As part of our ongoing series of blog posts featuring place names in B.C. from the room names in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, today we will take a look at Granby River. Originally referred to as the North Fork of the Kettle River on early B.C. maps, the Granby River meets the Kettle Riverin Grand Forks B.C. and got its name from the Granby Smelting Company which operated on its banks. The owner of the Granby Smelting Company named the company after his hometown in Quebec (see B.C. Geographical Names). The company also expanded into other parts of the province and built a number of “company towns,” as shown by archival material in the Royal B.C. Museum and Archives, the Nanaimo Community Archives, and the Penticton Museum and Archives.

At Rare Books and Special Collections, we have a photo album showing various aspects of the operation of this company in Anyox, B.C., dating from sometime in 1910’s. The photographs show both external and internal views, showing the placement of the plant on the river, the machinery inside, and in some cases employees.

Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company photo

Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company photo

Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company photo

Note that these photographs are not from Granby River, but rather from the company town of Anyox. The Granby company was so influential that the body of water that this plant was on was also named Granby Bay. This photo album is part of our B.C. Historical Photograph Album Collection.  Although the finding aid for this collection is in an older format, the collection is rich with historical views from all of British Columbia.

In the Barber Centre, the Granby River room is a group study room on the 4th floor, facing East Mall. These study rooms are bright and airy, and very popular for group work. They can be booked online.

Group study room in Barber Centre. Photo courtesy of UBC Library (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ubclibrary).

In January we were visited twice by students in ARST 550: Management of audio-visual and non-textual archives from the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies. This class focuses on the management of a variety of types of material, but they came to Rare Books and Special Collections particularly to work with photographic archives.

RBSC collects photographs in a variety of manners: they are often included in fonds or collections with other types of material, or we occasionally acquire them as single items.  As for any type of material, the focus of our photographic archives is mainly British Columbia, but it also spills over into neighbouring provinces or states when the photographs are in the context of a mainly-B.C. collection. We collect photographs in all mediums, from lantern slides to negatives to prints.

The task at hand for the students in ARST550 was to appraise and in some cases accession photographs from our backlog. In all cases, we had very little provenance information or contextualizing data for the students to work with. In short, the photographs were a mystery. They did an excellent job of inspecting the photographs for their physical condition and content, and made recommendations about whether they should be added to our photograph collections.

A couple of interesting discoveries:

• We located a complete set of negatives from the prints in the B.W.W. MacDougall fonds. Furthermore, we located metadata in the form of index cards which is a match for the negatives. Check out the cool vintage negative envelopes and canisters:

B.W.W. McDougall negatives

B.W.W. McDougall negatives

• We found a really charming photograph album originating from a family called the Kidds.  They appear to have been involved with the UBC Players club, and there are also photographs depicting Crescent Beach, mountaineering, and businesses such as Overwaitea Food. The album dates from 1924 to 1926. The photos shown below show a Players Club trip to Britannia Beach.

Kidd family album

Our thanks to the students for their excellent work, and to Prof. Jessica Bushey for coordinating the visits!

For more information on searching our photograph collections, please consult our Historical Photographs research guide.

In this week’s installment of Rare Books and Special Collection‘s blog series on B.C. place names from the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, we’ll take a close look at the Fraser River.

The Fraser River is, not surprisingly, named after the explorer Simon Fraser who fully explored the river in 1808. The longest river in British Columbia (over 2,200 km), it originates in the Rocky Mountains and flows into the Straight of Georgia.

The Frazer River Thermometer

Gold was struck in Fraser River around 1858 which is the origin of our featured document. This broadside entitled The Frazer River Thermometer was published in San Fransisco in 1858 and has humorous  illustrations of miners leaving their lives and families in California to seek gold in British Columbia, describing the area as the “new El Dorado of the North.”  Note the older spelling of “Fraser” with a “z” instead of an “s.” Very few copies of this document are known to exist, but we have one copy on display in the Chung Collection exhibition room, and another which is available upon request in our reading room for closer consultation. Early B.C. history is one of the main focuses of the Chung Collection, along with immigration and settlement, and the Canadian Pacific Railway Company. The exhibition displays highlights from the collection, but the collection is much larger, numbering approximately 25,000 items.

In the Barber Centre, the Fraser River room is part of the facilities of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Technology, on the 2nd floor.

