The China Post reports that Singapore businessman Tang Wee Kit recently purchased two collections of material related to Thomas Stamford Raffles, a British East India Company official credited with developing Singapore into a major trading hub during the nineteenth century.
Mr. Tang bought the collections from a London book dealer for c. $1.1 million total in 2004 and 2005. The first lot contains more than 70 Raffles letters to members of his family, and the second comprises rare books, papers, a lock of Raffles' hair, and his wax seals.
Tang says he plans to make the materials available for public viewing and study, "either in a private gallery or through the city-state's National Heritage Board."
