Today, March 8, is International Women’s Day, a good day to highlight some of the archives of extraordinary women held at Rare Books and Special Collections:

Rosemary Brown was a social worker and politician with the New Democratic Party. She was also an instructor of Women’s Studies at SFU, a CEO for MATCH International, and Chief Commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission. Her archives contains correspondence, speeches, lecture material and other documentation.

Claire Culhane was the founder and a vocal member of a Vancouver-based prisoner rights group in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Her archives contains correspondence and other documentation related to her advocacy work. (correspondence with prisoners is subject to use with a research agreement; contact the archivist for more information).

Lille d’Easum was active in the anti-nuclear movement of the 1960’s and 1970’s and was an executive member of both the B.C. Voice of Women and the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament.  Her archives includes documentation concerning nuclear power plants, uranium mining, nuclear terrorism, disarmament and the international peace movement.

Mildred Fahrni was involved in the 1940’s with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and subsequently was active as a public speaker addressing issues of war, poverty, non-violence, and social change.  Her archives reflect this work as well as her work in international development into the 1970’s and 80’s.

Irene Howard is a well-known literary figure in B.C., having contributed a number of works to the literature of the province, including the recent Gold Dust on his shirt: the true story of an immigrant mining family. Her archives includes manuscripts and other documents related to her work as well as audio tapes of oral histories completed for her research.

Grace MacInnis was heavily involved both personally and professionally in the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation party (precursor to the NDP). Her interests included poverty, housing, and the status of women. Her archival collection contains both personal and professional documentation, including correspondence, diaries, notebooks and photographs.

Hilda Thomas was a community activist and politician with the provincial and federal New Democratic Party. She was particularly active with the Women’s Rights Committee provincially, and the Participation of Women Committee federally. Her archives contains extensive documentation on her political and activism activities.

These are just a few examples of the extraordinary women who we are proud to be the home of their archives.  You’ll also find the archival material of a number of women’s organizations, such as the Vancouver Council of Women, the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the Vancouver Women in Focus and the Vancouver Status of Women.

If you’re interested in learning more about using archival material for your research, check out our Archival Research Guide, and for more help with women’s studies research particularly, check out the Humanities and Social Science’s Women’s Studies Research guide.

By Glenn Drexhage

UBC Library is hosting an exhibition and conference to commemorate the March 11, 2011 disasters in Japan. Retell, Rethink, Recover, which begins on February 20 and runs through April, consists of three phases on display in different parts of the Library system.

The Retell section highlights disaster prints and historical maps. All materials are from the Library’s exceptional Tokugawa maps collection, housed at Rare Books and Special Collections (RBSC).

Rethink includes materials gathered from members of the UBC community who were in Japan during the disasters, or otherwise impacted. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant incident is discussed, and photos and social media archives figure prominently.

Recover features items from UBC’s Asian Library collection, as well as contributions from community members and alumni. This section highlights Japan’s history of recovering from adversity, and includes information on the support between Canada and Japan during times of crisis.

A complementary display will also feature portraits of earthquake survivors, a project sponsored by the Japan Foundation and Shiseido, the cosmetics company.

On March 10, a free one-day conference co-sponsored by UBC’s Department of Asian Studies will feature talks from scholars on Japan, and personal accounts from UBC students, faculty and alumni. This conference will be held from 10am to 4pm in the Dodson Room, in the Irving K Barber Learning Centre.

Read more about Retell, Rethink, Recover in the March 2012 issue of UBC Reports.

Please visit the event site to register and for more information.

We have been featuring resources from Rare Books and Special Collections that relate to the place names used in the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre as room names. Sometimes we find it challenging to find a related resource; sometimes the challenge is in narrowing down our research!

Such is the case with Victoria. Victoria B.C., on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, is our province’s capital and hence the place of many events in the province’s history. Rare Books and Special Collections contains almost innumerable books, maps, documents, and photographs related to Victoria.  However, to rare books enthusiasts, there is one (or two) events from Victoria’s history that are of particular note: the publication of the first book (or books) to be printed in British Columbia.

What is largely accepted to be the first book printed in B.C. is Order in council constituting the Supreme Court of Civil Justice of Vancouver Island and rules of practice and forms to be used therein, which basically amounted to a “rule book” for the Supreme Court in Victoria. It was printed at the Victoria Gazette in November 1858.

