Category Archives: Public Programming

Vintage Vancouver: Archival film from the City of Vancouver Archives

Posted on November 1, 2012 by Jesse Cumming | Leave a comment

The City of Vancouver Archives is happy to announce Vintage Vancouver: Archival Film from the City of Vancouver Archives, November 18^th 2012 at 2pm. This is the third in a series of screenings in collaboration with Vancity Theatre, exhibiting some of the finest selections from our moving images. Although you can view most of our moving images online, this is an exciting opportunity to see vintage Vancouver on the big screen with the advantage of curation, historical commentary, live accompaniment and the ability to share and laugh with a movie-loving audience (and maybe treat yourself to some popcorn).

Women in sailor suits in the Orpheum theatre, advertising the 1946 musical “Meet the Navy”. Reference Code: AM1184-S1-: CVA 1184-2292

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Posted in Public Programming

Tagged movies, snipe, Vancity Theatre

And…Action! On set in the Archives Reading Room.

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Jesse Cumming | 1 Comment

Here at the Archives, we’re used to working with pre-existing documents and media, though we recently decided to try our hand at creating something new. The idea arose to make a video introducing and promoting our public reading room, which is open for anyone to come and conduct research.

The first step was to find inspiration. Prior to our new video, proper Reading Room protocol had been communicated through a series of humorous “Dos” and “Don’ts” photos. We loved the way it was fun and tongue-in-cheek while getting the important facts across.

This series of posters created by the then-Public Archives of Canada (now Library and Archives Canada) shows good and bad Reading Room behavior. Don’t behave like the gorilla!

One other work we enjoyed while preparing this video was created by our friend and colleague at the United Church of Canada BC Conference Archives, the late Bob Stewart, entitled “The Archives – More than a Holding Operation”. The title makes its way into a line in our video, our own little tribute. Unlike Bob, our Archives does not have access to a choir – and none of us can boast rapping skills (well, one of our interns, but we could not convince her to go on camera). Continue reading →

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Posted in General, Holdings, Public Programming, Reading Room

Tagged Students, Volunteers

Panoramic photographs: the Number 8 Cirkut Outfit

Posted on June 7, 2012 by Sue Bigelow | Leave a comment

Part of an occasional series on the W.J. Moore panoramic photographs.

We have previously featured W.J. Moore’s panoramic photography and his life. Here’s a look at the type of panoramic camera and film he used and some of the unusual features of the photographs it produced.

The best-known and most widely used of the rotating-film panoramic cameras was the Cirkut camera. Capable of shooting a 360° view, it was patented in 1904 and sold until the 1940s. It was not easy to use, and so was purchased mainly by commercial photographers. Some photographers shoot with well-maintained Cirkut cameras today.

Cirkut camera with film and accessories. Photographer: Henry Tabbers.

Cirkut Outfit

There were six distinct cameras in the Cirkut family to fit five different sizes of film. Four of the cameras were used exclusively for panoramas; two were built to be used with either panorama film or glass plate negatives. These last two versatile cameras were referred to as Cirkut Outfits. Continue reading →

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Posted in Digitization, Holdings, Public Programming

Tagged camera, panorama, photographs

Archives film part of Jubilee Concert

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Sue Bigelow | Leave a comment

We’re honoured that one of our films was part of yesterday’s Diamond Jubilee Concert at Buckingham Palace.

We had contributed, via Youtube, a copy of the film to Historypin’s Pinning the Queen’s History collection. An excerpt was selected to be part of the animation that was projected on Buckingham Palace during the concert.

This is the animation. Our excerpt appears at about 1 minute, and it shows the Queen watching an assembly of children creating a dogwood-flower-shaped formation in Queen Elizabeth park.

Yes, the pin representing our video is stuck in the middle of the Prairies. That’s because it represents the Queen’s 1959 visit to Canada, not Vancouver.

The longer video from which the excerpt was taken is below. You can see the children preparing for their formation, and more of the presentation itself. It is Reference code VPK-S652-: MI-111.

You don’t have to be royalty to use one of our videos. We invite you to find and download some and get creative.

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Posted in Digitization, Holdings, Public Programming

Tagged Diamond Jubilee, Historypin

New photography exhibition – Vancouver’s Village 2008-2011 by Leslie Hossack

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Leslie Mobbs | Leave a comment

On exhibit from January 12 to April 13 will be Vancouver’s Village 2008-2011: constructing a village, creating a community, a collection of photographs by Leslie Hossack documenting the construction of the Olympic Village on Southeast False Creek.

