Program Summaries

Glimpses of the Past through description, related books and internet connections

1996

VPL #12443, Leonard Frank, 1925, men standing on lumber on Grand Trunk flatcar at Hastings Mill

Mostly Losses: Comparing the C.P.R. and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway in BC 1870-1920:
[January 24, 1996 (JCC) Frank Leonard]
Both the CPR and the Grand Trunk Pacific played a predominant role in the development of British Columbia. They had considerable impact on the economic, labour and political history of the different regions and different communities they served. (see Leonard Frank's A Thousand Blunders: The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and Northern B.C., UBC Press, 1996)

Vancouver Street Names
[February 28, 1996 (JCC) Elizabeth Walker]
Just as place names reflect the history of the province, so do street names reflect the history of hits cities, towns and villages. Street names are often designated by a developer at the time of the initial survey. In the beginning the CPR was largely responsible for the choices in downtown Vancouver but many others have different origins. (See Elizabeth Walker's Vancouver Street Names, Vancouver Historical Society, 1999)

The Mole Hill Living Heritage Society
[March 27, 1996 (JCC) Blaire Petrie]
After gathering 6000 signatures, the Mole Hill Living Heritage Society managed to save a city block of largely city owned turn-of-the-century houses in the West End, between Thurlow and Bute Streets. The city designated 21 of the 29 houses, heritage houses, and stipulated that they could not be resold. (see Blair Petrie's Mile Hill Living Heritage: an early history of Vancouver's oldest block of housing, The Mole Hill Living Heritage Society, 1995)

VPL #7356, Philip Timms, 1910, Mountain View Cemetery

The History and Preservation of old Cemeteries
[April 3, 1996 (Incorporation Day Dinner in VCC-CC) John Adams]
Cemeteries throughout the world have had varying histories. Some are well preserved while others have been left to return to nature. (see http://www.oldcem.bc.ca/tour.htm)

Law School: a Story of Legal Education
[April 24, 1996 (JCC) Wes Pue]
Legal education in British Columbia has had an interesting history. (see Dr. Wes Pue's Law School: a Story of Legal Education, np, 1995; see also http://faculty.law.ubc.ca/ilac/Profiles/pue.htm)

Heritage Updates
[May 22, 1996 (AGM in JCC) Society representatives]
Updates from Heritage Vancouver Society, Stanley Theatre
Society and S. E. Vancouver Arts Council
(see http://www.boardoftrade.com/sov_page.asp?pageID=1595)

Britannia Cannery and Boat Trip
[August 24, 1996 (Field Trip)]
(see http://www.richmond.ca/culture/sites/britannia/about.htm)

HR: A Biography of H. R. MacMillan
[September 25, 1996 (JCC) Ken Drushka]
Ontario born Harvey Reginald MacMillan (1885-1976) is best know for his role in building one of the world's largest forest companies, MacMillan Bloedel. He also served as BC's first Chief Forester, on war-time government boards, became a well-known Vancouver philanthropist (the Vancouver Foundation, the Vancouver Aquarium, the UBC Library, the UBC Museum of Anthropology, the MacMillan Planetarium), was an “ardent conservationist” and influenced public policy in Canada and abroad for 60 years. (see Ken Drushka's HR: A Biography of H. R. MacMillan, Harbour Publishing, 1995; The Encyclopedia of British Columbia, 440

Disposing of the Dead
[October 23, 1996 (Waterfront Theatre, Granville Island) Sandhano Schultz]
In 1924 Janet Smith was a Scottish nursemaid employed by a prominent family in Shaughnessy until her mysterious death suddenly filled the headlines of Vancouver papers and repeatedly shocked the city. The Point Gray Police's original report of suicide was soon overtaken by scandalous stories of murder involving a cover-up, scapegoating, wild parties, prominent people and the Ku Klux Klan. (this lecture was a play. See The Greater Vancouver Book, 55, 837)

Vancouver's Near Brush with Destiny: The explosion of the Greenhill Park
[November 27, 1996 (JCC) Leonard McCann]
The Greenhill Park was a Vancouver-built freighter carrying explosive materials that blew up on March 6, 1945 while the ship was docked at the foot of Burrard Street. Eight workers were killed but the explosion could have been far more disastrous-on a scale with the horrendous ship explosion in Halifax harbour that killed 2,000. (see The Greater Vancouver Book, 252, 477; see also http://www.vancouverhistory.ca/archives_greenhill_park.htm)

