Happy birthday, Chennai

This day, that age: Madras, now Chennai, is 370 years old. In 1639, the East India Company’s Francis Day obtained from a Naik named Damarla Venkatadri a firman or grant of territory and privileges and licence to build a fort and form a settlement. By the following year, the Company had a warehouse and a stockade. This became Fort St. George, today the administrative headquarters of the Tamil Nadu government. This photograph of the Fort, taken from the beach using a glass negative, dates back to the 1890s. Photo: Courtesy Vintage Vignettes

Fort St.George in 1890. Photo: Vintage_Vignettes NICAID:110375001