Eleven Cranes, Olympic Village Site Looking East, Vancouver 2008 by Leslie Hossack.

The village in Leslie Hossack’s photographs has evolved, over the four years she has photographed it, from a flock of construction cranes to an avenue of shiny buildings. Continue reading →

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Posted in General, Public Programming

Tagged False Creek, Olympics, panorama, photographs

Celebrating Yaletown Productions Screening at Vancity Theatre

Posted on November 10, 2011 by Jeffery Chong | Leave a comment

On Sunday, November 6^th, the City of Vancouver Archives successfully hosted its second and final 125^th anniversary event of the year: Celebrating Yaletown Productions. Marked by a matinee screening at the Vancity Theatre at the Vancouver International Film Centre, this event highlighted the 40-year filmmaking career of Mike Collier and the development of his film production company, Yaletown Productions. This screening showcased a younger Vancouver, reminding viewers about how much the city has changed in less than a lifetime.

Mike Collier introduces his films to a sold out theatre

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Posted in Digital Archives, Digitization, Public Programming

Tagged Yaletown Productions

Celebrating “Hollywood North”: Yaletown Productions Inc. fonds

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Cindy McLellan | 4 Comments

Since the late 1970s “Hollywood North” has been used to describe the film industry in Canada, specifically Vancouver. Until recently, we had very little in our holdings that reflected this important aspect of Vancouver’s past. A step toward changing that was taken with the recent acquisition of the records of Yaletown Productions Inc.In 2010, Michael Collier donated a large volume of moving image, audio, textual and digital records to the Archives. The fonds spans the more than forty years that Collier spent as a producer and director in the Vancouver film industry. Beginning with his first experimental films created while completing a degree in physics at SFU, as a member of Stan Fox’s Student Film Workshop in the late 1960s, the collection encompasses Collier’s film career up to early this century.

Sneak peek
To give you an idea of some of the moving image materials now in the Archives, we have put a few short clips on YouTube. Here you can find excerpts from our November 6th screening.

Yaletown Productions Inc. won the contract to produce the internationally distributed commercials promoting Expo 86. Not only can you now find these commercials at the Archives, Continue reading →

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Posted in Digital Archives, Digitization, Holdings, Preservation, Public Programming

Tagged digitization, Expo 86, Yaletown Productions

Coming Soon – Day of Digital Archives – October 6

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Courtney Mumma | Leave a comment

We will be participating in the Day of Digital Archives (DoDA) this coming Thursday, October 6. The Day of Digital Archives is an international initiative among dozens of archives and archivists to raise awareness of digital archives issues great and small. The world of digital archives can be equally exciting, intimidating, fascinating and overwhelming! We’d like to help make this area more accessible and easier to understand.

For our part, two of our digital archivists, Cindy McLellan and Courtney Mumma, will post a little about what a day in the life of a digital archivist looks like. Beyond just describing our work with digital archives, we also encourage our users to use social media outlets to ask us their questions. On Thursday, October 6, we will actively engage users on Twitter using our @VanArchives account with the #digitalArchivesDay hashtag. We will answer questions via Twitter wherever 140 character answers are plausible, but will direct answers that require more detailed responses to the blog comments area.

Demystifying Digital Archives using a Fly metaphor and Jeff Goldblum

A good digital archivist makes sure to preserve archives as close as possible to their original form.

Along with our international colleagues, we look forward to shedding a little light on the mysterious world of digital archives! Ask us anything about our digital work and we’ll do our best to answer.

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Posted in Digital Archives, General, Preservation, Public Programming

New photography exhibit – Merging Time: Vancouver Through The Lens

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Jeffery Chong | 1 Comment

On display from September 21st to December 23rd, Merging Time: Vancouver Through the Lens is the City of Vancouver Archives’ latest collaborative effort with the Langara Professional Photo Imaging Department.

Merging Time: Vancouver Through The Lens

In early 2011, students in Darren Bernaerdt’s Introduction to Photo Imaging class (Photo 1248) were given an assignment at the City of Vancouver Archives to find historical black and white photographs of Vancouver. Half of the students chose photographs between 1919 and 1948, and the other half selected ones before 1919. The majority of the photographs were taken when the buildings were only a few years old. Today, many of these buildings have heritage status. Continue reading →

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Posted in General, Public Programming

Tagged Historypin, photographs, Vancouver