1997

VPL #11037, Leonard Frank, 1932, Commodore building and Orpheum Theatre

Hugh Pickett's Life in Vancouver:
[January 22, 1997 (JCC) Hugh Pickett]
Hugh Pickett was born and raised in Marpole and attended Lloyd George Elementary and Magee High. In his career as manager of Famous Artists Ltd., Mr. Pickett brought to Vancouver such people as Igor Stravinsky, Marlene Dietrich, Jack Benny, the Bolshoi Ballet, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Maria Calls and Bob Hope. For years he managed Marlene Dietrich's business and personal appearances. His fund raising efforts were important in saving the Orpheum Theatre. He worked with prisoners at the Haney Correctional Institute giving concerts and tutoring lessons in acting, taking 21 prisoners to New York City to perform on Broadway. (see http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=U1ARTU0002804)

Sam Sullivan's Life in Vancouver
[February 26, 1997 (JCC) Sam Sullivan]
A fourth generation Vancouverite, Sam Sullivan became a quadriplegic as a result of a skiing accident. Since graduating from SFU with a BBA, he had founded groups of organizations to assist paraplegics and quadriplegics in accessing sailboats, music making and the outdoors, and to make independent living more possible. These organizations have spread throughout North America and in 1994 he became the first quadriplegic city councilor in Canada.

Grace McCarthy's Life in Vancouver
[March 26, 1997 (JCC) Grace McCarthy]
Grace [Winterbottom] McCarthy was born in Vancouver in 1927 and was only 17 years old when she opened the first of a chain of five florist shops. Later she founded Canada's first school of floral design and became the first woman president of a Chamber of Commerce in Canada. Her political career spanned three decades under four premiers and she served as deputy premier. She was a prime mover behind Vancouver's Expo 86 and the positioning of the Trade and Convention Centre on the Vancouver Waterfront. (see http://www.protocol.gov.bc.ca/protocol/prgs/obc/2004/2004_GMcCarthy.htm)

Evelyn Atkinson's Life in Vancouver
[April 2, 1997 (Incorporation Day Dinner at VCC-CC) Evelyn Atkinson]
Born in East Vancouver in 1929, Evelyn Speer worked for 22 years as a secretary and for 22 years with her husband Ace Atkinson at the Ace Cycle Shop which has served four generations of customers. In 1996 Evelyn received awards for her lifetime work in volunteerism, including the Order of Canada. Her volunteer work has spanned the British Empire Games, bicycle races, the World Transplant Games, the founding of the Friends of Engine 374, and Theatre Terrific.

VPL #19421, Philip Timms, no date, Musqueam Indian Reserve

Gail Sparrow's Life in Vancouver
[April 16, 1997 (JCC) Gail Sparrow]
Gail Sparrow was born on the Musqueam Reserve and went to school at Southlands Elementary and Point Gray High. She attended two years at Brigham Young University in Utah before switching to a career in business, operating a computer school for training Native men and women and a personnel company, Native Personnel Services. She has served as Chief of the Musqueam Band.

Phil Nuytten's Life in Vancouver
[May 28, 1997 (JCC) Phil Nuytten]
At the age of 15, Phil Nuytten opened the first dive shop in western Canada. In 1969 he co-founded Oceaneering International Inc., one of the world's largest publicly-held commercial diving companies. Regarded as a pioneer in the commercial diving industry, he founded Hard Suits Incorporated. An expert on Northwest Coast First Nations art, he published the Totem Carvers, and is an adopted member of the Kwakiutl tribe. He has appeared in a host of journals and magazines and was featured on the cover on National Geographic in 1984. He has also received numerous awards including the Order of British Columbia. (see The Encyclopedia of British Columbia, 506; see also http://www.protocol.gov.bc.ca/protocol/prgs/obc/1992/1992_PNuytten.htm)