"Order in Council..."

The copy photographed above is particularly special: it was David Cameron‘s personal copy!  David Cameron was the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia- in other words, not only did he own the book, he wrote the book too. This copy was given to us by Dr. Wallace Chung, on the occasion of the re-opening of the Chung Collection in Spring 2008. David Cameron’s signature can be seen on the cover, and on the Act to provide for the Administration of Justice in Vancouver’s Island, tipped in the front:

David Cameron's signature

So, first book printed in B.C.- straightforward story, right? There was some debate over the years regarding which came first: Order in Council or Alfred Waddington’s Fraser Mines Vindicated, or, the History of Four Months.:

"Fraser Mines Vindicated"

It may have had something to do with Waddington’s preface, describing itself as “the first book published on Vancouver Island.” However, even Waddington’s own fine print explains that, “When the above was written Judge Cameron’s Book of Practice had not yet appeared.”

"Fraser Mines Vindicated" preface

Apparently the Order in Council leapfrogged ahead of Fraser Mines by mere days. In Lowther’s A Bibliography of British Columbia, she explains that Order in Council “has the distinction of being the first book printed in the colony of Vancouver Island, coming off the press ahead of Waddington’s Fraser mines vindicated.”

In the Barber Centre, the Victoria Learning Theatre is room 182. This is a large lecture theatre and is often used for special events.

Victoria Learning Theatre, courtesy of UBC Library Communications

Those who have used Rare Books and Special Collections comic book collections may be interested in trying out a new database that UBC Library is trialing: Underground and independent comics, comix and graphic novels is “the first ever scholarly, primary source database focusing on adult comic books and graphic novels. Beginning with the first underground comix from the 1960’s to the works of modern sequential artists, this collection will contain more than 75,000 pages of comics and graphic novels, along with 25,000 pages of interviews, criticism, and journal articles that document the continual growth and evolution of this artform.”

Rare Books and Special Collections collects comic books by several Vancouver-based comic book artists- you can access a list of these collections on our Ephemera Research Guide. If Vancouver comics are your thing, you can search the Underground and Independent Comics database for comics published in Vancouver, which will yield comics from two series: Fog City Comics and Reid Fleming, World’s Toughest Milkman.

After you check out the database, be sure to fill out the feedback form! The trial runs until March 16.

If you’re new to Rare Books and Special Collections, you may be surprised to find a spicy introduction through our Love! In the library? exhibition. The exhibition is located in the back of the Chung Collection exhibition room, within Rare Books and Special Collections, until February 19th (last day Feb. 18th).

The focus of most of our collections is British Columbia history. One case in the exhibition will tell you a love story related to an early B.C. printer of city directories.

Another focus of our collections is fine press printing. There are a couple of wonderful examples in this exhibition, including Barbarian Press‘s wonderful new The Play of Pericles and Aphrodite’s Cup illustrated with woodblocks by George Kuthan; we also have Kuthan’s woodblocks, as listed in the finding aid for his archives.

Another connection in the exhibition to our archival collections is a love (actually love-stricken) letter from Toni Onley to Yukiko Onley, as it appears in Love Toni, printed by Yukiko Onley and Robert Reid. We have Toni Onley‘s archival collection as well as Robert Reid‘s.

We also collect the archives of several major publishers in British Columbia, including Arsenal Pulp Press. In addition to finding their books in the library catalogue, you can explore their publishing archives through the finding aid.  Arsenal Pulp Press is well known for publishing gender studies, gay and lesbian literature, and as shown in the exhibition, erotica:

Finally, lovers of books love to express their love through a custom-designed bookplate. Rare Books and Special Collections has been building a  digital collection of bookplates for a number of years, which now includes over 800 bookplates.

We hope you enjoy the exhibition and use this opportunity to learn more about our collections! The exhibition is open during our regular opening hours, Monday to Friday 9 -5 pm and Saturday 12-5 pm.

In our ongoing series of blog posts featuring the B.C. places used in the Irving K. Barber Centre room names, this week we will take a look at Kitimat. Kitimat was established as a company town in the truest sense. It was established when the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) built a hydroelectric dam and smelter in the area in the 1950’s.  Its entry in B.C. Geographical Names shows the name Kitimat was used for a village in the area in the early 20th century, but was rescinded mere years before Alcan established the new town.

