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Rosetta Smith, Lady Governor of Trinidad
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, March 10, 2013This photo of a coloured Trinidadian woman from 1908 is what Rosetta Smith might have looked like. She died before the invention of modern photography. It is...
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The long road to Mayaro
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, March 17, 2013In 1870 the great English writer Charles Kingsley visited Trinidad and sketched the Bande L’Est leading to Mayaro.Mayaro was originally settled by French...
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The Walls of Carrera Prison
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, March 24, 2013Carrera Island Prison circa 1900Last week, Justice Minister Christlyn Moore announced that this year would be the last one for the island prison of Carrera,...
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Anglican Church expands in 1844
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, March 31, 2013Although Trinidad became a British colony in 1797, the Church of England made little headway in the largely French and Spanish Roman Catholic island until...
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The marchandes of Port-of-Spain
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, April 7, 2013A marchande of 1910 selling breadfruit from a wooden tray.“Poisson frais, poisson, poisson ..fressh feesh!” This would be the chant of the fish vendor while...
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From mules to electric power
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, April 14, 2013The Four Roads Tramcar in 1920. On the cow-catcher front bumper is an advertisement for the Olympic Cinema in Belmont.Like any bustling commercial city,...
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The Queen’s Park Oval
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, April 21, 2013Cricket being played at the Oval in the late 1890s.From being the sport of English gentry, cricket and the West Indies are synonymous.
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The Laventille quarries
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, April 28, 2013Quarrying limestone in Laventille circa 1910.People know Laventille today for the negative stigma of crime.
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The Red Bridge of Plaisance Park
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, May 5, 2013The famous Red Bridge over the Southern Main Road, shortly before it was dismantled in 2010.Generations of Trinidadians remember the Red Bridge which spanned the...
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The child brides
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, May 12, 2013Child brides and their brass lotha and tharia dowries circa 1915.Child marriages and betrothals originated in the pre-Mughal era of Indian history as a means of...
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Nelson Island—indentureship’s gateway
Angelo BissessarsinghWednesday, May 15, 2013Newly-arrived indentured immigrants assemble outside the main dormitory on Nelson Island for a group photo in 1880.Emancipation in 1834 and the...
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Hindu burials of yesteryear
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, May 19, 2013Even though cremation of the dead is prescribed for orthodox Hindus, the practice was illegal in Trinidad until the 1930s.
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Masters worked Indians hard
Angelo BissessarsinghWednesday, May 22, 2013Women clearing a canefield circa 1940.In 1845, indentured labour from India began arriving in Trinidad primarily as labour for the sugar plantations which...
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Ross and Co, an original 24-hour pharmacy
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, May 26, 2013Drawing from 1904 of WC Ross and Co at the corner of Queen and Frederick Streets, Port-of-Spain.William Clayton Ross established his well known Colonial...
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The formidable Wm Tennant and Co
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, June 2, 2013Tennant and Co building seen in 1930. It was erected in 1911.From the 1840s until well into the 1950s, the sugar holdings of Wm Tennant and Co were formidable.
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Queen of the kitchen
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, June 9, 2013A pencil drawing of a cook of yesteryear. Rudolph Bissessarsingh (Model: Anna Fenton)Even before chattel slavery ended in 1834, a skilled cook was a must for...
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Randolph Rust’s quest for oil
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, June 16, 2013The firm of Rust, Trowbridge and Company on Charlotte St during the 1890s. Inset: Major Randolph Rust.In a recent conversation with the Minister of Energy,...
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Rust’s persistence paved the way
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, June 23, 2013Randolph Rust's oil well at Guayaguayare in 1904.Last week we began looking at the story of how Major Randolph Rust, a former merchant, fought enormous...
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Douens and other folklore
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, June 30, 2013Douens and the lost child. Sketch by Rudolph BissessarsinghMy grandmother Theresa tells a story of an incident that really happened over 70 years ago in a...
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Life of a plantation slave
Angelo BissessarsinghSunday, July 14, 2013The Speyside watermill and boiling house ruins (1928) which are typical of the sugar plantation fixtures of Tobago during the plantation era.Many types of...
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