John Vanderpant, photographer
[September 24, 1997 (VM) Sheryl Salloum]
John Vanderpant was an internationally renowned photographer during the 1920s and 1930s. His black-and-white prints are in collections in Canada, the United States and Europe. He earned his living as a portrait photographer, but is best known for his images of Vancouver's terminal grain elevators and close-up abstractions of fruits and vegetables. (see Sheryl Salloum's Underlying Vibrations: The Photography and Life of John Vanderpant, Horsdal & Schubert, 1995; The Encyclopedia of British Columbia, 742)

Celebrating the Shadows: Women in Vancouver during the 1930s
[October 29, 1997 (VM) Theresa Healy]
In the 1930s, relief policies defined concepts such as manhood, woman hood and family, shaping the lives of those receiving relief services. Vancouver women's strategies made a difference in the home, on the street and in political forums. (see Lorna Townsend & Theresa Healy's Expanding Boundaries: historical essays on northern British Columbia's rural women, UNBC Print Services, 2001)

VPL #19175, Philip Timms, 192-, looking east on Hastings

1950s life in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver:
[November 26, 1997 (VM) Peter Trower]
Peter Trower's many novels and books of poetry include the lives of gritty Vancouverites of the other Vancouver, the back alleys and dark midnight streets and authentic culture that inhabits them. (see The Encyclopedia of British Columbia, 719; see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Trower)

1998

Vancouver at the Dawn: A Turn-of-the Century Portrait
[January 28, 1998 (VM) John Cherrington]
In 1859 at the age of 2, Sarah McLure arrived at Sapperton aboard the Temcity. She operated the telegraph at the family farm in Abbotsford and by 25 was full time manager of the Victoria Telegraph Company. After her marriage to John McLagan, she moved to Vancouver to establish the Vancouver World newspaper, paying attention to the economic, political and social events of the day. Sarah helped establish the Vancouver General Hospital and the Arts and Historical Society. (see John Cherrington's Vancouver at the Dawn: A Turn-of-the-Century Portrait, Harbour Publishing, 1997)

African Canadians in Strathcona during the 1940s and 1950s
[February 25, 1998 (VM) Yvonne Brown & Brooke Milles]
From 1920-1960, Vancouver's African-Canadian community gravitated to an area called Hogan's Alley, the subject of a short film. Black organizations such as the BC Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, the Strathcona church, the Black Masons/Eastern Star and the Black Unity Credit Union helped the community stand against systemic discrimination. Since the demise of Hogan's Alley, there have been no black ghettos in the province of British Columbia. (see Wayde Compton's Bluesprint: Black British Columbian literature and orature, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2001)

VPL #1090, H. T. Devine, 1886, Vancouver Police Department in front of City Hall (tent) after the fire

The Mulligan Affair: Top Cop on the Take
[March 25, 1998 (VM) Ian Macdonald & Betty O'Keefe]
The Vancouver Police force was widely known to be taking bribes from underworld elements during the 1940s and 1950s but solid evidence could not be obtained. Allegations that Vancouver's Chief of Police Walter Mulligan was taking bribes inflamed the Vancouver media in the 1950s after a Toronto tabloid broke the news and an underling committed suicide. He resigned after his mistress testified against him and he lived out the rest of his life on Vancouver Island. (see Ian Macdonald and Betty O'Keefe's The Mulligan Affair: Top Cop on the Take, Heritage House Publishing Co., 1997)

VPL #1271, Asahel Curtis, 1900, interior of the Eldorado Mine

Klondike Gold Rush
[April 6, 1998 (Incorporation Day Lunch at Isadora's Restaurant, Granville Island) Julie Cruikshank]
Gold finds of 1896 led to a huge rush in 1898-99 to the Klondike in Yukon territory. Both Vancouver and Seattle experienced a huge growth in their populations but the rush was considered over by 1901. (see The Encyclopedia of British Columbia, 293-94; see also http://www.questconnect.org/ak_klondike.htm; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klondike_Gold_Rush)

Historical films of Vancouver
[April 22, 1998 (VM) Colin Preston]
CBC Archives reveals two films made in Vancouver, City Song and Honeymoon Vancouver. Valued for their cityscapes of the 1960's, the first follows a little girl exploring Vancouver and walking along Spanish Banks. The latter, with unimaginative script but with good images, shows two honeymooners exploring the sights and sounds of Vancouver. (see Colin Browne's Motion picture production in British Columbia, 1898-1940: a brief historical background and catalogue, British Columbia Provincial Museum, 1979)