This week, we thought that we would post on the Ridington Room, a room in the Barber Centre that is not named after a place in British Columbia.

Photo courtesy of UBC Library Graphics, and created under a Creative Commons License

Rather, the Ridington Room (room 321)  is named after an important person in the history of the University of British Columbia Library: John Ridington.

Photo courtesy of the UBC Archives. UBC Archives photo #1.1/1510

John Ridington was UBC’s  first University Librarian. A former journalist and teacher, he started work on the library collection in August 1914 when UBC was in its temporary home at West 10th Avenue and Laurel Street (the Fairview Shacks).  By 1916, he had been appointed University Librarian, a position he remained in until his retirement at the age of 72 in April 1940. According to information gathered by the UBC Archives, Ridington was known as a rigid authoritarian and was nicknamed ‘King John’.

In the former Main Library, there was also a room named after Ridington. Photo courtesy of UBC Archives. UBC Archives photo #76.1/22

The University Archives is responsible for collecting material related to the University and, therefore, holds the papers of John Ridington and his family. If you are interested in learning more about the life of UBC’s first University librarian, take a look at the finding aid (“an aid for finding items in an archival collection”) to the collection that is available on the University Archives website.

The Ridington Room is definitely worth a visit if you haven’t already had the oppportunity to see the space. It is often called the “Harry Potter Room” by students, due to the winding staircase and the portrait-covered walls. A portrait of John Ridington, painted in 1912 by his brother-in-law Malcolm Charleston, hangs in the Ridington Room.

Photo courtesy of UBC Library Graphics, and created under a Creative Commons License

There is also a magnificent art installation by Vancouver artist John Nutter, who was commissioned by Jean Barber to to design a 45-panel glass sculpture that is intended to “flow like the Northern Lights,” and features intricate etchings designed around a series of compasses. Nutter felt the Library, like a compass, should be used “as a tool of discovery.”   It is an ideal space for quiet study, but be sure to arrive early because the comfortable chairs fill up quickly!

Photo courtesy of UBC Library Graphics, and created under a Creative Commons License

Happy new year, and welcome back to Rare Books and Special Collections’ series of blog posts featuring places in British Columbia based on the room names in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.

Our featured place for this post is Lillooet, which was founded as “Mile 0” on the Cariboo/Barkerville gold rush wagon trail.  Located 340 km northeast of Vancouver, Lillooet is included in the traditional land of the St’at’imc first nation. After the Gold Rush period, the main industries in Lillooet were centered around the railway, ranching, farming and forestry.

Our featured documents are three photographic postcards from the B.C. Historical Photograph collection at RBSC. This collection can be searched through the Archives, Bibliographies and Reading Rooms section of the library catalogue, or on the RBSC site.

Kelly's Lake, P.G.E. above Lillooet, Cariboo Trail ID # BC-366

All three photographs were taken by the photographer Arthur Phair, and depict scenery around Lillooet, views from the Pacific Great Eastern Railway… and Lillooet’s first truck!

Looking east, Lillooet, B.C., winter, 1916-17, ID # BC-522

Lillooet's first truck, ID # BC-1802

According to Camera Workers of British Columbia, Arthur Phair was a commercial photographer active in Lillooet from around 1920-1933. Camera Workers of British Columbia is a great (and free!) resource for identifying photographers in B.C. from 1858-1950.

In the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, the Lillooet room (#301) is part of the Chapman Learning Commons. This beautiful room is a favorite for conferences and meetings.

Photo courtesy of US Mission Canada and used under Creative Commons license

Interesting Lillooet fact: Lillooet’s Bridge of 23 Camels, opened in 1981 and named by contest, is named after 23 camels brought to B.C. during the gold rush period to use as pack animals. Sadly, the camels’ soft feet were not suited to the rough wagon trails, and they were reportedly stinky and difficult to manage. Most were subsequently abandoned to roam the B.C. wilds before succumbing to cold winters or hunters.

A small collection of drawings and paintings from turn of the century Vancouver has been recently catalogued at Rare Books and Special Collections. The Albert Lindgren fonds contains 37 small watercolour paintings and 9 drawings, dating from ca. 1900-1903.  The paintings and drawings mostly depict Vancouver-area waterfront views, as Lindgren was a ship captain.

Archives will often collect works of art which document a specific place, culture or time period.  In the era before photography became so commonplace, a sketch or painting may be one of few records of what a place or landmark looked like. For example, the image below is an early depiction of the original Prospect Point Lighthouse in Stanley Park, before the seawall was built.

