BARBADOS

BARBADOS.

350th Anniversary of the Founding of Bridgetown.
John Gibson's map of Bridgetown, 1766.
First stamp in a set of 4, issued on 01.03.1978.
Face value: 12 cents of Barbadian dollar.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 437.
- Scott No. 470.
- StampWorld No. 438.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 593.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 445.

The kingdom of Castile took possession of the island of Barbados when Columbus landed there during his first voyage, in the 15th century. In the seventeenth century the English converted the place into a colony, a situation that remained until November 30, 1966, the date of declaration of independence in the context of the Commonwealth. When the British arrived on the island, one of the few vestiges of indigenous pre-existence was a primitive bridge built over the area of the Careenage swamp by an indigenous Caribbean people, the Tainos, in the center of the present city of Bridgetown. Upon finding that structure, the settlers named the area the Indian Bridge. Finally, after 1654, they built a new bridge over the Careenage, and the area became known as the City of Saint Michael and later, definitely, as Bridgetown. The English settlement of Bridgetown began on July 5, 1628 with the arrival of 64 settlers from the English town of Wolverstone. The urbanization of the city was based on a design similar to that of the medieval centers of England, characterized by narrow serpentine streets and alleys. Bridgetown's legal boundaries were not redefined until 1822.

John Gibson (1750?-1792) was an English cartographer, geographer, draftsman, and printmaker. He spent most of his life in prison due to various debts; however, he produced thousands of maps and his best known work is the pocket atlas known as Atlas Minimus (1758). He also worked for Gentleman's Magazine for which he recorded different decorative maps. He also published his own work in The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure, The Universal Museum, and The Universal Traveler.