Lies, Spies, and Macho Guys: Portrait of a Labour Stool Pigeon
[May 27, 1998 (AGM at VM) Mark Leier]
Active between 1906 and 1935, Robert Raglan Gosden was a self-educated socialist, union organizer, revolutionary and spy for the RCMP. He was was involved in political scandals, free speech fights, relief camps, and the Liberal party in BC. His story, a history of labour in BC, sheds light on the shadowy world of the labour spy, on radical movements, and on the efforts of the state to infiltrate and disrupt the labour movement. (see Mark Leir's Red Flags and Red Tape: The Making of a Labour Bureaucracy, University of Toronto Press, 1995; and Where the Fraser River Flows: The Industrial Workers of the World in British Columbia, New Star Books, 1990.)

Commemoration of Great Fire of 1886
[June 13, 1998 (Field Trip)]

VPL #66621, Phil Timms, no date, Classroom

Some Glimpses into Vancouver Classrooms in Earlier Days
[September 30, 1998 (VM) Neil Sutherland]
From the 1930s-1960s classroom practice remained much the same with formalism being the dominant mode of instruction. Developments included the introduction of girls to the school patrols in the 1950s, the introduction of polio shot in March 1955, the improved lighting in the 1960s and the elimination of corporal punishment by 1972. (see Neil Sutherland's Growing Up: Childhood in English Canada and The Great War to the Age of Television, 1997)

Helen Gregory MacGill, B.C.'s First Female Judge:
[October 28, 1998 (VM) Eileen Mak]
Ontario born suffragette, Helen Gregory McGill (1864-1947) was a Trinity College 1889 graduate when few women took degrees. She began her public career as a journalist for Cosmopolitan and Atlantic Monthly magazines but made her mark in the realm of law and social welfare. Her lobbying on behalf of better laws for women and children gained her a position of respect in B.C., and led to her appointment as the first female judge in the province. Her writing on juvenile delinquency gained her an international reputation as an authority on the subject. (see The Encyclopedia of British Columbia, 434)

The 1907-1915 Vancouver Diary and World War 1 Letters of Wallace Chambers:
[November 25, 1998 (VM) Dr. John Gillis]
Wallace Chambers' diary traces the progress of a 21 year old middle-class Vancouver youth and his five sisters from 1907 until the end of 1913. The journal reveals a loyal brother, friend, employee, citizen, husband and soldier. It also reveals energy, zeal, ideal and ambition as well as a touching love story. (see John Gillis' A lovely letter from Cecie: the 1907-1915 Vancouver diary and World War I letters of Wallace Chambers, Peanut Butter Publishers, 1998)

1999

No Plaster Saint: The Life of Mildred Osterhout Fahrni
[January 27, 1999 (VM) Nancy Knickerbocker]
Manitoba born Mildred Osterhout Fahrni (1900-92) became a crusading socialist and absolute pacifist following the ideals of J. S. Woodworth, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. She taught on Denman Island and London, was associated with the founding conference of the CCF, Vancouver's first peace walk and a Japanese Canadian internment camp. (see Nancy Knickerbocker's No Plaster Saint: The Life of Mildred Osterhout Fahrni, Talonbooks, 2001; The Encyclopedia of British Columbia, 219)

People of African Descent: Vancouver's Fortune:
[February 24, 1999 (VM) Sadie Kuehn]
In BC's early colonial history, 800 people of African descent migrated to the Victoria and Salt Spring area. The first governor of the colony of British Columbia was Sir James Douglas, himself of African American descent. The African descent community can make several “first” claims: the first dentist, and proprietor on Burrard Inlet amongst others. From the 1920s, the African descent community drifted to the Strathcona and Hogan's Alley area of Vancouver. (see Wayde Compton's Bluesprint: Black British Columbian literature and orature, Arsenal Pulp Press, 2001)

VPL #80633, Tom Christopherson, 1948, Inauguration of the new B. C. Electric trolley buses

