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Lower Circular Road Cemetery

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Known as General Episcopal Cemetery , the Lower Circular Road Cemetery is located on the crossing of Mother Teresa Sarani and Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Road (former Lower Circular Road). It was established on 1840 and is still functional. It contains approximately 12,000 graves including many former British East India Company employees. There are two Second World War Commonwealth war graves, of an officer of the British Indian Army and a purser of the British Overseas Airways Corporation. Entrance to the burial ground Notable graves Herbert Alick Stark (1938) -  Author and educationist William Hay Macnaghten (1841) - First Baronet and a British civil servant in India, who played a major part in the First Anglo-Afghan War. David Drummond (1843) - was then appointed as an assistant in the proprietary school of Messer’s Wallace and Measures. A few years after he became sole proprietor the Dhurmotolla Academy under him speedily attained the highest position amongst the educationa

Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd.

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Stephen George Balmer and Alexander Lawrie were two Scottish entrepreneurs, who founded the Balmer Lawrie & Co. Ltd. at Kolkata on 1 st February, 1867 . The founding fathers had formed the Company as an ‘Agency House’ and the agency business was primarily in trading.  The range of business spanned over Tea, Shipping, Insurance, Banking, Trading and Manufacturing. The initial products included tea leaves, tea seeds, kerosene, pharmaceuticals, wines and lubricating oils.  It was the sole agent of Calcutta to manufacture one of the first Scotch whiskies – Lafroaig Islay.  A significant part of Balmer Lawrie's business was managing and transferring Indian military pensions to those who returned to Britain post Independence. The Company’s presence in diverse business is its strength. It became a private limited company in 1924 with a paid up share capital of ₹40 lakhs, a public limited company in 1936 and then a Government of India Enterprise in 1972. With the abolition of the M

The Museum of the Asiatic Society

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Sir William Jones lay out the plan for a society to pursue Oriental studies on January 1784, and was formally founded in 1804 , then named as Asiatick Society. Later the name was changed to Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal and after independence it became the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Jones presided over the Society till his death in 1794.  The activities include historical research, awarding historians and running an institute for postgraduate studies.  The Asiatic Society building at Park Street comprises of five floors, the first and fifth floor is the library stack area, the second floor is the museum, and the third floor is used for administrative purposes while the fourth floor houses the library.  Although conceived early as 1796, the Asiatic Society Museum was set up at the beginning of 1814 under the superintendence of Dr. Nathaniel Wallich .  The first catalogue was published in 1849 and other descriptive catalogues of different sections started gradually. The Society propos

The Museum and Art Gallery at RKM Golpark

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The Museum and Art Gallery at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark was founded in 1976. The objective of the museum is in sync with the ideology of ‘Methods of Action’ as laid down by Swami Vivekananda, especially that the Mission will ‘promote and encourage arts and industries’.  The collection comprises of artworks and antiquities classified under – painting, sculpture, manuscripts, folk art, ivory painting, textile, Pata painting, litho-print, silver ornament, terracotta, and laminated photographs. The museum organizes exhibition and periodic displays.  Entrance to the museum The Museum acquires artifacts by purchase and through donations. Many donate their collections of art and antiquities to the museum. Famous Indian artists such as Jogen Choudhury, Sanatan Dinda, S. Nandagopal, Wasim Kapoor, Yusuf Arakkal, Paresh Maity, Chandi Lahiri, Surya Prakash, M. Senathipathi, and Lalita Lajmi – have each donated an artwork to commemorate the 175th year of the advent of Sr