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by Diane Foster
This paper is dedicated to the salvage crew and supporters who shared the passion and saw the vision - of all that the murals could bring to the community.
In an effort to define the archival connection, it is first necessary to clarify two basic definitions which are vital to "Malaspina Rediscovered". One being archives and the other, historians.
Firstly, with respect to Archives. Cunningham, in the National Library of Australia News, refers to the, "social role and significance of archives..." and uses a definition translated from an editorial in Auvui, a Catalan daily newspaper which has connections with Spain. Given the subject of this paper, I thought this was apt. Cunningham writes,
"The collective memory of a nation is indispensable if we want to understand who we are, to understand where we have come from, to better comprehend where we find ourselves and where we are going. Archives are the documentary base of this collective memory, which itself is so important to maintain and strengthen national identify. This use of the word nation is easily transferred to Province, City, Town, or to the local level.
Goldring adequately defines the second definition I wish to refer to. He defines historians from two perspectives in his article in Archivaria, journal of the Association of Canadian Archivists and the editors of "Public History: An Introduction" devotes the Introduction to defining historians. Basically, historians are interpreters of the past. The Nanaimo Community Archives, has, through its sponsorship, a unique position and responsibility of providing primary source material for the City of Nanaimo, the Malaspina University-College and to the community-at-large. We collect the tools of trade for historians and researchers. We need to not only collect, preserve, maintain and make accessible records reflecting the community memory, but be ever alert to topical concerns, events and happenings.
Therefore, soon after arriving in Nanaimo, I queried the fate and history of the fading and neglected building, perched above and on the harbour. Viewed from the seafront, it was evident that the building must have once held a significant role in the life of the City. It's art deco harbour front facade bellied out with remnants of pride, but its fading paintwork and falling stucco shamed such a magnificent development site.
Archival records confirm that in 1926 local businessmen formed a syndicate to build Nanaimo's first, first-class hotel as a place for conventions, families, tourists and a place in which quality social events could take place.
The local newspaper advertisements announced it as, "A Safe Investment and a Civic Duty". For days, the newspaper declared such statements as, "The Test of Public Spirit"; A Test of Civic Spirit; This Is Not A Gift Proposition but an Investment; Judging a Community - in reference to, "A community today is no better than its hotels." and so on.
The local press advertised rigorously and the syndicated Community Hotel, through one hundred dollar shares, opened on July thirtieth, nineteen twenty seven as a temperance hotel. The investment strategy was based on the American Hockenbury System Incorporated, responsible for a chain of community hotels in the United States. This may also account for the hotel opening as a temperance hotel since the abolition of prohibition in the United States was being strongly debated in the press.
Rumour still abounds, that the initial fundraising efforts were thwarted by an absconder with the funds. This has yet to be substantiated and if it was so, the businessmen deserve to be applauded for their continued efforts. Anecdotal information relates that the ladies of "Primrose Lane" also invested in the Hotel and, "some even turned up for the official opening and were reputed to be the best behaved". One has to wonder what the rest of the guests were doing.
Archival records document the Hotel's grand interior, richly furnished before the Great Depression and illustrate the fare offered to guests on finely, hand-painted menus.
The Great Depression caused business to decline and the owners looked for ways to attract people back to the Hotel. They turned to three young artists for the solution.
In 1938, the "West-Coast artists" Edward J. Hughes, Paul Goranson and Orville Fisher in the context of their experience as muralists and in their partnership known as the "Western Canadian Brotherhood", were hired to paint six murals in the dining and banquet rooms. They were told the subject should depict the maritime explorations around Vancouver Island.
The Hotel was already named after the Malaspina Galleries, through a newspaper competition. Lieutenant Alejandro Malaspina, was from Parma, in what is known today as Italy, but was then under the suzerainty of Spain, and was commissioned by the Spanish Government. The Galleries were also known as the Galiano Galleries and today is called the Gabriola Galleries.
Business progressed after the Depression and many people have come forward with their memories of either working in or attending the Hotel for various functions. Service clubs met regularly in the banquet and dining rooms, women took over the men's jobs during World War 11 and the structure of the Hotel changed with an addition in 1948 which has a cursory mention in City records.
