Author Archives: Students

Our students – Dorcas Tong

Posted on May 2, 2013 | Comments Off

My summer internship at the City of Vancouver Archives was filled with wonderful experiences along with the occasional adventure, so much so that it has taken me a while to catch my breath and finally write about it. As a student in the Master of Art Conservation program at Queen’s University, the Archives fostered an ideal learning environment for a conservator-in-training to reinforce the skills acquired through the past academic year. I was fortunate to learn from not one but two experienced conservators. Working under the supervision of Sue Bigelow and Rosaleen Hill, the Digital Conservators at the Archives, I had the privilege of taking in a double dose of valuable knowledge.

The Award of Merit 1943, one of the many spectacular works of art found in the Archives. This image consists of merged photographs of the parchment before (left) and after (right). treatment.

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Posted in Holdings, People

Tagged conservation, documentary art, parchment, photographs, Students

Our students – Allison Hasselfield

Posted on February 7, 2013 | Leave a comment

As a student in the Master of Library and Information Studies degree at UBC, I never thought that I would get the chance to work in an archives, so when the opportunity came up I jumped at the chance. My professional experience project at the Archives was to catalogue the preservation and conservation collection that was housed in the Archives lab. Although it may not seem obvious, the Archives has a small library of books and journals, which is used by archives patrons in the reading room and by Archives staff. The collection includes items that are of interest to people studying the history of Vancouver and the local industry and culture as well as professional materials for both the archival and preservation staff. It was my pleasure to work with this fascinating collection of books and serials.

Books on the shelf with Library of Congress bookmarks ready for labeling. Photo by Allison Hasselfield.

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Posted in People

Tagged library

Our Students – Rachel Sim

Posted on October 25, 2012 | 2 Comments

The City of Vancouver Archives was kind enough to adopt me as an intern this summer. Never before has twelve weeks passed by so quickly! During my time at the Archives, I had the pleasure of dabbling in a number of aspects of archival work, including some unexpected outreach work acting as a researcher in the Archives’ new instructional video.

Rachel hard at work as Researcher #1 in the Archives’ 2012 how-to video. Still from video.

Artistic expression aside, I can now proudly say that I have processed a group of records from start to finish, appraising, selecting, arranging and describing the records of Richard Dopson, a prominent member of the Vancouver gay community and an important individual in the development of gay sports in the city. Organizing the records created over the last 30 years of passionate involvement on the part of Mr. Dopson was no small task! Vancouver hosted the Gay Games in 1990 and Dopson was co-chair of this international event. Continue reading →

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Posted in Archivy, People

Tagged Gay Games, Richard Dopson, Students

Our Students – Kevin Owen

Posted on October 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

There are a number of things which bring joy to an archivist’s heart: the tactile pleasure of (carefully!) handling an old and worn ledger, the completion of a meticulously-filled spreadsheet of file and item descriptions, rows upon rows of immaculate Hollinger boxes, and trays of homemade treats in the office. However, as an intern at the City of Vancouver Archives over the summer, I came to learn that it is often the many large and small discoveries which occur in the process of archival work that end up being the most gratifying and memorable experiences.

Kevin Owen with Major Matthews and Jack the Cat. Photograph by Rachel Sim.

Some of these discoveries are of the dramatic variety, such as when you are removing a piece of art from a frame for rehousing, only to find that the backing board in the frame is in fact a painted photograph from the 1890s. Continue reading →

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Posted in Archivy, People

Tagged Reference Guides, Students, United Empire Loyalists

Our Students – Tom Jackman

Posted on September 2, 2011 | Leave a comment

To this budding archivist, there is perhaps no better sight than pristine Hollinger boxes filled with records rehoused for permanent preservation—records said archivist appraised, selected, arranged, and described. It is comforting to know that future researchers will benefit from my endeavours, and humbling (read: scary) to think that I helped preserve one small part of our heritage.

Summer Archives Intern Tom Jackman, pictured with records from the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation fonds

Of course, “small” is relative. As a summer intern at the City of Vancouver Archives, I processed records of the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation—an accession totalling 70 boxes! The Bid Corporation (BidCorp), a non-profit corporation created in the late 1990s Continue reading →

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Posted in People

Tagged BidCorp, Olympics, Students

Our Students – Peter Houston

Posted on July 21, 2011 | Leave a comment

From January to March 2011, I worked as a professional work experience student at the City of Vancouver Archives, where my focus was on motion picture film preservation and description. After my initial training by Chak Yung, my first task was to write archival descriptions of a dozen films, including promotional films about Vancouver from the early 1970s and Protest (recently featured on CVA’s blog), a film documenting demonstrators picketing a movie house on Granville Street that was showing the infamous 1979 film “Caligula.”

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Posted in Holdings, People

Tagged movies, Students

Our Students – Lisa Snider

Posted on May 19, 2011 | Leave a comment

It was my great pleasure to join the City of Vancouver Archives as a work experience student from Fall 2010 until Spring 2011. This was a UBC-SLAIS professional experience project that focused on the creation of a web presence for the Archives’ Major Matthews Early Vancouver Online project.

Lisa Snider with Major Matthews and Jack the Cat

First, I developed a design and layout for a template that was used for the Major Matthews section of the Archives’ website. Using the Matthews template as a guide, I created the individual pages that formed this section. Some of the pages focused on the project itself, while others focused on the Major and his work.

I then created and organized the Volume One web page so that viewers have three options. You can