
Michael Loreilhe, a French planter, who in a manner not untypical for
the times leaves bequests to enslaved people. |
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| With the influx of tens of thousands of African enslaved people who
were brought to Trinidad from the other islands or directly from Africa,
Port of Spain's population grew incrementally. Many of the enslaved
were employed as domestics, grooms, gardeners, nannies and other
occupations by the townsfolk. They brought important cultural practices
to the town, like music, dance and drumming, wakes, food choices, and
many other African practices. In 1807, the trade in slaves was abolished
throughout the British Empire, of which Trinidad and Tobago were a part
since 1797, and in 1838, the cruel and dehumanising practice of African
slavery was finally abolished altogether by the British Government. |
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| The exhibition box shows some implements that would have been
typically used by the enslaved people in Port of Spain: an oil stove, a
mortar and pestle, and an antique clothes iron. |
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| Some of the European-descended French who came to Port of Spain
under the terms of the Cedula belonged to the nobility of Europe. One of
them, the Valleton de Boissière family, are featured on this panel.
From this French family came merchants, planters, legislators, highly
decorated soldiers, a world famous author, medical doctors and an
illustrious son of the soil, Dr. Eric Eustace Williams, the first prime
minister of an independent Trinidad and Tobago. |
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| This grave stone once formed part of a de Boissière tomb in a private cemetery in Debe Road, Maraval. |
If you want to read the text on the panels, double-click on the image!
Part 3: Port of Spain becomes British
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| Exhibit with a commemorative plate, remembering the first 100 years of British rule in Trinidad and Tobago. |
In 1797, Trinidad was conquered by the British, eventually becoming a
Crown Colony. The influence of Great Britain shaped the modern history
of Port of Spain. This section of the Museum explores some of the
historical personalities and milestones of the transition from Spanish
to British Trinidad—during which for many decades the population
continued to speak French and Patois and where Spanish Laws continued to
exist in a British colony up to 1849!
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| Continue your stroll among the exhibits! |
Trinidad's population in 1803:
Whites Coloured
English 663 599
Spanish 505 1,751
French 1,093 2,925
–––––– –––––
2,261 5,275 8,536
Enslaved Africans 20,000 |
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| This display box shows the torture of a young woman of colour, Luisa
Calderon whose foot was lowered on a spike in order for her to admit to
larceny. It is said that this "picton-ing" later led to the
colloquialism "picong", meaning giving somebody a hard time. |
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| The General Hospital in Port of Spain was originally a military
barracks called the Orange Grove Barracks. It was constructed in
1803-04 by General Hislop, the second military governor of Trinidad. |
Total number of enslaved African in Trinidad in 1813 was 25,696. Of these 11,633 were Creole slaves, that is, born on the estates or in households. These can be broken down thus: 7,088 born in Trinidad, 2,576 from British Colonies, 1,593 from French Colonies, and 376 from other places.
(Source, B. W. Higman, Slave Populations of the British Caribbean 1807-1834.)
Total number of enslaved African in Trinidad: 13,984. Comprising :–
Ibo, South Eastern Nigeria: 2,863
Congo, Congo: 2,450
Moco, Cameroons: 2,240
Mandingo, Senegambia: 1,421
Kormantyn, Ghana, Gold Coast, Fanti, Ashanti, others: 1,068
Kwakwa, Ivory Coast: 473
Sierra Leone, Temne: 169, Susu: 145, Kissi: 63
Ibibio, South Eastern Nigeria: 371
Raddah, Dahomey: 281
Chamba, Nigeria: 275
Fulani, Northern Nigeria: 171
Popo, Dahomey: 112
Hausa, Northern Nigeria: 109
Yoruba, Western Nigeria: 10
Various tribal groupings: 818
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| With the exception of the Observatory at Laventille (recently named
Fort Chacon), and the foundation of Fort St. Andres there are no
buildings in Port of Spain that actually date back to Spanish times.
This panel gives some examples of buildings that are close in date to
the 18th century, with a map of the city in the early 19th century. The
Observatory at Laventille was where the first meridian of longitude, the
63rd, was established by Don Damian Churruca in 1795. It was the first
in the New World to be established by the observation of the stars. |
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| This interesting composite map shows the growth of the city from
being Puerto de España, to Port d'Espagne as the French inhabitants
called it, to Port of Spain as it was renamed by the British. |
If you want to read the text on the panels, double-click on the image!