Sometime in the early fifties, Chub Radio took over the banquet room. It is believed, that at this time the interior columns, and other decorated features from the art-deco period were boxed in, painted over, covered over with panelling, lowered, false ceilings installed and thus, the murals were hidden from the community.
The Restaurant, Beauty Shop and Coffee House continued for several more years, and a disco pub was added. The hotel ceased to operate as such and the building was sold and bought several times and put to other uses. It was last occupied as a residence for low-income individuals and finally in the doors were closed.
It was clear to see why the local papers periodically reported the derelict Hotel site as a developers dream.
Inspection of City records reveal possibilities for a Seniors Retirement Home; a facility for handicapped workshops, showrooms, lounge and library; a recreational venue for Tai Chi, resurrection of coffee shops and restaurants and refurbishment of the old hotel completed in 1927.
It was evident that there was every possibility that the old Hotel would be demolished. It had not been declared a designated heritage building, therefore, rezoning, an upgrade in building codes and a more viable, condensed use of the site was inevitable.
Finally, an application for redevelopment was received by the City and Landmark Tower Corp. proceeded with plans for demolition of the Hotel.
City records were scarce, files were unable to be located and the Archives holdings revealed little about the background of the Hotel, its structure or social and cultural role in the community.
As the Community Archivist I felt it was essential to ensure that, at least, documentary evidence of the hotel as it lay derelict and some evidence of its former glory would be available for future reference, research and interpretation. With this in mind, I approached the Developers for assistance to document the building prior to demolition.
We held a meeting, the process was explained and I was given two weeks to assemble a team and complete our business of documentation. The team consisted of a professional photographer, an historian, staff from the Museum and an architect. Our first visit was to be after a gathering at which the Developers would launch their new development project to the press.
After the presentation a few of us made our way downstairs to view what was believed to be all that remained of a mural.
During the course of inspecting the building and determining its interior structural layers, wood panelling had been pulled from timber studs. In the process, the plaster rendering fixed to a brick wall on which the panelling was secured, came away in large pieces. The result was the defacing of a particularly beautifully crafted section of a mural depicting two Spanish sailors looking up in awe within, what we now call, the Gabriola Galleries. The mural had been painted around the original doorway which was still in place and extended for another seventeen feet along a concrete based wall. Here the panelling had been removed with care and what was revealed were larger-than-life, vibrant figures of naval officers, marines and sailors.
I could not have possibly known that my visit to San Blas in Mexico six months previously was about to have repercussions, but not unpleasant ones.
San Blas, like Acapulco, was an outpost for the Spanish on their expeditions to the northwest coast of the North American Continent. High on a hill, overlooking the mangrove swamps and the present day village of San Blas, a few Spanish ruins lie as evidence of their presence. Malaspina, Galiano, Quadra, Valdes and other Spanish explorations had set sail from here.
They like Cook and others had visited what Vancouver named, during his 1792 visit, Quadra and Vancouver's Island. Eliza and Narvaez had been in the vicinity of Nanaimo harbour the year before, but it was still to be proven at that time, that it was in fact an Island.
Here, on the wall of the former banquet room, stood the Spanish. At that point I did not know who the figures were meant to represent. Bertroli reports that Galiano and Valdes, "landed at different places, including Neah Bay and Gabriola Island", so it is feasible they encountered the sandstone, wave swept caverns now known as The Gabriola Galleries.
Galiano had met Broughton on board the Sutil in June of 1792 when the two met during their exploration and charting of the east side of Vancouver Island. Galiano conveyed to Broughton that Captain George Vancouver was at Nootka, on the west coast, awaiting Governor Quadra.
Dunae later reported that E.J. Hughes had painted Malaspina as the Spanish naval officer sketching the Gabriola Galleries. He goes on to report that, "...murals representing historical events were very popular at the time". Leduc will discuss, in detail, the significance of murals as public art and in particular, the Malaspina Muralists.
The reaction among the few gathered in the derelict former banquet room, stacked with collected furniture from the old hotel rooms in readiness for a salvage sale, was of indignation at the damage to the mural, passion for its obvious artistic and heritage value, enthusiasm and energy for its salvation.
Later, in discussion with Dunae, we expressed the irony of Malaspina's demise.
