| Rating: | ★★★★★ |
| Category: | Books |
| Genre: | History |
| Author: | Asia Maior |
Soerabaja, as the name of the former Netherlands East Indies' second-largest city, principal port and naval base is nowadays spelt, has a fascinating history. The book opens with an overview of Soerabaja’s urban development from the early colonial period to World War II, ilustrated with rare and mostly previously unpublished maps and drawings from the archives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and various Netherlands East Indies Government institutions.
There are three major themes which largely determined Soerabaja's increasing prominence in the Netherlands East Indies: the construction and growing economic significance as commercial port of Tandjoengperak, the role of the Royal Netherlands Navy and Marine-Etablissement (ME), and finally the extensive changes in Soerabaja's townscape resulting from her rapid development into a modern colonial city after 1900.
A Soerabaja photographer, P. Voorn van Wingerden (1893-1971) and his wife as professional assistant, established their Fotax photograph agency which over the years became the largest and most well-known professional photographic studio in East Java. They took photographic record of pre-war Soerabaja totalling over 10,000 negatives and duplicate prints. Unfortunately, only small part of this pictorial treasure has survived. The original Fotax collection was lost early in Japanese occupation, 1943.
It is very large book format (25 x 32 cm), hard-cover binding; 192 pages of full-color printing on wood-free quality paper; 370 historical photographs, drawings, maps and plans; and complete text in English and Dutch.
I bought this book of 35 EUR, not expensive for this fascinating history book which published in 2004. Another exciting book from Asia Maior!
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