These set of tiles once formed part of the building of the Raffles Library and Museum, which now houses the National Museum of Singapore. The Raffles Library and Museum, instituted in 1874, was originally housed within the compound of the Singapore Institution (now Raffles Institution). In 1887, as part of the celebrations for the golden jubilee of Queen Victoria's reign, the Raffles Library and Museum moved to its new building at Stamford Road, with the library and museum how housed in separate but adjoining buildings.. During World War Two, although some of its books and collections went missing, the building largely remained intact and eventually had a brief interregnum as the Syonan Library and Museum. It reopened once again as the Raffles Library and Museum after the war on 1 December 1945, and also acted as temporary homes for independent cultural institutions like the British Council established in 1947.