Unlike the British, the Spanish government was hesitant to publish journals about their maritime explorations. In addition, Malaspina, upon his return to Spain in 1794, fell afoul of the Prime Minister and was locked up. His journals lay forgotten and unpublished until 1885; ninety-four years after the journey. Even then, he was simply referred to as El Comandante. Ironically, just ten years after Fisher, Hughes and Goranson had painted him in three different murals, he was covered up and forgotten again, this time for nearly fifty years.
The Nanaimo Community Archives have existed on a very lean budget and simply did not have the funding to restore, conserve or remove the mural. An appeal was made to the developers to retain and conserve the mural. In an agreement with the Nanaimo Community Archives, to commission a report on the old building, the new owners amended the agreement by giving the mural to the Archives. In other words, if you want the mural, then you must "save" it.
Gino Sedola as Chairman of the Nanaimo Harbour Commission, an exhibited artist, who studied in the same art school as the muralists, recognized the value of the mural as documentary art and its heritage value. He offered four thousand dollars as seed money. Public meetings and tours were arranged, negotiations began with the developers for removal of the mural and a campaign was quickly mounted.
I contacted the Canadian Conservation Institute who immediately agreed the mural had to be saved. Contacts spread to the Federal Government agency, Canadian Heritage and at the Provincial Government level through the B.C Heritage Trust. Further visits were arranged and the significance of our find recognized as local, provincial and Canadian heritage value. Added to the significance, was that I found and interviewed the three artists who are still practising their art. Of the three, Hughes has continued to gain significance and exposure with his work fetching anything up to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
A visiting art conservator from London, England, who specializes in removal of art from walls visited the site and confirmed removal could be engineered.
I was furnished with a list of art conservators by the British Columbia Archives and Records Service (formerly the Provincial Archives) and with my second phone call knew instinctively that I had found the right person to assist us with removal of the mural.
Dunae's research and report confirmed that six murals had been painted. And so began the search for walls on which five other murals had been painted.
Armed with copies of photographs, taken during social events, as our only evidence of what the murals looked like and where they were painted, we eagerly endeavoured to orientate ourselves in the radically altered rooms.
With the assistance of our art conservator demonstrating techniques and what to look for, we roamed the vicinity of the former banquet and dining rooms. It took several visits and much excitement, tinged with a sense of "what do we do now" before we found five of the murals. It took another two and a half weeks before Cheryle could confirm the loss of the sixth mural, probably as a result of the nineteen forty eight addition. The mural had been painted on the extreme north wall which would have been demolished when the addition was built.
In the meantime, work had begun on the salvage of the first mural. I began the process of appraisal which took into consideration, the subject matter, the probability of successful removal, available funds, the particular artist and the degree of integrity. Twice more I called on the Board and asked them to consider funds through loans enabling us to remove more of the murals. Courageously, they accepted my appraisal decisions and gave the go ahead to proceed.
I considered the question of acquisition and the validity of accepting murals painted on sections of concrete, lathe and plaster and brick walls. Discussions with colleagues and agents from the Federal and Provincial governments confirmed my decision to attempt to remove the murals.
From a documentary evidence point of view, the murals provide a rich source for interpretation, which of course is what historians set out to do - interpret.
We may argue that the subject content of the murals is fanciful, and indeed to some extent it is. As E.J. Hughes pointed out, the lace cuff on the sleeve of Malaspina's coat is somewhat fanciful. Also, Malaspina did not sketch the Gabriola Galleries. He deployed Galiano and Valdes to chart the east coast of Vancouver Island while he continued northward across to the mainland from the west coast and beach to Nootka to await the arrival of Vancouver. But what we need to consider about the artist's fanciful rendition is the artistic sensitivity and interpretation. Osborne's comments in his article "The Artist as Historical Commentator" in which he states,
"While artistic sensitivity and interpretations are important qualities, artistic creativity may interfere with the accurate recording of the "real", the "objective", the "actual" world. In considering such points, we also need to remember, Osborne's continued comment, "Some of the artistic rendering available to us must be used with caution, being more statements of what the patron, sponsor, or client wanted to be rather than what was there, or even what the artist interpreted to be there". The insight provided, therefore, is into the purpose and motivation rather than into the subject being rendered artistically".