Power Pioneers: BC Hydro and Its Predecessors
[March 24, 1999 (VM) Hugh Wilson and Bea Millar]
The Home Service Department of BC Electric and BC Hydro had a significant impact on homes and homemakers in BC. (see Hugh Wilson's Gaslights to Gigawatts, a Human History of BC Hydro and Its Predecessors, Hurricane Pres, 1998; The Encyclopedia of British Columbia, 60)

Vancouver Street Names book launch
[April 28, 1999 (Incorporation Dinner at Plaza 500 Hotel) Elizabeth Walker]
(See February 28, 1998)

VPL #19543, Philip Timms, 19--, Harold Timms

Jean Coulthard: A Composer, Her City and Her Life
[May 26, 1999 (VM) Bill Bruneau and David Duke]
The daughter of one of Vancouver's most famous music teachers and a pioneer medical doctor, Shaughnessy resident Jean Coulthard (1908-2000) was one of the best known female composers in North America, publishing 400 works, but was not well known in her home town of Vancouver. She studied at the Royal College of Music in London under Vaughan Williams, traveled widely and met many composers in exile. She also sustained many close connections to well-known BC artists of her time. (see William A. Bruneau's Jean Coulthard: a life in music, Ronsdale Press, 2005; The Encyclopedia of British Columbia, 150-51; see also http://www.protocol.gov.bc.ca/protocol/prgs/obc/1994/1994_JCoulthard.htm)

VPL #14079, Ben W. Leeson, 19--, First Nations people in button blankets at Quatsino Sound

Fair Ones and Klootchmen: Women in British Columbia, 1849-1871
[September 22, 1999 (VM) Adele Perry]
While European women were seen as necessary ingredients in the creation of an orderly, white-settler colony between 1849-1871, their Aboriginal counterparts were presented as a dangerous threat to colonial society. As "fair ones" and "klootchmen," newcomers and native women had very different but similarly important relationships to B.C.'s emergent settler society. (see Adele Perry's On the edge of empire: gender, race, and the making of British Columbia, 1849-1871, University of Toronto Press, 2001)

VPL #80853, Art Jones, 1949, interior, open house at HMCS Discovery

HMCS Discovery at Stanley Park
[October 3, 1999 (Field Trip)]

The Terror of the Coast
[October 27, 1999 (VM) Chris Arnett]
The first treaty process initiated by the colonial government ended in an 1863 military operation against a Native village on Kuper Island. The battle, which took place on the east coast of Vancouver Island and extended throughout the waters and island of Active pass, significantly marked the on-going erosion of native rights throughout British Columbia. (see Chris Arnett's The Terror of the Coast: land alienation and Colonial War on Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands, 1849-1863, Talonbooks, 1999)

VPL #3035, Leonard Frank, 1938, Lions Gate Bridge under construction

Lion's Gate Bridge: A Social History
[November 24, 1999 (VM) Donald Luxton]
A.J.T. Taylor, the man who conceived and built the Lion's Gate Bridge, was ambitious, shrewd, visionary, fearless, competitive, a man given to great economic and political risk. Yet at the royal opening he was not represented among the dignitaries, but it is believed that he placed a time capsule in one of the Lions. When he died, his ashes were scattered from the bridge.
(see Lilia D'Acres and Donald Luxton's Lions Gate, Talonbooks, 1999; The Greater Vancouver Book, 217; see also http://www.cherrybouton.com/lgbridge.html; http://www.glasssteelandstone.com/CA/BC/VancouverLionsGateBridge.html)

2000

Vancouver's Pioneer Italians and Their Institutions
[January 26, 2000 (VM) Ray Culos]
The years 1904-66 spanned three Italian Mutual Aid Societies, which were critical in providing translators, medical planning and funerals. Although by the 1930's immigration had slowed, many Italian immigrants became prominent in all aspects of the development of the city. The original “Little Italy” was between Gore and Vernon Drive, and subsequently shifted to Commercial Drive.(see Raymond J. Culos' Vancouver's Society of Italians, Harbour Publishing, 1998)

Jericho Beach and the West Coast Flying Boat Stations
[February 23, 2000 (VM) Chris Weicht]
Jericho Beach, which had been declared a naval reserve in 1859, was logged and from 1889 was used as a golf course. In 1920, the Jericho Beach Air Station was established following Ottawa's move to establish an air force on the west coast. Its role grew from RCAF sea boat training from 1924 to a more defensive role up to and during WWII. (see Chris Weicht's Jericho Beach and the West Coast Flying Boat Stations, MCW Enterprises, 1997)