Rare Books and Special Collections has an excellent source of primary materials related to the planning and establishment of Kitimat by Alcan in the Thomas McDonald fonds. McDonald was an urban planner who worked primarily in Greater Vancouver, but the fonds  also contains files that appear to be from the Alcan offices related to the establishment of Kitimat. As examples, the two images below show plans for the city:

Overall perspective of city center, Kitimat B.C., Thomas McDonald fonds file 2-5

Master plan of townsite, Kitimat B.C., Thomas McDonald fonds file 2-5

The files also contain a wealth of textual records including agreements between Alcan and the Province of B.C., promotional material, and office documents regarding the plans for town development.

For help using our archival resources, check out our research guide for archival material.

In the Barber Centre, the Kitimat Lab is part of the School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, on the 4th floor.

The Chung Collection exhibition room will be closed on Monday January 23. We apologize for the inconvenience. This closure also effects the “75 Years of Controversy: Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Awards” exhibition. Both exhibitions will re-open on Tuesday Jan. 24.

Cross-posted with the Chung Collection News blog.

As previously mentioned in our blog posts on British Columbia place names, many rooms in the Irving K Barber Learning Centre are named after rivers in British Columbia.

This week, we are exploring the history of the Nicola River, after which room 322, a group study room, is named after. According to BC Geographical Names , the Nicola River, one of the major tributaries of the Thompson River, was named after a Nlaka’pamux (Thompson River Salish) chief named Hwistesmexe’quen, or “walking grizzly bear.” According to the third edition of British Columbia Place Names, Hwistesmexe’quen (1785?-1865) was recognized by the fur traders as “the most powerful and influential chief in the Southern Interior of British Columbia” (pg. 190). The French-speaking fur traders nicknamed him “Nicolas” which Hwistesmexe’quen’s people pronounced “Nicolas” first as Nkwala, and eventually as Nicola.

Located in the South-Central Interior of British Columbia, the Nicola River was first mapped by Alexander Caulfield Anderson (1814-1884), on his manuscript map of 1849. On the map, the Nicola Lake and Nicola River are shown as “Lac de Nicolas” and “R.Nicolas.” The British Columbia (B.C.) Archives holds a copy of this map, in the archives of Anderson, a Hudson’s Bay Company fur trader. Many unique items, such as Anderson’s manuscript map, are held by the B.C. Archives. The B.C. Archives is an important place to visit if you are planning on doing research into the history of British Columbia; since 1894, the archivists in the BC Archives have collected and provided access to the records of the Provincial government. In addition to visiting the Archives, you may wish to plan a visit to the Research Library, which holds over 70,000 rare and unique items documenting the exploration and development of British Columbia.

If you are interested in learning more about Anderson, and his mapping of the province, including the area that that the Nicola River runs through, you may wish to attend the next meeting of the Historical Map Society of British Columbia. On February 6, 2012, Nancy Maguerite Anderson, the great-grandaughter of A.C. Anderson, will be speaking about her book, The Pathfinder: A.C Anderson’s Journeys in the West (Heritage House Publishers, 2011). The Historical Map Society of British Columbia meets at 7:00 p.m. in the Chilcotin Board Room (room 256), in the Irving K Barber Learning Centre.

Nancy’s blog, Fur Trade Family History, is a rich resource of information relating to the history of British Columbia. For example, see her entry on the mapping of the Nicola River and Valley; in addition to providing an overview of Anderson’s mapping of the area, she provides many photographs of the Nicola Valley today.  

Most UBC Library branches, including Rare Books and Special Collections, University Archives and the Chung Collection will be closed from Dec. 24 to Jan. 2 for the holiday season. For full details on holiday hours, please click here.

Olive Allen Biller painting

The painting above is from the Olive Allen Biller fonds, and is captioned by the first two lines of an old English Christmas ryhme:

Bounce buckram velvet’s dear
Christmas comes but once a year
And when it comes it brings good cheer
And when it’s gone it’s never the near

Olive Allen Biller was an English illustrator, who eventually settled in British Columbia after World War I. While in B.C. she turned her attention toward landscape painting, but the above illustration is of her earlier period in England, when she illustrated for children’s annuals such as Blackie’s and Girl’s Realm.