We must, therefore, conclude that the murals offer the challenge to consider a fundamental principle about archiving. That of context. All records, regardless of their form, need to be interpreted as to who created the record, why the record was created, what was the purpose, when and where was the record created. Explored from such logic the records offer a complete context which allows the historian or researcher full scope for interpretation.
In a later edition of Archivaria, Burant states, "Canadian archives have, from since their inception, collected military documentary art..." and goes on to say that, "The documentary art records held in archives, libraries, museums and other cultural institutions are valuable historical documents".
In assuming ownership of the murals and responsibility for their conservation and maintenance the Archives also acknowledges another important factor - accessibility. In more recent years, archivists have made serious and successful attempts to make archival material available to the public. In fact, we encourage this, hence the development of public programming, generally through educational institutions, which means our role as guardians of the documentary past, in no longer simply curatorial. With the mandate of accessibility, we also pay attention to the essence of the murals the reason for their being - as public art.
Time was of the essence. I had been given two weeks for the documentary process, two weeks to assemble a salvage team and the team was given two weeks for removal of a growing number of murals. We worked hard and long hours, but we achieved what we never thought was impossible. For many of us, it was probably the greatest challenge in our careers.
The full story of the Malaspina Hotel and its murals is still to be told through the spoken word of living history, photographs, documents and film. We now face the next challenge of raising funds to proceed with a feasibility study and conservation, culminating in public display for the murals.
The public interest momentum has not been lost and the citizens of Nanaimo, British Columbia and indeed Canada, can expect to hear more about the murals through the many events planned over the next twelve months.
*A paper delivered to the British Columbia Studies Conference, Nanaimo, British Columbia, Saturday, May 3, 1997
References:
1. A. Cunningham, "Ensuring Essential Evidence", National Library of Australia News (Nov., 1966) pp 6-8.
2. P. Goldring, "Some Modest Proposals: A Public Historian Looks at Archives", Archivaria 24 (Summer 1987), pp 121-128
3. Public History: An Introduction. ed. by Howe, B.J. Kemp. E.L., Florida: Robt. E. Krieger Publishing; 1988. pp l -4
4. Prospectus, Nanaimo District Museum Collection. Code 16, Box 2
5. Nanaimo Free Press. April 1 - May 5, 1926.
6. Ibid. July 30 and August 1, 1927.
7.Official Statement of the Executive Committee for Nanaimo's New Hotel. Thurs., March 25, 1926. pp 5-6.
8. Ibid April 2, 1926. p 5
9. Media coverage during the salvage operation of the murals encouraged people to contact the NCA. Several deposits were made into the NCA after the rediscovery of the murals. Interviews need to be recorded to flesh out the story of the Hotel and its people.
10. City of Nanaimo: Development Services and Strategic Planning Files, 1994-1996
11. Agenda: City of Nanaimo Advisory Design Panel Meeting: May 16,1996
12. British Columbia: a History. Ormsby, M.A. Vancouver: Macmillans, 1958. p 25
13. Ibid. p 21
14. Brief Presence Spain's activity on America's Northwest Coast (1774-1796). Bartroli, Tomas. Vancouver:1991. p 51
15. The Men With Wooden Feet. The Spanish Exploration of the Pacific Northwest. by Kendrick, J. Toronto: New Canada Publications. 1985. pp108-112
16. Report on mural by E.J. Hughes & others in the Malaspina Hotel. Dunae, P., July, 1996 for the Nanaimo Community Archives.
17. Marie Leduc presented a concurrent paper at the BC Studies Conference, Nanaimo, May, 1997 relating to the three muralists and murals as public art.
18. Kendrick, pp 57-59.
19. This is likely to be confirmed if the building application and plans are located.
20. The Artist as Historical Commentator: Thomas Burrowes and the Rideau Canal. Osborne, B.S. In Archivaria, No. 17, Winter 1983-84. pp 42-45
21. The Military Artist and the Documentary Art Record. Burant, J. In Archivaria, No. 26, Summer 1988, pp 48
Diane Foster is the former Community Archivist/Executive Director of the Nanaimo Community Archives.
Reprinted from the AABC Newsletter, Summer 1998, Vol. 8, No. 3.
© 1998 Archives Association of British Columbia