Did you know that the Archives’ holdings are comprised of about a 60/40 split between City government records and records donated from the wider community? While some private-sector donations can be quite large (the 5 million photographic negatives from Postmedia Network Canada springs to mind!), the majority of offers we receive are actually quite small and trickle in throughout the year.
We frequently accept a single, one-off item or a small clutch of items for our holdings. Someone found a photograph their grandmother took showing the neighbourhood. Someone offers their dad’s high school yearbook. Someone else had an old postcard they no longer want, unless perhaps we did?
Single-item or small donations still go through the same acquisition process as larger volumes of records, with staff assessing whether material fits within our acquisition mandate. If accepted, these small donations don’t become a stand-alone fonds but instead are typically added to one of the Archives’ “collections.” Two examples are the City of Vancouver Archives pamphlet collection (AM1519) and the City of Vancouver Archives photograph collection (AM1376), both extensive and heavily accessed by researchers.
Since a small donation (for the most part) takes little processing time, this material may be arranged and described quickly upon arrival and soon be available for public access. Larger donations of records may wait weeks, months, or even years to process depending on the volume and preservation requirements of the records and the work plans of Archives staff. While City records processing takes priority, archivists do process larger donations as time and/or funding permits, and, once completed, these records often receive a blog post all their own.
The round up below is a sample of recently processed records that came to us as either a one off or as a small batch of records.
Poster for CRAB Park opening
This is a poster made for the unofficial opening of CRAB Park held on July 27, 1987. The park, now formally known as CRAB Park at Portside, is the result of years of advocacy in the early 1980s by the Create A Real Available Beach (CRAB) committee. The municipal opening, for what was to be officially designated as Portside Park, was scheduled for a couple of days later. This community-led opening was organized as an alternative for local residents to attend and news reporting states there were 900 people who came out that day.
Soccer game at Cambie Street grounds panorama
This is a panoramic photograph of an unidentified soccer game underway. Before this item was described by an archivist, our conservator flattened and conducted tear repair work on the print. Measuring 19 x 106cm, the panorama is now housed in its own archival folder, fitting snugly inside one of our oversize boxes.
Taken from the pitch, the photograph shows players, crowds and the surrounding area including the Sun Tower and the Beatty Street Drill Hall, two landmarks still present in downtown today. Zoom in for a closer look from the high-resolution digitized copy on our database.
Woodward’s Squat photographs
A small donation from 2024 consists of twelve photographic prints taken in September 2002 of the Woodward’s Squat, including this image showing tents lined up along East Hastings Street. Activists led “Woodsquat” for three months demanding that the Woodward’s building be turned into social housing. These photographs are not currently digitized to view online but are available to look at in person at the Archives.
Dill Pickle Rag newsletter
Not a single item but rather five issues of the Dill Pickle Rag : A West Coast Journal of Music and Celebration are now part of our City of Vancouver Archives pamphlet collection (AM1519). Relatively short-lived, this newsletter dedicated to all-things folk music, was created by local musicians Dan Rubin and Rick Scott with the first issue appearing in the summer of 1976 and continuing to 1978. Newsletter articles include topics such as music festivals, musicians, instruments, songs, letter submissions, and advertising for local shops and venues.
Fishing at Spanish Banks photograph
This photograph showing smelt fishing at Spanish Banks in 1966 was donated in 2023 and had been described, but only just recently digitized and uploaded to our database last December. This item is a 35mm colour slide which we keep in frozen storage for preservation. Now the online digital surrogate is the access copy for researchers and the original slide can remain in its permanent home in the freezer.
Big thank you to all our donors of small-sized donations! These small but mighty items add to the richness of the Archives’ private-sector holdings, and often complement some of the most significant issues and events documented in our City records.