For more information regarding archival material related to B.C. artists, check out our research guide for B.C. art and artists.

Happy holidays!

You have just under two weeks left to come to Rare Books and Special Collections for our exhibition Betwixt and Between: the art and influences of Charles Van Sandwyck. We’re happy to share with you some thoughts on creating the exhibition by student curator Heather Gring:

“Since the 1980’s, RBSC had been collecting the work of Charles van Sandwyk, an artist and writer who published mostly small-press and limited edition books. Charles works in printmaking, watercolor and calligraphy techniques to create the publications as well as to create
original works of art. Born in South Africa, Charles moved to still spends part of the year in North Vancouver. The winter months Charles spends on the islands of Fiji.

“I first encountered the title “Betwixt and Between” in one of Charles’ publications, “Dream Sketches from the Isle of Tropical Birds”: “The birds are above, the fish are below, and we are betwixt and between.” Charles’ work as well exists “betwixt and between.” Charles can create images of anthropomorphized animals and whimsical fairies but creates naturalistic representations of animals just as well. His illustrations seem to be from the Victorian era, and yet he is only in his 50’s. His works appear to be stories for children, but really speak to the inner child in adults. You can’t peg him or his artwork into any neat little category; Charles even remarked that book sellers don’t know where to put his works on the shelves!

Charles Van Sandwyck exhibition at RBSC

“In late September, I went to interview Charles van Sandwyk in preparation for the exhibition. Meeting Charles was an incredible experience for me; I have never met someone so warm and genuine and open as he. It is as if you’ve always known him, and he’s always been a dear friend. After a lovely lunch, we went back to his cottage and talked for several hours about his life and career. In the course of our conversations, I realized how deeply his high-school art teachers had influenced the trajectory of his career, in addition to the other artistic influences outlined in the exhibition. I soon decided to include them in the exhibition. It was a wonderful experience to see the relationships emerge and to have the competency to articulate them in such a way that viewers are able to see the connections for themselves.

“Rare Books and Special Collections at UBC had a wealth of materials in their collections that allowed my research to proceed smoothly. In addition to owning over forty works by van Sandwyk, RBSC also owned works by every one of Charles’ influences, with the exception of Dorothy Kay. I began research for the exhibition by exploring all of van Sandwyk’s publications in depth, then exploring works of his influences held by RBSC. Some connections between the artists emerged easily, whereas others required a good deal of insight. A drawing Rembrant did of an elephant paired perfectly with an illustration of an elephant Charles did for “Animal Wisdom”.

Charles Van Sandwyck exhibition at RBSC

“In comparison, Albrecht Durer was a little more complicated. For the exhibition, I explored how the two artists had produced Ex Libris book plates for patrons and the different ways they explored the space constraints of the materials. I also truly enjoyed how some cheeky comparisons emerged, such as the juxtaposition of an etching of a Burgher Rembrandt made in contrast to a monkey sitting in a similar pose, etched and colored by Charles. Charles’ monkey has an air of thoughtfulness and respectability to him, very similar to Rembrandt’s Burgher. Some of the books on display, such as the texts by Gandhi, Gilbran and Kay, are from Charles’ personal collection. It was also very exciting to be able to hang framed works on the walls above the cases. Don’t miss this opportunity to see original works by Charles van Sandwyk (the “Fiddle Beetle” is my favorite) and even Arthur Rackham.

Charles Van Sandwyck exhibition at RBSC

“I came to know Charles van Sandwyk through his works, and the works of artists and writers who influenced the scope of his career. One of the drawbacks I experienced was only being able to show one page of a publication, when every page is so amazing! Books are meant to be read, with pages turned. Once you see the exhibit “Betwixt and Between,” I encourage you to come back to RBSC and explore the many works of Charles van Sandwyk which RBSC owns…after the show comes down on December 17th, that is, and the books are again dispersed betwixt and between.”

Thank you Heather for providing the curator’s perspective! If you would like to see the exhibition you can do so until Dec. 17, from Monday to Friday 9-5 and Saturdays 12-5. The exhibition is located in the back of the Chung Room, which is accessed through the Rare Books and Special Collections reading room. The exhibition is free and open to all members of the public.