View of Prospect Point lighthouse, ca. 1900

On the other hand, sometimes a lack of contextual information or notes by the creator leave you wondering what it is exactly you’re looking at. For example, the image below: given the content of the rest of the collection, this is very likely a waterfront scene in the Vancouver area. Possibly it’s Coal Harbour- if you think you know, leave a comment or email us at spcoll@interchange.ubc.ca and let us know!

View of waterfront buildings, possibly Coal Harbour, ca. 1900

For a large Canadian documentary art collection, much of which can be viewed online, check out Documentary Art at Library and Archives Canada.

The end of the year for an archivist can feel like… well, like Christmas! At the end of the year a lot of people get around to adding to their archives. As a little preview, next year you can expect to see additions to:

• The Douglas Coupland fonds
• The Ann Blades fonds
• The Chung Collection
• The John Keenlyside Legal Research Collection

Happy holidays and stay tuned in the New Year for new and growing collections!

Incoming archives at Rare Books and Special Collections

This week our featured place is Fort Fraser, British Columbia.  Today, Fort Fraser,  named by the explorer, Simon Fraser in 1806,  is a community of about 1000 people that is active in the tourism and forestry industries.

Mill at Fort Fraser, BC-1456-2-11. This photograph of a lumber mill in Fort Fraser comes from the B.C. Historical Photograph Album Collection . RBSC collects photographs both individually and as parts of larger collections. On our website you will find tutorials on how to search for photographs in our collections.

Historically, Fort Fraser played an important role in the development of British Columbia for a number of reasons, including:

• It is found near the geographical centre of British Columbia, 44 km west of Vanderhoof on The Yellowhead Highway.
• Originally established in 1806 as a North West Company fur trading post by the explorer Simon Fraser, it is one of present-day British Columbia’s oldest permanent European-founded settlements. The area around the community is also recorded as the site of the first land in British Columbia cultivated by non-First Nations people.
• The present community is located at the site of the last spike of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, driven on April 7, 1914.

The Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC) reading room is named after the community of  Fort Fraser. We think that it is a very fitting name for our reading room. Similar to the way in which Fort Fraser is located near the geographical centre of British Columbia, physically, the RBSC reading room is located at the heart of the Barber Learning Centre.

If you have some extra time before we close for the holidays at 3pm on December 24, please drop in to visit the RBSC Fort Fraser Reading Room and a take a look at ‘Tis the Season, a winter holiday-themed exhibition.

A post to the Society of American Archivists listserv mentioned this piece of software: ILINX Capture Mobile “allows you to capture an image of anything, attach keywords to it, so you and easily find it later, and then emails a PDF of the image back to you.”  Seems like a tool with  potential for those who wish to take pictures of rare or archival material in Rare Books and Special Collections or University Archives and keep track of citations, box locations, etc.  While using a cell phone or digital camera to capture images of material in our reading room is allowed in RBSC and UA (within the constraints of copyright law and fair dealing) we always caution researchers to take careful note of what they are photographing so that they can cite it properly later.

Do you have an app, a tool or other method of keeping track of what you’ve seen in the reading room? Tell us about it in the comments and share with others!

Every two weeks, Rare Books and Special Collections is featuring a historic document based on a B.C. place name used in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre.  Our third featured B.C. place is the Nimpkish area.  The community of Nimpkish is on the end of Nimpkish Lake, on the northern part of Vancouver Island.  An area known for forestry (as part of the North island Central Coast Forest District), it is also the home of the Nimpkish Lake Provincial Park, and the traditional territory of the ‘Namgis First Nation.

The document shown comes from the Yorkshire Trust Company fonds, and the files from this collection show the establishment of the Nimpkish Lake Logging Company in the early 20^th century.  The files contain minutes and correspondence regarding shares and timber leases.

From the Yorkshire Trust Company fonds, file 2-28

The Yorkshire Trust Company was based in England, but established an office in Vancouver in 1880. Being one of the first financial companies to operate in British Columbia, its records include valuable historical information on a variety of early British Columbia businesses.  These records are available for consultation in the Rare Books and Special Collections division of the library.

In the Barber Centre, the Nimpkish Study Area is room 387, and is part of the Science One and Arts One area on the third floor.

Entry to Science One and Arts One