The records of BC Packers Limited (BCP Limited) were scattered to the four winds. Some have come to rest at the University of British Columbia Library Special Collections division, some at the City of Richmond Archives. Others are in a number of community archives in the Lower Mainland and the North. Many important records apparently remain in the custody of the holding company that succeeded BCP Limited after the shutdown of its operations. While this lack of consolidation cannot be said to wholly positive development (there are a number of practical and theoretical reasons that we won’t go into here), it was probably inevitable, given the nature of the beast that was BC Packers – a geographically diverse entity that grew and evolved over many years, largely through the acquisition of companies and their assets that were going concerns, often with a existing presence and history in communities scattered throughout BC and elsewhere.

Often records were left behind when operations were closed down, to be found by local people interested in the historical significance of the BC Packers site to their own community. Community historians looking to preserve and develop heritage assets may have felt that the records should be considered the cultural property of the locality, and ensured that these were donated to local heritage institutions. These locals, and otherwise interested people, may have worked with BCP Limited people to acquire these records for preservation. They may have been the records’ only willing saviours.

As well, over the years, there were also examples of managers taking the records of their company with them upon their departure, as if they were their own. Some such records have been found within their personal records donated years later to archival institutions, and later identified as a part of the recorded history of BC Packers.

The body of records that are being arranged and described in the current project – formally titled "City of Richmond Archives Accession BCP 2001-34" – reflects, at least to some degree, the way this growing, evolving, consolidating, and "downsizing" company administered the records produced by their business operations. However, the bulk of the material in BCP 2001-34 is "documentary" in nature; rather than being business records per se, it was apparently produced in an effort to visually document the company’s operations, the nature and extent of its physical assets, and its corporate culture. While a good part of this material could also be attributed to a public relations function, it seems increasingly clear that BCP Limited was, at some level, a company vitally concerned about posterity and its place within it.

As the project continues, we hope to learn more about how the business of BCP Limited was documented. With information about the context of these records, the documents themselves will become an increasing rich source of knowledge about this company and its place in the history of BC and Canada.

Robert J. Edwards
Project Archivist, City of Richmond Archives

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© 2003 Archives Association of British Columbia