Part 4: Port of Spain's Architecture in the early 19th century
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| During the mid 19th century, Port of Spain's architecture gave it a
distinct French-Antillean flair, similar to towns like St. Pierre in
Martinique or New Orleans in the USA. The grace of the arcaded buildings
has today all but vanished in Port of Spain. The Panel shows some of
the buildings on Marine Square (today Independence Square) and drawings
by John Newel Lewis. |
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| In the later 19th century, a Scottish architect and builder named
George Brown came to Trinidad and influenced the architecture of Port of
Spain with the "Lantern Roof". This panel shows some of the buildings
he built and his influence visualised with drawings by John Newel Lewis. |
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| 1813 saw the arrival of Trinidad's first civil governor Sir Ralph
Woodford, Bart. Woodford (after whom Woodford Street is named) set about
changing the Spanish/French town into a more British town, establishing
the Queen's Park Savannah and Brunswick Square (now Woodford
Square), building Trinity Cathedral and the Cathedral of the Immaculate
Conception and laying out the Royal Botanic Gardens. |
If you want to read the text on the panels, double-click on the image!
Part 5: Port of Spain Acquires Modern Institutions in the 19th Century
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| The second room of the Museum, dedicated to Modern Times |
As you continue your tour of the Museum of the City of Port of Spain,
you now enter into the second room of the exhibit. This room is
dedicated to the modernisation of the town in the 19th and into the 20th
century. With the growth of the plantation system after the
emancipation of the enslaved under the British colonial government, the
city of Port of Spain grew and its commercial and administrative
institutions developed at a rapid rate: the banking system, the
insurance industry, the Town Council, the transport system, the Police
and judicial systems, and several other institutions came into being.
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| In the Victorian era, Port of Spain became a "Crown Jewel" in the
British Empire, a colonial capital on par with others like Delhi, Hong
Kong or Lagos. The pomp and circumstance of the British Empire was
regularly rolled out with the visits of dignitaries and during imperial
holidays. The panel also introduces some of the early local Town Council
members after whom some streets are named in Port of Spain. |
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After the abolition of slavery in in 1838, the British Colonial Government looked for replacement labour to work in the plantations in the Caribbean. From 1845 to 1917, an indenture scheme that brought labourers from India began. From then until 1921, over 110,000 persons arrived from the Indian sub-continent, shaping Trinidad & Tobago and the capital, Port of Spain with their culture and traditions.
The Beginnings of Indentureship
From before the Emancipation Act of 1838, the British government began to experiment with the importation of indentured labour into Trinidad to work the sugar estates. Small numbers of Chinese and later Portuguese from the Atlantic islands were introduced in the opening decades of the 19th century. However, as is known, these did not prove suitable for agricultural labour and tended towards commerce. The British then turned to India as a source of labour.
According to historian Donald Wood in "Trinidad in Transition" East Indians numbered:- “by 1851, (six years after indentureship began) 6 % (4,169) of the population of 69,609; in 1861, 15.9 % (13,488) of the population of 84,438 and the largest immigrant group; in 1871, 25.1 % (27,425) of a population of 109,638, and with 4,545 born in Trinidad itself. Over 20,000 East Indians were still working on the estates in 1871, either completing their industrial residence or on other forms of contract.”
By 1901, Indians and their descendants made up 33% of the population. The indentured Indians were drawn from a variety of casts, sects, religions and backgrounds and also from different parts of the Indian subcontinent, and as such were in themselves a heterogeneous population. Trinidad’s ethnic mix was well underway to being unique.
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| With the enslaved becoming free, and the necessity to pay labourers
on the plantations, in homes and businesses, commercial banks started to
establish themselves in Trinidad. The first one was the Colonial Bank
in 1837, whose successor bank, Republic Bank, is in operation until
today. |
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| Exhibit depicting typical implements of the commercial sector in 19th
century Port of Spain: a manual type writer, a stamp carousel, an ink
and pen stand. |
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| A wonderful old wooden cash register and some of the precious glass
bottles that were used over and over in the dispensing of beverages and
medicines. |
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| Interior of the room "Modern Times" |
One
of the very interesting panels in the exhibit is the one about the past
mayors of the City of Port of Spain. You will recognise many familiar
names, since several streets in the city and environs were named in
their honour.
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| Some past mayors of Port of Spain, with Michael Maxwell Philip
featured as the first man of African descent to be a mayor of Port of
Spain, and Audrey Jeffers as the first woman in public life. |
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This map shows all the streets in Port of Spain named in honour of Mayors and other local dignitaries.
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| Probably the most illustrious public personality of the outgoing 19th
and early 20th century was Captain Arthur Andre Cipriani, sportsman,
soldier, trade unionist and eight times Mayor of Port of Spain. His
statue stands on Independence Square. |
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| The exhibition box accompanying the transport panels shows some
beautiful old brass lanterns as they were once used on horse-drawn
carriages. |
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| Public transport in Port of Spain was actually quite well solved in
years gone by. Steam boats traversed the Gulf of Paria and sailed
around the entire island stopping off at various bays to handle
agricultural produce. Trams and omnibuses connected the city centre with
the suburbs. And trains traversed the island from Port of Spain to to
Arima and Sangre Grande to San Fernando to Rio Claro, and was used to
transport produce and people. |
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| This panel features a lot of very interesting pictures of the trams
and carriages, omnibuses and horse-drawn transport, of Port of Spain and
its environs! From mule-drawn trams to electric trams and motorcars,
Port of Spain was always a bustling, noisy port city. |
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| The Red House, as it is called today, was first built between
1844–1848. As the seat of the Government of Trinidad and Tobago, it
underwent modifications over the years. In 1897, it got the red colour
that it has until today. In 1903, it was burnt by an angry mob during
the Water Riots, which unfortunately caused a lot of our historical
documents to go up in flames as well. |
If you want to read the text on the panels, double-click on the image!