To do what their own statute forbids": the CPR location of and extension to the Vancouver Terminus
[March 22, 2000 (VM) Frank Leonard]
In 1886, Port Moody was the CPR terminus but it took a further 18 months for the CPR to complete its route to Vancouver. Coal Harbour was chosen by default because of the company's entanglement in legal affairs, and secret deals but the company was generously rewarded for its accompanying land grant, pieces of which it richly disposed of over the years. (see The Greater Vancouver Book, 444-48)

Historical Costumes
[April 6, 2000 (Incorporation Day Dinner at Plaza 500 Hotel) Ivan Sayers]
Fashions and the fashion industry have changed considerably from 1900 to 2000.

VPL #1359, Province News, 1942, Japanese evacuation, seized vehicles

Powell Street: A Community Lost:
[April 26, 2000 (VM) Audrey Kobayashi]
At a period in history when workplaces were divided into ethnic work gangs and differential wages, Japanese from the 1880s were brought in as contract labour to work at Hastings Mill. Marriages from Japan were often arranged and the community grew and vigorously defended itself against the social constraints of the day. The Japanese community thrived until 1941 when its people were uprooted, sent into the interior and deprived of their years of work. (see Audrey Kobayashi's Powell Street, a brief history walking tour, np, nd; and Regional Backgrounds of Japanese immigrants and the development of Japanese-Canadian Community, McGill University Department of Geography, 1986; see also http://www.virtualvancouver.com/japantown.html)

VPL #12443, Leonard Frank, 1925, men standing on lumber on Grand Trunk flatcar at Hastings Mill

Making Workers, Making Citizens: Welfare Capitalism on the Vancouver Waterfront, 1923-1930
[May 24, 2000 (AGM at VM) Andrew Parnaby]
In the wake of the national labour revolt of 1917-23, the Shipping Federation of B.C. embraced a new, more progressive paternalistic work-place reform philosophy, welfare capitalism, in an effort to tame Vancouver City's longshoremen. By offering longshoremen more than simply a daily wage, a clean bunkhouse and a pension plan, employers hoped to nurture a sense of harmony on the job, gain greater control over the world of work, and in the process, re-create and re-moralize the workers themselves. Vancouver's longshoremen saw little independence in this and fought back. (see Andrew Parnaby's On the Hook: welfare capitalism on the Vancouver waterfront, 1919-1939, Memorial University PhD thesis, 2001)

Afloat On the Fraser: The Greek Fishing Community of Deas Island
[September 27, 2000 (VM) Peter Capadouca]
Around the turn of the century, a group of families, mostly from the island of Skopelos in the Aegean Sea, settled on Deas Island near the mouth of the Fraser River. For nearly 50 years this small community thrived and prospered, sending their fishing boats up the coast in search of salmon. Living in floating houses connected by floating boardwalks, several generations maintained their Greek language and culture until gradually integrating into the Lower Mainland community.

Pauline Johnson: Native Advocate, New Woman and Canadian
[October 25, 2000 (VM) Veronica Strong-Boag]
E. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913), was a leading Canadian performer and writer of her day, writing and touring in the United States, Canada and England. She was a controversial figure who spoke as an advocate for Native rights, new women and Canada. A large number of Vancouverites attended her funeral and her ashes were placed in Stanley Park. (see Veronica Strong-Boag's Paddling Her Own Canoe: The Times and Texts of E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake), University of Toronto Press, 2000; see also http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~pjohnson/home.html)

VPL #5393A, Philip Timms, policeman at English Bay

Police and Politics in Canadian History: Reflections Arising from the APEC Affair
[November 22, 2000 (VM) W. Wesley Pue]
The November 1997 UBC APEC Affair, appears to have been a violation of Canada's foundation constitutional principle - that of the rule of law. Charges of improper political interference with policing, the shielding of high officials, etc., has never been properly addressed by any official inquiry. (see W. Wesley Pue's Pepper in Our Eyes, The APEC Affair, UBC Press, 2000)