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| Modern times were coming to the city of Port of Spain in the form of
many inventions of the industrial revolution: an ice factory, the
telephone, and electricity. |
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| Old-fashioned kitchen utensils on display. |
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| Cocoa - the golden bean! Port of Spain acquired some beautiful
buildings, a lot of professional jobs, and a fragrance all on its own
when the cocoa trade boomed in the outgoing 19th and early 20th century.
The Magnificent Seven, the mansions built around the Queen's Park
Savannah stem from this time, along with the now almost vanished
gingerbread houses of Woodbrook, New Town and Belmont. |
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| The Courts of Law and the Police Service were important institutions
established by the British Colonial Government in the city of Port of
Spain. This panel gives a summary of some milestones and shows
interesting photographs of the Police and Judiciary over the years. |
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| A selection of elements of the uniforms of the Trinidad & Tobago Police Service. |
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| In the late 19th and early 20th century, Port of Spain became quite a
fashionable place! Elegant ladies' fashions were appreciated by all
segments of the society. Photography studios captured people from all
walks of life in their finery. Newspapers depicted the styles of the
metropoles, and skilled tailors and seamstresses adapted them to
tropical climes and the pockets of their customers.... |
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| This exhibit shows a lovely old sewing machine. |
If you want to read the text on the panels, double-click on the image!
Part 6: Port of Spain Carnival
Carnival is definitely a Port of Spain affair! Here is the cradle of the steelband, here people invented calypso and sang "Fire Brigade Water the Road", here sailor mas was first modelled in the 1920s after the sailors of the American Great White fleet, here is where moko jumbles stalk the sidewalks at Carnival, where blue devils and pierrot grenades jump about, and where the Beast once bristled its scales and couldn't get wet stepping over water running in a canal.
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| The Steelband was born in East Port of Spain in the 1930s and 40s.
Forged from a re-purposed oil drum, it is a testament to the
inventiveness and musicality of the people of Port of Spain, whence it
journeyed around the globe, adding the sweet sound of pan to music all
over the world. |
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| The roots of Carnival costuming in Port of Spain goes back to the
French presence. It is essentially a Catholic festival and was embraced
by the Afro-French settlers, and other Caribbean immigrants of the city. |
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| Port of Spain was always a port of call for the Royal & American
navies, and sailors have inspired Carnival mas since the 1920s, when the
Great White Fleet visited the town. In the Second World War, Trinidad
became host to hundreds of thousands of British, American and Canadian
military personnel, whose presence shaped a generation of Hollywood and
Military-inspired music and mas. |
Well, this excursion into Carnival in Port of Spain brings us to an
end of the stroll through the Virtual Museum of the City of Port of
Spain! Didn't you feel that it was like walking around the pages of a
very large picture book?
To re-cap, let's provide you with some
time lines, which may also assist you in writing papers, doing further
research, or looking up the correct dates for various historical events
(remember to just double-click on them to enlarge and read):
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| Chronology of selected events 1500s and 1600s |
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| Chronology of selected events 1700s |
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| Chronology of selected events 1800s |
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| Chronology of selected events 1900s |
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|
| 1851 | 82,978 | — |
|---|
| 1861 | 99,848 | +20.3% |
|---|
| 1871 | 126,692 | +26.9% |
|---|
| 1881 | 171,179 | +35.1% |
|---|
| 1891 | 218,381 | +27.6% |
|---|
| 1901 | 273,899 | +25.4% |
|---|
| 1911 | 333,552 | +21.8% |
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| 1921 | 365,913 | +9.7% |
|---|
| 1931 | 412,783 | +12.8% |
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| 1946 | 563,222 | +36.4% |
|---|
| 1960 | 834,350 | +48.1% |
|---|
| 1970 | 945,210 | +13.3% |
|---|
| 1980 | 1,079,791 | +14.2% |
|---|
| 1990 | 1,213,733 | +12.4% |
|---|
| 2000 | 1,262,366 | +4.0% |
|---|
| 2011 | 1,328,019 | +5.2% |
|---|
| 2019 | 1,363,985 | +2.7% |
|---|
| Source: [1] |
Goodbye and come again!
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| The locomotive outside Fort San Andres, once part of the extensive
railroad system of Trinidad connecting towns and villages to the city of
Port of Spain. |
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